Challenges and Opportunities of Art Coverage in the Age of Media Convergence

Midtown Detroit Inc. put up a podcast of the panel discussion I moderated at Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) as part of Art X Detroit 2013 last month. Thanks to Annmarie Borucki of Midtown Detroit who took care of the production details. Also the panelists who participated and all who came by to check it out.

This panel included Amanda Browder, from Bad At Sports; Travis Wright of WDET-FM; Michael H. Hodges of the Detroit News; and Jennifer Conlin of CriticCar Detroit.

Here's the panel description:

The new media environment is dramatically changing the way the arts get covered. Media industry consolidation is putting pressure on traditional news outlets to develop alternate business models and modes of delivery, often resulting in staff cuts in order to compete. Digital technology merges text, sound, and image into a single dynamic experience that can be accessed from a variety of devices. At the same time, interactive communications and social media have blurred the lines between producers and consumers of arts coverage. Arts journalists and critics are being forced to adopt new ways of working and to even question their relevance. This panel brings together arts journalists and critics from across the spectrum to examine the current media ecosystem and the market demands behind the shift from traditional arts coverage to blogging, aggregated news, and other models. Ultimately, the issues to be decided are why arts coverage matters and how to make local arts coverage more sustainable.

Below is the Sound Cloud podcast:

Also some photos from the event taken by Artserve Michigan's Communications Specialist Sarah Nesbitt.

The panel from left to right: Vince Carducci, Michael Hodges, Travis Wright, Amanda Browder, and Jennifer Conlin

Michael Hodges (center) gave a passionate defense of dead-tree media.

Travis Wright signifies for the arts.

Amanda Browder is bad at sports but good at investigating cool art.

Jennifer Conlin and CriticCar Detroit gives voice to the audience of cultural events.

Welcome to the Motown Review of Art

Over the past decade, the National Arts Journalism Project of the Columbia School of Journalism has released several studies on the decline in the depth and breadth of arts coverage in metropolitan media markets across the nation, the result primarily of industry consolidation and consequent synergies. Nowhere has this been more evident than in metropolitan Detroit. The irony is that the quality and quantity of visual arts production in particular in the region is as good as it has ever been, maybe even better.

The Motown Review of Art blog is an attempt to redress this dearth of coverage with an ongoing series of articles exploring topics that are otherwise going unreported. Some of the stories I contemplate include reviews of local art shows, artist’s profiles, and more in-depth coverage, such as investigating some of the spaces (for example, the Russell Industrial Center and North End Studios in Detroit) where the city’s productive legacy is being repurposed for the needs of a new creative class who may well be the future of our economic viability and major contributors to our quality of life.

The "MoRe Art" blog is a work in progress. I'll fooling around with changing the format, uploading, linking, and such as we go along. Check back from time to time to see what develops.