Allyson McGrane's blog

Left Right Minds is closed for the holidays from December 24th, 2009 to January 4th, 2010.  We'll be checking our email but if you need to reach us in case of emergency, please call Shane Birley at (778) 386-7220 or Allyson McGrane at (604) 671-0890. Thanks and happy holidays!

Today I went to the Vancouver Playhouse to attend the Creative City Conversation. It's the second year for this event... and the second year running that I have only gone to part of the event! This year, I went to various conversations including Cultural Tourism Strategy, Cultural Grants and Support Programs Review, Facilities Priorities Review and Public Art Program Plan and Review.

I had several interesting conversations... but the most interesting was a discussion about making the City of Vancouver bylaws more friendly to artist facilities. Apparently, there are antiquated bylaws which prevent using existing spaces for cultural uses. I intend to do more research into this topic...

Joyce Rosario from Made in BC is helping me get First Thursdays up again. It's meant for those of you who have a hand in running an arts organization. Basically, if
you spend your days writing grants, staring at spreadsheets,
contemplating how to grow your audience.... well, it's time to get out
of the office!

We want to have a casual get-together every first Thursday of the
month for the people who are involved in making art happen (behind the
scenes). Yesterday, we met at The Alibi Room. Next month, who knows - but we hope to see you there!

Okay, if you're really interested in coming out, we did start a Facebook group called First Thursdays - so just ask Joyce if you can join the group!

The Canada Council Theatre grant for emerging artists are due on March 1. I spent a few hours helping out Cameron MacKenzie, a recent Studio 58 grad, with his first application. He was referred to me by my friend Jennifer Smith, who is the General Manager for Pound of Flesh Theatre. Cameron is planning a fall project with an ad hoc group of artists. He had done an excellent job of the initial draft and already gotten feedback from a number of his peers. We went through the application step-by-step, making sure that all the attachments were included. We reviewed the project description and spent time developing solid project objectives. Then we revised the budget to truly reflect the scope of the project. Best of luck with your application, Cameron!

This guy named Dave Olson is talking about his art and his blog.  He's encouraging the audience to be artists, share your stuff and consider allow collaboration on projects.  He wants to have cross-pollination where people work together and distribute their work for free.  I wonder what the Canadian Actors Equity would think of these ideas?  When will live performance join the Internet revolution?

We're at a session that James Sherrett from Adhack is facilitating. He's looking to the expertise of everyone attending the session and asking who has advertising on their blogs and who doesn't. The question is becoming -- is it a benefit to the readers or a detriment? Yes, the money is great but no one wants to alienate their readers. Someone just said that he uses ads on pages to punish readers who click through from Google searches about Guitar Hero. The person next to me then said that why don't you ask your readers?!?! And a new suggestion is -- here's a tip jar, if you like our content, pay up!

Here are the reasons on the YES side:

• non-commercial
• contributor
• not for readers / only archives
• to pay for hosting
• salary
• money
• business
• affiliate sales
• recommendations
• free stuff / beer
• right fit
• reader tax
• karma

Here are the reasons on the NO side:

• fear of rejection
• clutter
• company site
• confuse motives
• temptation
• ugly / aesthetically displeasing
• personal
• feeling pressure
• kids
• competitors ads
• podcast reviews
• neutrality

And then, we're now discussing if the whole blog is actually advertising for you! What do you think???