Nitasha Kawatra, who will now be Interim Membership Manager, will now be running the 1stfans program with Shelley. Those of you in 1stfans may already know Tash, since she’s usually at the Target First Saturday meetups and is a 1stfans member herself. In the spirit of an open transition, what follows is a quick interview with Tash, which we hope will allow 1stfans to get to know her better and serve as my official departure from the group.

Tash, tell me how you have been involved with 1stfans so far.

I’ve been helping manage the 1stfans groups on Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter, and often help out with the First Saturday meetups. That’s actually one of my favorite aspects of 1stfans because I really enjoy talking about the program with our First Saturdays visitors who are interested in signing up. It’s also been especially fun to get to know the 1stfans who come out every month because they are so enthusiastic about participating in all of our events, and it’s been amazing to see how their relationships have grown not only with our staff but also with each other.

You mentioned the meetups. Which has been your favorite, so far?

My favorite meetup was when we launched 1stfans with the Swoon interactive printing event.  I felt like I was already getting to know our new members pretty well because the materials they chose to print on were indicative of their personalities (the pizza box was particularly great). I was also just blown away by how many people came out to support the program that night.

Unlike me, you actually live in Brooklyn. What made you decide to move here, and what do you like most about your ‘hood?

It really was a quality of life decision to move here. After living on the Lower East Side of Manhattan for a few years, I was looking for a neighborhood that was a little more laid back but still has a lot of personality and Cobble Hill just seemed like the perfect fit. I live right on Smith Street so it’s really lively and eclectic, but I love that I can always duck onto one of the quiet tree-lined streets nearby (mostly to lust after all the beautiful brownstones).  I haven’t lived here that long, but have totally drunk the Brooklyn kool-aid.

What’s your commute like? This is my favorite question in “Brooklyn’s Finest,” so I want to be sure we have you on the record.

I’m fortunate to have a really convenient commute on the B71 bus, at least for a few more precious weeks (It’s one of the buses that got sacrificed in the MTA cuts). One of my fellow riders started a petition this morning to save the route though, so I have a glimmer of hope that I’ll get to stick with my above-ground commute.

As the most experienced “foodie” on the membership staff, what are your favorite haunts around the Museum?

Give me a fish taco from Chavella’s any day of the week .  The food there is so incredibly fresh and delicious there and the homemade hot salsa will bring tears to your eyes (which is a good thing, in my opinion). I’m also pretty attached to Cheryl’s Global Soul. Not only do they have the friendliest staff, but the fact that they were able to make a carnivore like me so addicted to their vegetarian chili is pretty impressive.

Lastly, anything you want people to know about your new role with 1stfans? And what do you like about membership work, in general?

From the beginning I’ve felt really privileged to be part of such an innovative Membership program with you and Shelley, and I’m looking forward to continuing to grow the program and connect more personally with all of our 1stfans. In general, Membership work appeals to me because I really enjoy coming up with ways to open up the Museum as much as possible to our most loyal donors—it’s important to me that our Members see exactly where their support is going.  Members can start to get to know me on Facebook, Flickr and Twitter, or get in touch with me by e-mail.

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To meet more of our staff, visit the Brooklyn’s Finest Flickr set.

For the Twitter Art Feed, Odessa will take solicit suggestions of celebrities or specific tweets that 1stfans find interesting, and then she’ll illustrate the ones she likes best. Keeping with her schedule, that should work out to be four illustrations for the month. In between the illustrations, Odessa will talk about her process for doing these, explain what she likes best about celebrities on twitter, and field questions from 1stfans. Not a 1stfan member? You can sign up on our website. It’s only $20…

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The 1stfans Twitter Art Feed is no longer a benefit of 1stfans membership, but the original feed in its entirety has been archived on the Brooklyn Museum website.

This year’s Brooklyn Ball will feature several art history-inspired works of food to make the evening fun and interesting for all who attend. The most visible of these takes the form of a twenty foot tall piñata in the shape of Andy Warhol’s head, which is currently installed in our Rubin Pavilion. The idea for the piñata came from Jennifer Rubell, who is creating these food installations inside the Brooklyn Museum that evening as a project she is calling “Icons.” What, you ask, will the piñata be filled with? That will be kept a secret—one staff co-worker hopefully quipped, “It’s going to be filled with $100 bills for staff, right?”—until the start of “High Style: The After Party,” which begins at 9 p.m. I have been told, however, that its contents will be edible.

In order to make this event more accessible for the Museum’s members, tickets are being offered at a reduced price of $50 for all membership levels including 1stfans. If you’re not a member and would like to attend the After Party, you can join or purchase full price tickets on our website. And if you can’t make it that night, the piñata will be on display for another week and then Shelley will be live-tweeting some of the more interesting discoveries from the Brooklyn Ball that evening on the Museum’s twitter feed.

