Management, Review
Guest_Correspondent
Sage Intacct: A Roadmap Review for Financial ...

With a wide range of integration possibilities and reporting flexibility, Sage Intacct might be the right financial management software for your organization. In this review, guest contributor Stewart Urist highlights a few of the key functionalities that have improved his organization's daily workflow and the quality of the financial information available, and flags some pitfalls to keep in  mind along the way.

Sage Intacct: A Roadmap Review for Financial Management Success
entertainment, Review
Taylor Lien
The Bear's Season 3 Epitomizes Prestige TV

Amidst a host of negative reviews, season three of The Bear seems to epitomize the promise of prestige television -- bigger stars, bigger budgets, and higher production quality. Season three is ambitious and challenging, and it doesn’t allow the limitations of the television medium to dictate how the stories it wants to tell should be told.

The Bear's Season 3 Epitomizes Prestige TV
Art Meets Tech, Emerging Technology, Fundraising
Blake Aber
DipJar: The Future of Convenience in Fundraising

At the core of fundraising is the relationship between a nonprofit and those constituents who are most passionate about that organization’s mission. As development professionals it is vital to find touchpoints that cultivate and maintain these mutualistic relationships. Convenience for the donor is critical to getting a first gift that leads to a sustained philanthropic relationship. DipJar offers a unique giving opportunity for organizations “on the road,” those with a facility, or those hosting fundraising special events.

DipJar: The Future of Convenience in Fundraising
Artificial Intelligence, Review
Rachael Gunning
A Midjourney Review: Utilizing Generative A.I. ...

Many have likely browsed the internet long enough to have been fooled by an AI-generated image or two at some point. Text-to-image models like DALL·E , Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion have advanced enough that most people only have about a 50%-60% chance of discerning if an image is AI generated, and the odds aren’t improving - but are these models good enough to forego using human artists altogether? This article provides a comparative review of the various offerings of Midjourney.

A Midjourney Review: Utilizing Generative A.I. for Visual Storytelling
Artificial Intelligence, Art Meets Tech
Staff Researcher
VR Painting Software versus Traditional ...

In the last two years, more than a dozen Virtual Reality tools have emerged, offering artists a wide range of mediums to express their creativity. These VR platforms have allowed every type of artist to showcase their talents in the Metaverse. This article delves into an exploration and comparison of VR, 2D painting software applications, comparing their capabilities against traditional oil and acrylic painting techniques. If you are an artist considering investing in a headset for your artistic endeavors or simply choosing an app, this article will provide a comprehensive side-by-side comparison of these programs with their real-life counterparts.

VR Painting Software versus Traditional Painting -- What Wins?

Online Portfolio Management Tool - Works.io

Online Portfolio Management Tool - Works.io

Being an artist or a gallery manager in the 21st century requires an changing degree of technological know-how and engagement  -- or so it might seem.  In 2008, Technology in the Arts presented some options for free web sites for artists:  http://www.technologyinthearts.org/2008/06/free-web-sites-for-artists/.  Over the past 5 years things have only gotten easier with html5, ipads, and an ever-growing app market, and artists have more options at their fingertips to create online galleries of their very own.  A slick and simple option currently in public beta-test is Works.io.

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Database Decisions for the Nano-Nonprofit: Part 2

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Last month we began a conversation on database options for the nano-nonprofit, characterized here as the smallest of artistic enterprises, often in the early years of operation, with annual budgets under $60,000, and/or having a paid staff of 5 persons or fewer (if not entirely volunteer-run). When considering data solutions that will allow these lean organizations to capture the nuances of their patron relationships by integrating multiple points of contact (attendance, donations, communications, and personal info), top considerations that emerge are price, ease of use, customer support, and email compatibility. 

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Learning Made Easy with Painting Portal for iPad

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Learning Made Easy with Painting Portal for iPad

Whether you're someone who just loves to learn or an undergrad trying to absorb all the art history knowledge of all time - have I got a treat for you. I took some time to check out Painting Portal - a helpful compendium of paintings from the iTunes app store. 

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Future Value in Graph Search for Arts

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Future Value in Graph Search for Arts

Have you ever thought to yourself, “I wonder who has gone bungee jumping, lived in New York, and eats Japanese food? ” A new feature “Graph Search” announced by Facebook on January 15 enables users to discover new connections by searching the interests, location, and preferences of their friends.

