When I was the editor of the Toronto Star’s weekly arts calendar section in one of my previous lives, I planned and worked in the hope that its pages might not just inform but stimulate discovery: a theatre lover enticed by a concert, or an avid reader finding cause to visit an art gallery.
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
Now as newspaper arts sections wither into insignificance and most of us carefully filter our news and Twitter feeds to minimize wasted time, how, exactly are we supposed to be encouraged to make random and unexpected discoveries of things outside our stated circles of interest?
Facebook and Twitter, in their massive, messy human randomness can be pretty good at tossing us great finds. But both are, in their different ways, swiftly flowing rivers. Unless you happen to be standing at their banks at the right moment, you may not know what you’re missing.
(Social media is an Existentialist’s dream as well as nightmare: people and events only exist as long as people have an eye on their ever-changing newsfeeds. If someone is not on social media, do they really exist as far as the rest of the world is concerned?)
Enter Torontonian Margaret Lam — an occasional contributor to and designer of the pages you see before you. This graphic designer, information-gatherer, piano player and deeply committed supporter of the arts has launched a site inspired by the interactivity of social media in order to help connect Toronto audiences with the performing arts.
The BeMused Network is now in beta mode, meaning that it is fully operational while Lam and her team of developers work out little kinks and fine-tune the site.
It’s very simple in purpose and execution (and far from simple in setting up, having taken Lam the better part of the last three years to make happen): a person signs up with the BeMused Network and gets introduced to the city’s musicians, actors, comedians, and whomever else has a show to present. The artists sign up, too, providing not just details of each event, but also stories about themselves and why they are presenting what they are. Venues can sign up independently, as well.
In other words, everyone and every place that once upon a time made it into the pages of the Toronto’s Star’s What’s On section or Now Magazine could show up here, in a vast web of news and information.
BeMused Network also sells the tickets to the events, making it easier for both artists and patrons to connect quickly and easily.
At this point, the selection of events is limited, but Lam & co. are working hard, one-on-one, to bring more artists into the fold.
I sat down with Lam yesterday afternoon for a tour of the latest iteration of the BeMused Network. It looks great and works very nicely.
I did wonder how the team is supposed to make money at this, though.
It turns out that BeMused sells the tickets at cost, so there’s no cut for the network. There are no ads, either. Lam has received startup funding through Toronto’s network of Internet startup boosters, who have recognized the value of what she is doing.
But what about being compensated for her time and efforts? Lam smiled yesterday when I asked her if she had a five-year plan. “I was hoping that this would be working by the time I turn 35,” she smiled broadly. That makes it a four-year plan.
Lam believes that BeMused’s future monetary value is in providing solid data about how audiences discover and consume the performing arts. She points out that arts councils only retrieve data from arts groups that submit audited financial statements, leaving out hundreds of independent artists. Collecting the BeMused posts, the tickets they sell and how people travel between music and theatre, for example, will illuminate Toronto’s grassroots performing arts ecosystem like nothing before.
All of this is data that Lam hopes she can monetize by her 35th birthday. She might actually get paid for helping Toronto’s performing artists and audiences flourish in a newspaper-free world. What a notion.
Notwithstanding my friendship as well as professional relationship with Lam, I think BeMused network is the right tool for these changing cultural times in Toronto — because it’s built to not recognize boundaries, boxes and categories.
I look around at the faces in the audience wherever I go. I compare those to the faces I see on the subway, at the Eaton Centre and at Yonge and Bloor. The faces never match, and that worries me more than anything else about the ever-precarious arts world. I’m hoping that initiatives like Lam’s will help change that.
Do check out BeMused Network here.
John Terauds
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