From Joanie’s Abandoned series on Flickr.

Joanie’s project for the feed captures the insecurity, the secrecy, and the fleeting nature of twitter. Here, in her own words, is Joanie’s project for the month of April:

…the right to remain silent

My proposal is to engage the silent members of 1stfans. I will be DM’ing them using the 1stfans feed on Twitter to ask them to tell me one thing about themselves, ranging from the mundane to the fascinating. Participants can then choose to be anonymous, use their first name, initials, or full name. I will also ask them if they want to be revealed in the final essay that I’ll write at the end of the project, which will subsequently be posted on my blog.

Although our computers “talk” to each other all day long, social media allows users to remain faceless and invisible at times. Out of 200+ 1stfans members listed, only 20 or so participate in the 1stfans Twitter feed every month.

I’d like to change that.

Since this is an experiment, and these silent 1stfans may choose to remain so, I may have to improvise and fabricate facts about imaginary people. The trick will be for readers to figure out which are real and which tweets are not. The concept explores the idea of perceived vs. real identity and what it means—can we make ourselves more than we are?

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The 1stfans Twitter Art Feed is no longer a benefit of 1stfans membership, but the original feed in its entirety has been archived on the Brooklyn Museum website.

Dear [Development Staff]

I spoke with you briefly last year regarding my experience over 50 years ago as a recipient of an art scholarship [to the Brooklyn Museum] I received at Graduation from P.S. 83 in Brooklyn.

I was exposed to many wonderful things that, up until then, I had no idea existed. I was a student for four years and met many wonderful people also. My interest in the arts around the world remains varied, to my betterment. When I think of the Brooklyn Museum it is with extreme proprietary comfort.

It is with much gratitude that I present this token of my appreciation to the Museum and its continuance.

Thank you

Sincerely,

Patsy Glover

Left: Fall of 1959 in front of Brooklyn Museum after art class. Right: Winter 2003 Festival at Rochdale Village Community Center

Included with the letter was a check for $250 and two photographs. The first photograph is of Ms. Glover in front of the Museum in 1959, and the other one is of Ms. Glover with a painting of hers in 2003. Ms. Glover’s art classes here at the Museum contributed to a lifelong love of art and a career as an artist herself. Once we received the letter, we invited her to attend the Members preview in February for To Live Forever and Kiki Smith: Sojourn. She reiterated in person how much she enjoyed the Museum, and how she is grateful to have an institution with such remarkable education opportunities for people of all ages.

Copy of the scholarship Ms. Glover received from P.S. 83 to take classes at Brooklyn Museum

It’s cynical to think of the people that we educate and the public that we serve as being the next donors and supporters of the Museum, but in this case it’s true. It’s a testament to the great work of our Education department that people like Ms. Glover can make art a central part of their lives as a result of their educational experiences at the Museum, and we are grateful for her support.

The second reason we’re featuring a staff member this month is because, quite frankly, we’re having a difficult time finding artists for the Feed, and we think that there are more people than just strictly artists who can offer something unique and worthwhile on Twitter. Even though we have an open call, Twitter Art Feed is a tough concept to explain, and a tough thing to ask artists to really think about, create a proposal for, and then devote a month to doing (for free, I might add). In addition, we have a selection process that involves me, Shelley, and Eugenie Tsai, our John and Barbara Vogelstein Curator of Contemporary Art, reviewing proposals and deciding what makes the most sense for 1stfans and for the Museum. Shelley and I agree that we’d rather feature someone who can tweet out cool stuff than simply someone that we can convince to do this for a month. So 1stfans, let us know what you think and here’s a little more from Jenny, in her own words:

“hey. guys. where do we go?” via erinblatzer [HMNS] on Flickr.

My task here is to plan and implement the Museum’s program of interpretation with the visitor experience in mind, working in collaboration with staff from Curatorial, Education, Design, Technology, Editorial and others — a big job, and one whose goals and responsibilities shift, depending on the team involved and the project at hand. The great thing about having a job with some flexibility is that you never know what you might be up to on a given day; the tough part is trying to describe to people what, exactly, it is that you do. But here’s a snapshot of a Monday:

Coffee

Read through visitor comments submitted at kiosks over the weekend

Chat with a partner institution about an audio guide for the upcoming Warhol exhibition

Revise a proof for a To Live Forever family activity and return to Editorial and Design

Check in on supplies of The Dinner Pary gallery guide and talk with guards about how they’re being used

Meet with fellow exhibitions staff to discuss image use and current projects

Pull together statistics on recent cell phone audio guide use for a Development staff member

Meet with educators about accessibility efforts like touch tours and transcripts

Review curator’s responses to suggested changes to wall text for the upcoming American High Style exhibition

Go home!

