USC Annenberg and the National Arts Journalism Program, with significant support from the National Endowment for the Arts, are presenting a first-of-its-kind virtual National Summit on Arts Journalism from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Oct. 2 from the Annenberg Auditorium on the USC campus.
Ten innovative models of the next generation of arts journalism will be presented at the Summit. Five of the projects, chosen from among 109 submissions in response to an open call earlier this summer will be in competition for a total of $15,000 in prize money, courtesy of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. These five will be announced on the day of the Summit. The five other “demonstration” projects will not be in the competition; they offer ideas both from inside and outside arts journalism that touch on issues in finding new models to support arts journalism.
“The Summit is part of our commitment to help reinvent journalism in the 21st Century,” said USC Annenberg Dean Ernest J. Wilson III.
Primarily a virtual event, the Summit will be streamed live from Annenberg Auditorium in front of a live audience, and viewers from around the world will be able to participate via text messaging and Twitter. All 10 presentations will be archived and available after the event on the Summit Web site: www.najp.org/summit.
Earlier this summer, an open call went out for arts journalism projects for the Summit awards, and 109 projects were submitted from across North America. Three arts journalists winnowed the projects down to 31; seven judges reduced the list to a top 10, and two more judges were added to reach consensus on a top five. Each of the five projects will be awarded $2,000 for participating and each is eligible to win a first, second or third prize of $7,500, $5,000 or $2,500, respectively.
After the Summit, members of the NAJP and alumni of the NEA Arts Journalism Institutes will determine first-, second- and third-place winners through a membership voting process. Results of the voting will be announced in late October.
“The purpose of this event is really not to declare a ‘best’ project,” said Douglas McLennan, director of the NAJP and Summit co-director. “This is a time of great experimentation, and there really is no consensus on what the next viable models in arts journalism will look like. Rather, we want to present and examine some of the latest thinking about the future of arts journalism and bring some of the best ideas to wider attention.”
The five already-chosen showcase projects are:
- Sophie: A new authoring tool for multimedia developed by the Institute for Multimedia Literacy that suggests new possibilities for presenting critical response.
- The Indianapolis Museum of Art: With its Art Babble and Dashboard, the IMA is an example of a cultural institution extending its reach into areas that have traditionally been the province of journalism.
- InstantEncore.com: An example of an aggregator attempting to gather up everything about an art form (in this case classical music) and making it accessible in one place.
- NPR Music: An example of a traditional big media company that is reinventing itself across platforms. NPR Music blurs the lines between journalism, curation, presenting and producing.
- Gazette Communications, Cedar Rapids Iowa: An example of a local media company that is trying to reinvent the idea of what is news and how it might be gathered and presented.
In addition to 10 featured projects, there will also be two roundtable discussions; one, moderated by Laura Sydell, arts correspondent for NPR, will focus on the evolving art of arts journalism, and the other, moderated by Andras Szanto, director of the NEA Arts Journalism Institute in Classical Music and Opera, will explore the business of supporting arts journalism. Members of the audience will be invited to share video responses at the conclusion of the program.
Brief Background on the Summit:
The Summit has been conceived as a virtual public event with the goal of reaching the widest possible audience of those who care about arts journalism. “The challenge is how to identify the broadest range of ideas out there and then find ways to get the best of them distributed to the most people,” said Sasha Anawalt, Summit co-director and director of USC Annenberg’s arts journalism programs. “This virtual summit is an experiment in trying to extend the reach of what we do beyond the walls of a traditional conference.”
In addition to co-directors Anawalt and McLennan, the National Summit on Arts Journalism is executive-produced by Jackie Kain.
Sponsors:
The National Summit on Arts Journalism, an affiliated event of USC Visions and Voices, is made possible with major support from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the generous support of The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the University of Southern California’s College of Letters, Arts & Sciences, School of Cinematic Arts, Roski School of Fine Arts, Thornton School of Music, School of Theatre, School of Architecture, Fisher Museum of Art, the Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy, Online Journalism Review and the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
About the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
The Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California was founded in 1971 with generous support from Ambassador Walter H. Annenberg. Its strategic location in Los Angeles enables it to foster dynamic synergies and multidisciplinary approaches to the study of communication and journalism through unparalleled access to the nation's and the world's entertainment, media and technology industries. Today, with more than 70 full-time faculty members, more than 1,900 undergraduate and graduate students, and dozens of research and public interest projects and programs, including the M.A. degree in Specialized Journalism (The Arts), the Norman Lear Center and the Knight Digital Media Center, USC Annenberg has become a center for discussion among scholars and professionals in journalism, communication, public policy, media, and education. annenberg.usc.edu
About the National Arts Journalism Program
Since 1994, the National Arts Journalism Program (NAJP) has sought to advance arts and cultural news coverage. The NAJP is a membership organization that works to: advocate for arts reporting and criticism, improve the quality and increase the quantity of arts journalism, inform the public and the media industry of standards of excellence in arts journalism, support and mentor arts journalists, provide a network for arts journalists in all disciplines, and help develop standards and viable economic models for arts journalism in emerging digital media. www.najp.org
About the NEA Arts Journalism Institutes
The NEA Arts Journalism Institutes are a series of intensive, introductory professional training programs for journalists who cover dance, theater and musical theater, classical music and opera, and visual art. To date, more than 250 journalists from all 50 states — representing print and broadcast organizations, as well as independent writers —have participated in the program, which has received universal acclaim from participants, faculty and arts organizations. arts.endow.gov/national/aji
More details: www.najp.org/summit
E-mail: summitinfo@najp.org
