Cultural Institutions R-E-S-P-E-C-T Media Snackers

Today's New York Times featured an article by Claudia La Rocca entitled Culture Institutions Go After the Short-Attention-Span Crowd that offered further proof of the rise and influence of the Media Snacker.

Describing a beer blast/dance party/art installation called Takeover held over the weekend by the Brooklyn Academy of Music to attact younger art snackers Ms. La Rocca states:

"The highly coveted demographic of younger artgoers, many of whom could be
seen at Takeover flitting from one activity to the next, tends to be culturally omnivorous and often disinclined to sit quietly in a dark theater for several hours."

Comparing the event to an actual takeover, the academy’s vice president for marketing and communications, Lisa Mallory, brings The Conversation offline and into the building, saying

"Transforming a space, taking it over,” she said. “It’s very empowering.”

Mallory offers the example of a popular subscription package for the Next Wave festival called the Short Attention Span Sampler, in which all the works are 90 minutes or less, as further evidence of the respect Media Snackers now command.

“I’m not sure what that means, whether it’s a good thing or not, but it’s a reality that arts institutions must be thinking about. What will the performing arts be like in 10 or 20 years? I can’t imagine that the formal sit down for two and a half hours will be the only way we do it.”

The article continues with a look at several organizations that seem to see having a building and performance or exhibition space as some kind of handicap. La Rocca quotes Stephen Greco of The Dance Theater Workshop.

“Buildings trap as well as enable, we want to make this building as permeable as possible for outside and inside forces.”

Just like tension between online and offline media, arts organizations struggle with the tension between making art more accessible while maintaining an established infrastructure. On one hand Joseph Melillo, the executive producer for the Academy, acknowledges it is a “living, breathing organism,” but...

“I am very respectful that I am the trustee of 1908 architecture.”