Since both my job and the Museum’s mission are focused on our visitors’ experiences, that seems like the best way to focus this month’s tweets. I may comment a bit about what I’m working on, but mostly I’d like to pull together lots of tiny notes about what visitors are actually doing in the Museum, based on a kind of informal observation and guerrilla evaluation: what did we prepare and why, how do people seem to be using it, and what would we do going forward? Are there other questions, or things you’d want to hear about? Let me know in the comments for this post. Looking forward to it.

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The 1stfans Twitter Art Feed is no longer a benefit of 1stfans membership, but the original feed in its entirety has been archived on the Brooklyn Museum website.

Going into our second year of 1stfans, Shelley and I wanted to do a survey to see how members felt about the first year of the program. We knew that we’d hear a variety of responses based on how people used their membership, but we were determined to see if we could identify any trends that we could use to make changes to the program. Below are a few things we learned from the 35 folks that responded to the open-ended survey we sent a couple weeks ago, as well as two changes that we’re definitely going to make for year two of 1stfans.

Concept

The most positive thing we heard from the survey was that people enjoy 1stfans as an idea. Whether that sentiment followed several sentences about taking part in the meetups and interacting online, or whether it came as a consolation. Erin from Texas wrote, “I don’t know how useful my feedback will be – since I became a member primarily because I think what you’re doing rocks – and not because I expected to take advantage of the benefits (as I live more than 1000 miles from the Museum).”

It seems like many 1stfans joined to demonstrate their gratitude that a Museum had created a membership program that was catered to how they interact with museums today. On the other end of the geographic spectrum, one local wrote, “Already a museum member, I joined 1stfans because I love that my local art institution is so forward thinking about the concept of a virtual membership and I have definitely gotten my $20 worth.” One person who wasn’t entirely pleased with their experience wrote, “I don’t think I’ve gotten what I thought I would out of my $20 membership fee so far, although I’m not so sure exactly what I was expecting.  I am glad to support the museum nonetheless.”

Meetups

We heard a variety of feedback about our meetups at Target First Saturday. Most enjoyed them, although some thought they were too early in the evening, while others thought they were just the right time and length to allow them to participate in the other events. For those that came regularly, the in-person aspect of the membership is what they appreciated, not the online benefits. Mike wrote, “While I never made use of the electronic networking opportunities (blogs, twitter, facebook, etc.), I enjoyed interacting with others at the events and thought that the event composition was great. It was fun to hear about both the creative and technical aspects of art and the museum.”

The “action item” that came out of the feedback from the meetups concerned bringing guests. Most didn’t come alone, and felt bad making their friends sign up for 1stfans if they knew they probably wouldn’t be back to First Saturday anytime soon. Chris brought up a good point, writing, “…if each member can bring a guest to a 1st Fans Meetup, then you would have an excellent chance of dramatically increasing your membership, since it’s hard to get a good idea of what 1st Fans Meetups are all about without actually attending one.” So from now on, we’ll allow one guest to attend 1stfans meetups at select First Saturday events. We’ll announce in the invite whether guests will be allowed.

Communication

We found that communication was something a lot of people talked about. That makes sense intuitively, given that communication in 1stfans is a la carte and based on how many of the social networks you are on. If you’re on facebook, twitter, and flickr frequently, you’ll probably get most of what we put out there. Three folks mentioned the Twitter Art Feed as being confusing or out of context. One person wrote, “I’ve had a hard time getting regular twitter updates. It seems like I’m always missing them and forget to check back, so I don’t always catch them.” Another wrote, “Because I am an on again off again twitter user, I would love an email every time there is a new artist with a short bio and a description of the project to remind me to check my twitter.” Most people recognize that they won’t love every Twitter Art Feed project, but it’s still our responsibility to ensure that the word gets out.

Since we also heard from a couple folks about receiving emails (in addition to facebook, flickr, and twitter invites), the other big thing we’re going to work on in year two of 1stfans is putting together some sort of short newsletter so everyone can have a consolidated version of what is happening coming directly to them in one place. That should help out those who think we aren’t communicating as well as we could be, and it also won’t add a lot more work on our end. By increasing our level of communication with 1stfan members and allowing them to give their friends some access to 1stfans programming, we’re hoping to increase 1stfans participation and awareness of what’s going on, as well as and expose 1stfans as a concept to a wider audience.

We’ve always said that 1stfans is about growing a relationship with the Museum, and we’re determined to have 1stfans play just as large a role in shaping the future of the program. We’re grateful to everyone who responded to the survey, and we’re happy to take any more feedback either in the comments or below or by e-mailing me directly.

