One of the most exciting projects at the Department of Cultural Affairs these days is NYC Arts Online, a project initiated by the Alliance for the Arts (AFA). Once implemented, NYC Arts Online will be an enormous resource for the Department of Cultural Affairs, the cultural community, the New York City public schools, parents, teachers and the general public. NYC Arts Online represents a great advance in compiling and making available information about the City’s arts organizations—no other initiative on this subject matches this project in scope.

NYC Arts Online will be an electronic database, part of which will be available to the public via the Internet in a user-friendly format. Now being designed by AFA, NYC Arts Online will provide comprehensive information regarding the public programs offered by the approximately 600 arts organizations which annually apply to DCA for funding. NYC Arts Online will be divided into three components, each with its own Web site. Names for the following sites are subject to change:

This Web site will describe educational programs offered by the arts community that are geared towards children, families and school groups. Parents will be able to search the Web to find activities of particular interest to their families while teachers can use NYC KidsArts to learn about educational programs in the arts with particular relevance to their subject area. Eventually, children themselves will be able to use this site to do their own searches.

The information to be contained in NYC KidsArts will be developed by AFA in partnership with DCA, the Center for Arts Education, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) and the Board of Education. This information may include: a general description of the organization; summaries of regular programs and of special activities or classes for kids; the hours the organization is open to the public; dates, times and hours of programming; accessibility information; travel suggestions; parking availability; target age groups and grade levels; fees; reservation procedures; food service and gift shop facilities; and links to relevant school curricula and State and City Learning Standards.

The search criteria, which parents and teachers can use to locate programs of interest, are still being developed but may include, among other items: relevant arts or science disciplines, location, target age group or grade level, program dates, and links to curricula and Learning Standards.

Much of this information has already been gathered thanks to the recent publication by AFA of the Kids Culture Catalog. Additional content may include special features on particular programs and news bulletins in the area of arts education, including updates on the activities of the Annenberg Initiative and Project Arts.

Additional information will be available by means of links to the Web sites of those organizations featured in NYC KidsArts. In addition to home access for parents and teachers, NYC KidsArts will be available to teachers and school administrators at terminals located in their schools and at UFT Teacher Centers.

Many readers of FYI are already familiar with the Culture Calendar published by AFA on a quarterly basis. This information and more will be available on the Web as part of the NYC Arts Online project. This Web site will impart information about the City’s cultural organizations and what they offer the public, both in terms of regular programming and special programs (such as temporary exhibits, performance series, tours, lectures, etc.) for the purpose of encouraging people to attend these organizations’ activities. We expect the NYC Cultural Catalog site to be used by New York City residents and visitors to New York City, both domestic and foreign, when planning outings in or trips to New York. Other users may include tourism professionals, including tour operators and, in particular, the Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB).

Much of the information contained in the NYC Culture Catalog site will be similar to that of NYC KidsArts. One difference, however, is that the catalogue will include highlights of events of particular interest instead of curriculum information.

Search criteria will be developed from the point of view of a tourist and may include the relevant discipline (artistic or scientific), location, and the dates when the user is planning to attend a cultural event. As we want this Web site to be as useful as possible, DCA and AFA will work very closely with the cultural community and with CVB to make it both comprehensive and easy to use. As with NYC KidsArts, NYC Cultural Catalog will be linked to the Web sites of those cultural organizations profiled in the site, and will contain what is likely to be the most comprehensive listing available of Web sites applicable to New York City arts organizations.

This Web site will provide quantitative and statistical information about arts groups and the arts in general in New York. This will enable AFA to generate reports on the economic impact of the cultural community and will assist DCA in assessing the services provided by our groups and in advocating for both public and private funding for our constituency. Unlike the first two sites, information on this Web site will not be available to the general public. Instead, only DCA will have general access to all of the information, with AFA being granted access rights to data in the aggregate.

Ideally, the NYC Cultural Community site will also have the capacity for email, bulletin boards and chat rooms so that DCA and its constituency can exchange information on issues of common concern.

So that NYC Arts Online can work most effectively, the system will have the capability of allowing arts organizations with Internet access to enter and update their information directly online. As to the KidsArts and Cultural Catalog sites, each organization will enter its information in a pre-determined format. These entries will then be edited by AFA for consistency of tone, and thereafter, updated periodically by the organization. Arts organizations will have access rights only to input and revise their own data and will not have the ability to write over entries for other organizations. While many of our organizations do not yet have the capacity to file information electronically, it is our hope that as a result of NYC Arts Online, funders will be interested in helping our groups develop their Internet capability and create a presence on the Web.

DCA currently has an allocation for AFA of $400,000 in City capital dollars for NYC Arts Online, and AFA is now raising the remaining funds necessary to design and build the system and to staff it for the first two years. If all goes well, NYC Arts Online will be up and running by July 1, 2000, the start of the City’s Fiscal 2001.

Parents will have a readily available source of information on cultural events and organizations available in New York City with their families, thereby increasing parental awareness of what the arts can contribute to the education of their children.

Teachers will have easy access to the full range of school programs and other resources offered by the cultural community and can use these resources in developing curricula and lesson plans and scheduling school trips, thus fostering the integration of the arts into the core curriculum.

New York City residents and visitors to New York can plan outings and trips to New York around their special interests. All boroughs are represented, thereby increasing the visibility of and attendance at lesser-known arts organizations.

Tour operators can plan customized itineraries for their clients. Arts organizations can collaborate with other tourist attractions to offer special package deals, thereby increasing tourism in New York City.

Both DCA and AFA can better demonstrate the substantial contribution made by the arts to the City’s economy, thereby stimulating increased support for the cultural community from both the public and the private sector.

DCA will have easy access to a wealth of information about the organizations we fund, thereby enabling us to better evaluate their services and advocate more effectively for increased funding for the arts from both the public and the private sector.

Arts organizations will be able to file applications with and submit final reports to DCA online, resulting in administrative efficiencies both at DCA and within the cultural community.

DCA will have an instant means of communicating with the field, thereby enabling both DCA and the cultural community to become better informed as to issues of common concern.

The Kids Culture Catalog: Second Edition is now available at local bookstores, such as Coliseum Books, for $12.95. Copies can also be ordered directly from The Alliance for the Arts by calling (212) 947-6340 at $16.50 a copy, including shipping and handling.

DCA and AFA welcome comments from the arts community as we move forward in planning for NYC Arts Online. Please contact Susan Rothschild at DCA at (212) 643-6197 and Randall Bourscheidt at AFA at (212) 947-6340.

Susan B. Rothschild is the Assistant Commissioner for Cultural Institutions.

The information contained in the above article is current as of its March 1999 publication date. Please be advised that this information may be out of date.