WORKSHOP:
USING THE WEB FOR ARTS AND BUSINESS CONNECTIONS
Friday, March 27, 1998, 1:30-2:45 p.m.

PRESENTERS: SHARON JENSEN, Executive Director of the Non-Traditional Casting Project; LIZ ORTIZ-MACKES, Director of the Casting Project's Artist Files Online; GARY STEUER, President and CEO of the Arts and Business Council; and SARI PESSAH, Manager of the Council's Arts-to-Business Databank. By: Philip Rothman

Performing artists, arts council representatives, and visual artists were among the participants in this workshop, where two organizations demonstrated how they use the computer databases and the World Wide Web for connecting arts and business sectors.

Sharon Jensen opened the session, introducing the audience to the Non-Traditional Casting Project (NTCP). NTCP is an organization established to implement inclusive hiring practices affecting artists in theater, film, and television. Specifically, NTCP seeks solutions to the problems of racism, and discrimination against persons with disabilities. The Artist Files Online maintains a database of over 5200 actors and actresses and 500 additional resumes of writers, directors, choreographers, designers, and stage managers. It is designed to provide a link between the talent pool and those employers who hire that talent. There is no fee for listing a resume or for acquiring access to the site.

Typically, an organization or individual interested in hiring someone will access the Artist Files Online Website. Stressing that the site was user friendly, Jensen described a search process. By selecting such categories as race, type of job, gender, location, geography, the Web site will produce a list of possible choices. Jensen demonstrated how one could easily find the resumes and photos of many qualified artists with a few clicks of the mouse.

Although the Artist Files Online is a Web tool, it was readily acknowledged by many in the audience that not every actor has access to or knowledge about Internet technology. Many artists of color and disabled artists, primary target groups for the organization, are precisely the persons to whom the Web is not readily accessible. Matthew Brown, an enterprise developer for the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation in Baltimore, alluded to that issue when he asked Jensen “Do you actively pursue artists to enroll?”

Jensen responded, “We do everything you can imagine, so we’re in touch with all the unions on a regular basis. Liz [Ortiz-Mackes] literally makes thousands of phone calls a year because many of our artists do not have union or agent representation. We work very hard on this.”

One questioner asked if Artist Files Online provided general information for actors. Jensen clarified the role of NTCP when she answered, “No, but we can certainly refer you to the Actors Equity or the Screen Actors Guild, for example.”

Gary Steuer represented the next organizational case study, the Arts and Business Council. The Council was founded 33 years ago in New York City, determined to promoting mutually beneficial partnerships between businesses and arts organizations. Steuer illustrated the four basic goals of his organization: volunteerism; convening and celebration; management and information; and career issues. Steuer summarized the goals in a rhetorical question to the audience: “How do we fill the information gap?”

Steuer noted that when the Council first began developing its database, businesses did not want to be Web-based. “All they wanted was printed material, so we put together a print directory,” he said. With the change in technology being so rapid, “the ground under our feet has shifted as we’ve done this project,” Steuer said.

The central part of the Council’s presentation was provided by Sari Pessah. She is the manager of the database that aims to link businesses and organizations to artists and arts organizations that have available services, or may partner in some way. The goal of the Arts-to-Business Website, or A2B (http://www.a2b.org), is to provide a comprehensive, up-to-date list of such services as facilities for rent, client entertainment, or human resource training, as well as to provide information on sponsorship opportunities or corporate gifts. She stressed that the Web site was “user friendly, but also web-savvy.”

As she demonstrated a typical on-line search, Pessah noted that this was a special interest site and that their target audience was limited, but important and resourceful. She advised that, to produce a successful Web site, conference participants should know their target audience and set specific goals for he site.