February’s 1stfans Twitter Art Feed artist is Brooklyn’s own Man Bartlett. Man’s work includes drawings (mostly of circles), paintings, sculpture, and, as those on twitter may know, performance. Shelley mentioned Man’s “#BestNonBuy” project a couple weeks ago, and this week Man is attempting an even greater feat of focus and stamina. #Theseus will take place beginning tomorrow morning at 9am, and will involve Man walking the “labyrinth” that is midtown Manhattan for twenty hours or so.  As Man puts in succinctly in his Artist Statement, with regards to performance he is specifically interested in “Duration in relation to space (social, environmental, physical.)” For the Twitter Art Feed, Man has proposed something called #Inpermatweet. I’ll let him explain:

#Inpermatweet
A pun on the term “permalink,” this month would feature a self portrait of tweets as cumulative “full data” aggregation (e.g. links to web browsing, iPhone screenshots, twitpics of what I’m looking at, drawings in progress, “status” updates, etc). This process would further blur the lines between art/artist/life with wit and absurdity. Over the course of the month the @1stfans avatar would slowly lose its opacity, eventually reaching 0%. At the end of the month, all of my tweets would be ritualistically deleted, leaving only a single link to a memorial page that would contain the month’s data as a visual representation of memory, complete with missing or incorrectly re-represented tweets and images.

As always, 1stfans should feel free to share their feedback with Man throughout the month. As anyone who follows him on twitter knows, he’s incredibly funny and always quick with a quip. Man will be sending some of the tweets for 1stfans from Queens, where he is currently in residency at the Flux Factory, and where he will have a solo show of recent work titled Systema Mundi opening April 2.

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The 1stfans Twitter Art Feed is no longer a benefit of 1stfans membership, but the original feed in its entirety has been archived on the Brooklyn Museum website.

I grow more convinced every day that unique partnerships and creative incentives are the key to acquiring and retaining members. With 1stfans, Shelley and I spent the last year watching as this program, which started as an idea, became a series of events and relationships-both online and in the galleries–between the Museum’s staff, the artists in its collections, and its members. Because the benefits of 1stfans are different than (and not as plentiful as, I might add) regular Museum membership, we wanted to come up with a way to make renewing membership fun and rewarding those who supported 1stfans in its first year. We looked back at the success of the Swoon printing event last January, and decided that it would be great if the second year of 1stfans could start with some art as well. To that end, we have partnered with artist Valerie Hegarty and the awesome folks at 20×200.com to make a benefit print for 1stfans. Valerie, whose work is in our permanent collection and currently on display, was suggested to us by Eugenie Tsai, our John and Barbara Vogelstein Curator of Contemporary Art.

Asher B. Durand (American, 1796-1886). The First Harvest in the Wilderness, 1855. Oil on canvas, 31 5/8 x 48 1/16 in. (80.3 x 122 cm) Frame: 43 1/2 x 59 1/2 x 4 3/4 in. (110.5 x 151.1 x 12.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Transferred from the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences to the Brooklyn Museum, 97.12

When we got in touch with Valerie, who lives in Brooklyn, she agreed to make the artwork and decided she wanted to create a piece based on a painting in our collection, Asher B. Durand’s First Harvest in the Wilderness. Coincidentally, this painting was commissioned in 1855 by one of the Brooklyn Museum’s founders to serve as a cornerstone of its collection. Now, in 2010, it’s serving as inspiration for a new artwork that will be used to help grow the Museum’s membership program.

Valerie Hegarty. First Harvest in the Wilderness with Pileated Woodpecker, 2010. 10 x 8 in., ed. of 200. © Valerie Hegarty. Image courtesy of the artist and 20×200 | Jen Bekman Projects

The only place Shelley and I ever hoped to produce the prints with was 20×200, which is a remarkable and successful site that offers curated, limited-edition prints and, occasionally, does benefit editions for non-profit institutions. 20×200’s motto of “Art for Everyone” is perfectly aligned with our goal of creating 1stfans as a way of making museum membership more accessible. Jen Bekman, who founded 20×200 and heads up their operations as part of Jen Bekman Projects, generously agreed to produce and donate all of the prints and any profits to the Museum.

The prints will come in three sizes: small (8″x10,” edition of 200), medium (11″x14,” edition of 500), and large (16″x20,” edition of 20). The small prints, which would normally sell for $20, will only be available from 6-8 p.m. at the Museum during February 6^th Target First Saturday to anyone who signs up for or renews their 1stfans membership. The medium and large prints, which will sell for $50 and $200 respectively, will be sold beginning the week of February 8^th. People who are signed up for the 20×200 newsletter will have the first (and possibly, the only!) opportunity to pick up a print before they are released on their website, 20×200.com. The medium and large prints will each come with a coupon code to get a free year of 1stfans membership. The real benefit to the museum, then, will lie not in the money earned for the museum but in the members acquired and renewed via this print. I think that is fitting start to the second year of 1stfans, since our goal with this program is to grow relationships with people, not with their wallets.