From a press release from the Media Arts Project, a non-profit media arts community and professional development organization. Wine, snacks and a chance to sign up for the new site and create your own profile. Get your images, video clips and MP3’s ready to post!
JULY 14, 2009 - ASHEVILLE, NC - The Media Arts Project (MAP) announces an event to celebrate the launch of its new website and online member directory, Thursday, July 23, at 5:30pm at the Flood Gallery in Asheville. Funded by the Asheville HUB, the new directory will foster the development of Western North Carolina's creative economy by promoting the region's diverse and accomplished talent base and providing a resource for WNC media arts professionals to collaborate and connect, both with one another and with opportunities for work. The July 23 event will showcase the site and its capabilities to the region's artistic and professional communities.
In the new directory, MAP members will upload their portfolios to profile pages that specifically list their skills, experience and availability. Artists can communicate through blog posts and forums, and promote events through the site's calendar. The site also includes functionality for demand-side members, businesses in search of media talent for specific objectives. A demand-side member might be a filmmaker on location in WNC who needs a boom operator, a growing company in need of a designer to build a corporate identity, or a journalist who wants to create podcasts of her work and add them to her website. Through the MAP directory, demand-side members anywhere in the world can access the dynamic community of accomplished media arts professionals in WNC.
"I see the new site as a virtual media arts center, a place where people connect, share work, inspire one another and showcase their work to potential clients" said Gillian Coats, Media Arts Project Board Chairman. "The new map.org creates a platform for growth for media artists in the creative community and the creative economy of the region as a whole."
The directory was created by BugLogic, an Asheville-based web technology company that specializes in designing and managing community web solutions. BugLogic's projects include Drawger.com, an online community for illustrators that has become the network hub for illustration, with an average of 10,000 visitors per day - a number that spikes to over 100,000 when the site is featured in influential media like the New York Times, Juxtapoz, and BoingBoing.net. Another BugLogic community is illoz.com, a portfolio site that connects illustrators with art buyers in much the same way the new MAP website will function. Art buyers have viewed over 3,000,000 images on the site in its two years of operation.
"What I've learned with these projects are all applied to the new MAP member site," said BugLogic founder Robert Zimmerman, an accomplished illustrator and founding member of the Media Arts Project. "Drawger and illoz both operate as social networks for the membership and they love this aspect of it, but the real goal and the realised end result was a better business for everyone involved."
The launch event takes place at the Flood Gallery in the Phil Mechanic Studios, at 109 Roberts Street in Asheville. The event begins at 5:30pm, and Zimmerman will present the site at 6:15, followed by a performance by local VJ Megan McKissack. After Zimmerman's presentation, attendees can register for the site and artists can build their own profiles by uploading media that they bring on portable drives, using computers donated by Charlotte Street Computers. Wine and hors d'oeuvres will be provided by The Wine Guy and 28806 Catering. Peak Definition will film the event. For details on the event and further information on the site, contact the Media Arts Project at info@themap.org.
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