Art, Cocooning & Connection
How can technology help support and empower artists and reduce the space between them and their audiences?
We sat with that question daily during the early days of NZ’s arts-dedicated crowdfunding platform Boosted.
Even before I had the privilege to work alongside Boosted’s founder Simon Bowden as its GM, The Arts Foundation and the inspirational people in this community were grappling with the role of philanthropy and connectivity in an increasingly complex digital landscape.
Cue March 2020 and the arrival of Covid-19. How can artists nurture their audiences and feed themselves through this time? The Arts Foundation’s new Director Jo Blair and the Boosted team were driven to innovate immediately and reached out to UiRevolution with this challenge. We needed a platform for artists to continue to practice their craft, perform for their audiences, and allow audiences to experience art and support its creators.
Alongside Boosted and with the support of Creative New Zealand, the team here rapidly prototyped, engineered, and integrated a video streaming service into the Boosted platform we’d developed. We quickly opened the parameters of the Boosted “ask”, and implemented a “keep all” approach to donations, so artists received any money they raised, thus reducing friction and risk for the artists.
We also reimagined the functionality of the platform to ensure audiences had the optimum UX regardless of their location and device and streamlined the user journey to maximise donations. We worked tirelessly alongside the Boosted team to test and iterate the new functionality, while Boosted engaged and onboarded artists and arts organisations throughout the community.
Boosted Live was launched in the space of days.
You could now live to stream a range of performances from your computer, tablet, or mobile as artists presented their creative Mahi from their bedroom, lounge, or backyard. And something special was happening. An intimacy was apparent. Far away in physical distance, but so close. Don McGlashan, The NZSO, Julian Dyne, or any multitude of artists just metres away from you.
There was a new sense of connection during this time. Personally, as an audience member, these occasions became so intimate that I deemed it appropriate to don a button-up shirt for a performance. We were delivering art in your cocoon that was honest, vulnerable, and real. Your bubble enveloped theirs.
But is art important enough to support in these challenging times?
The Arts Foundation and their community knew it was. $100,000 was raised, to match up to 100 artists for the first $1,000 for their project as part of their Future Fund initiative. The government said yes, art is imperative to our nation, and Creative New Zealand was able to respond at pace. Boosted in turn became the home of the Save our Venues movement to help support our beloved spaces up and down the country, with close to $500,000 raised for venues. And the audience voted, with over 10,000 donations over 8 weeks and a total of almost $1,000,000 offered over this period.
Art it seems, is essential. It is an art that helps us process what we have experienced, connect these experiences with our emotions, and give form to our grief, confusion, and anxiety alongside our joy, triumphs, and celebrations.
Technology, in turn, can facilitate a connection to art. We feel humbled to be on this journey alongside Boosted and to do all we can to imagine how technology can reduce the space between us all.