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How Google Art Project Benefits the Public

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How many of you have ever imagined being able to see artwork in the greatest museums around the world without leaving your chair? Driven by his passion for art, Amit Sood developed Art Project to let people do just that. The Google Art Project includes various museums from nine different countries, which provides people an access to artworks worldwide. It’s not uncommon, many people and organizations began to think about “online museums” years ago. However, I found two important features, which I rarely notice on other similar websites, that differentiate Google Art Project from others-----the extremely high pixels (10 billion) and the collection button.

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(Image 1)

Some people wondering what could we get from 10 billion pixels? Google Art Project’s pursuit for an extremely high pixel count for each piece ensures audiences have a high level of exploration experience for artworks. For instance, the Harvesters, painted by Pieter Bruegel the Elder in 1565, gives you a general view on the artwork at the first glance (Image 1). Gradually, you will probably be curious about several detailed part of the paintings. What are people doing in the triangle 1 and triangle 2 areas (Image 1)? As you zoom in triangle 1 area, you will clearly see expressions on each person’s face (Image 2).  Then you will really want to look deeply. As you start playing around, you will find something going on over there in triangle 2 area.  As you zoom into the triangle 2 area, you will find that the artist depicted a scene of kids beating something (Image 3). Apparently, it seems to be a quite popular game. After I did a little research on Google, I found this was a game called score which involves in beating the goose with sticks. You see, I learned something from the exploration process for the painting.

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(Image 2)

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(Image 3)

This high standard of pixels also enables people to observe the details about brush strokes and to see how an artist actually creates the masterpiece. As I deeply go to the favorite part of the painting Starry Night painted by Van Gogh. Interestingly, as I zoomed in, the cracks noticed seemly closer the distance between Van Gogh and me. I've never gone into the Starry Night like this before.

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Another amazing feature of this project is the collection button. This button enables any one of us to create our own museums online by creating our own collections out of all these images. Moreover, you can introduce your museum to your friends via sending an email and really get a conversation about what your feeling is when going to these masterpieces.

Additionally, we also see some potential values of this project for the arts education field. This could be a great tool for arts teachers to better get to the interpretations of interesting details of the masterpiece in class. For now, the Google Art Project seemingly performs well at a technical level. However, from a management perspective, some people doubt its problematic execution. Another concern is if the implication of Google Art Project is that in the future there will no longer be any need to visit a museum. This is not our focus of this post, but we are curious about your opinion about this project. Leave a comment below!

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SFMOMA Families App Drives Away Gallery Fatigue

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“When I’m walking around an art gallery, rooms full of paintings, after 15 or 20 minutes, I really am not thinking about the painting, I’m not connecting to them. Instead, I’m thinking about a cup of coffee that I desperately need to wake me up. I believe somebody put the painting on the wall because they think it is good enough to be there. But I don’t see it. I feel unhappy and guilt about my stupidity.”  Said Tracy Chevalierin her TED speech about “Finding the story inside the painting” How many of you also suffer from gallery fatigue? 

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Application Review: 2wice Merce Cunningham Event

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Merce Cunningham was always the innovator.  The application for mobile devices, 2wice Merce Cunningham Event emerged from a series of performances between 2001 and 2007 for the visual and performing arts journal twice.  The resulting application was meant to represent the imagery and experience of dance in a new medium. 

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Cool Tech Resources for Learning - Codecademy, Pen.io, and Duolingo!

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It’s safe to say that today, proficiency can be acquired in two very different kinds of languages; those used by people, and those by people that create, innovate, and run technology. So some have mastered Italian, Russian, and French. Others, JavaScript, C++, and Python. But that leaves a third category still. One that switches from Italian to C++ to German with panache! If you aspire to be in this last dexterously linguistic category, there are resources you can use to develop your technical and literary skills! And we chose to highlight only the best:

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MOMA's Art Lab App: Play with the Sounds and Shapes of Art!

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The sublime James McNeill Whistler once said, “Nature contains the elements, in colour and form, of all pictures, as the keyboard contains the notes of all music. But the artist is born to pick, and choose, and group with science, these elements, that the result may be beautiful--as the musician gathers his notes, and forms his chords, until he bring forth from chaos glorious harmony.” In the years since, the relationship between art and music has progressed from a silent harmony to a colorful crescendo.