I’ve been interested in getting a small video camera to take short, informal videos for our website, blog, etc. On the recommendation of our neighbors at the Contemporary, I decided to go for a Flip Video Ultra. It’s really easy to use, the quality is pretty good, and it’s ridiculously easy to upload it to anything online. We got it in the mail this morning, and I’ve been video-crazy ever since. Here’s our inaugural test video in the green hallway (which connects the back offices to the front gallery spaces):

I really enjoyed reading Tyler Green’s post this morning on the self-portraits people choose when representing themselves on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc.  I think it’s a fascinating glimpse into the personality of someone - or at least, the part of their personality they want to emphasize online.  I think this extends even beyond their profile photo and into the rest of their Facebook page - what they link to, their style of writing, favorite music, etc.

This fits in with something we’re discussing here lately -  Facebook and MySpace for the Pulitzer.  Just like personal pages, an institutional “personality” can be represented in very specific ways online.   Do you want to come across as hip? Reserved? Young? Academic? Casual? And once you decide what personality best fits your institution - how do you decide to convey this on a web page?  My new intern (that’s right, I have a web intern! Who will be suckered into blogging LOTS), and I have been talking about how to approach this.  Stay tuned for more on that.  I’d be curious to hear your feedback - what do you like/don’t like about social networking sites?  And how do you choose to use them?

Last week, Tyler Green posted some suggestions for museum blogs, which is always nice to read - it’s important to take a step back every once in awhile and give your blog a good hard look. And his posts came at a perfect time - Maria (on the Contemporary’s side of the blog) and I already had a meeting scheduled to discuss some new ideas. Tyler’s suggestions reinforced exactly what we were thinking.One thing we often hear that people like about our blog is the fact that we’re two very different institutions contributing posts on the same page. It gives readers a chance to see the differences and similarities in our approaches to art and museum-related topics. We thought it would make sense to highlight this even more - so cue a new series of posts we decided to call “Two Takes One Issue” (get it? two buildings one blog? We’re also really clever around here…).

This series will take a certain issue, news article, administrative approach, curatorial practice, what-have-you, and have someone related to that issue at each of our institutions write about it from their perspective. We’re hoping it will not only emphasize our unique qualities, but also raise questions and start conversations. Expect the first posts coming soon….and let us know if there’s a topic you’d like us to address!

Oh wow…This morning I was reading the Walker’s New Media Initiatives blog, and they linked to this new site: MuseTechCentral.  It’s a place for museums to share their technology-related projects, and looking through it so far, it seems like it will not only be a huge resource to web coordinators like me, but also to anyone interested in museum topics and projects in general.  Actually, the New Media Initiatives blog is a huge resource for me too.  Do you have any must-read resources that you use for your job?

Almost everyone is back in the office at the Pulitzer now, though there hasn’t been much time to ease back in to work (with the exception of a few breaks to eat leftover holiday gifts the Pulitzer received…like big bins of popcorn…).  Water closes this Saturday, and next week, we’ll be in full installation mode - just like our neighbors at the Contemporary!  It’s rare that our openings (both exhibitions open on February 1st) and installations coincide like this.  So these next few weeks should be excellent for blog posts– lots of behind-the-scenes information about the installations of two very different exhibitions.

So the number of meetings my colleagues have been going to hasn’t eased up yet, so we’ll have to wait a bit longer for some of the guest posts.   In the meantime, the Pulitzer side of our blog will be taking a break during the holidays, and will be back in action on January 2nd.  Happy Holidays!

There’s a few items I’m planning on blogging about next week.  Here’s a small preview:

1)  Updates about the videos coming to our website.  The group of students from Webster University are hard at work editing their films from our film night, so updates on those soon.

2) An interview with Tim (visitor services manager) about our brand new approach to docenting.  It might be a brand new approach all together — it’ll be interesting to hear if there are any similar programs around the country.

3) New information about some of our upcoming events.

4) Update on our next exhibition.  Very exciting….

Stay tuned.

As the website coordinator for the Pulitzer, I’m always checking out sites to see what else is out there.  And I get web geekily (which isn’t even a word) excited about the things I find and like.  So I thought I’d start an occasional series where I link to my online faves.  “Things I like online” is still a working title, so suggestions are welcome…

Today’s favorite site is Bad at Sports.  It’s a weekly podcast that focuses on contemporary art and, as it says on their site, presents ” the practices of artists, curators, critics, dealers, and various other arts professionals through an online audio format.”  I really like the informal nature of the podcasts — it’s like you’re just listening in on a casual conversation between people as they discuss the arts and the particular roles they play.  They’re based in Chicago, however, I think they should think about sending a correspondent to St. Louis sometime in the near future.  Or how about opening a satellite operation here?  Just an idea!

The launch of our new blog on Tuesday overshadowed some other news I wanted to mention. David Bonetti’s review of Water was in Sunday’s Post-Dispatch this past weekend. It gives a really nice sense of what the exhibition is like if you haven’t been able to see it in person yet. If you’d like to read it, click here.

In other news, over the next few days I’m going to be updating our Flickr account (something that’s waaaay overdue) so keep checking it out. If you want to be our Flickr friend and let us see your photos, well, that would be awfully nice. Send me a ‘lil Flickr message and I’d be happy to add you.

We’re excited to launch the re-designed and re-named blog for the Pulitzer and the Contemporary. To help clarify who’s writing what we’ve adopted a two column approach — Pulitzer posts on the left, Contemporary posts on the right. Once you go to the archives for each column (at the bottom of this page), you’ll be taken to an all Pulitzer or all Contemporary section. We’ve also pulled in our Flickr pages (to the right) and moved over our blogroll and all our links. All of our archives from the old blog have been moved over as well, so you’ll still be able to access any of our past posts. So please take some time and browse through and let us know what you think!