The Arts Community Alliance focused on a buzzy topic this year for its annual Perforum: technology.
Each year, TACA’s Perforum brings together art leaders to discuss the latest trends in the arts.
Maura Sheffler, TACA’s executive director, said a committee of art leaders identified its theme this year: “New Horizons: Arts, Technology and Adaptation.”
“Technology can be really scary, in part because so much of art is about the live collective experience,” she said. “But tech is here, and so let's embrace it and find ways we can harness it to grow access, to grow connection, to transform art making versus being afraid of it and shrinking away.”
Programming at this year’s Perforum included workshops on human-centered design, and how to harness artificial intelligence for audience insights and marketing. It also included an interactive workshop with Thomas F. DeFrantz, a professor at Northwestern University who leads the group Slippage: Performance, Culture, Technology.
DeFrantz’s group explores the intersection of emerging technologies and live performance. He said access is an important discussion when it comes to technology.
“The people who have access to these technologies [AI, ChatGPT, processing power, electricity, Internet access] are the people who are shaping what we can do,” he said.
Sheffler said artists are used to breaking boundaries and seizing new opportunities, and the integration of technology and art is no different.
“I hope people leave today with a sense of excitement about what opportunities technology can provide our artists and our arts organizations.”
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