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October 5 – 8, 2014: Taipei
OISTAT Headquarters organized the two-day “Cultural Landmark and Its Communities” symposium featuring presentations on arts management, community interaction and arts advocacy. Presenters included Austin Wang, director of Taipei Performing Arts Center; Tom Shaw, business director and executive producer of Digital Theatre; Jane Crawley, manager of Arts & Culture in Melbourne; Jeff Khan, artistic director of Performance Space; Jan K. Rolník, curator of SIGNAL – Prague Light Festival; and Andrew Taylor, associate professor of arts management at American University. Co-editors Peter McKinnon and Eric Fielding launched World Scenography 1990-2005, Volume 2.
After the symposium, the Publication & Communication Commission met on October 7th and discussed several initiatives including:
During the meeting, OISTAT Headquarters interns presented their proposal to start an online network for young designers to share their art. The platform would consist of an online database functioning similar to a portfolio website.
Jerôme Maeckelbergh presented an update on Digital Theatre Words, a theatre technology translation dictionary, with over 2,000 terms in 24 supported languages. A new app version of Digital Theatre Words was launched in the Apple iTunes and Google Play stores.
There was a proposal for OISTAT HQ, Executive Committee and Publication & Communication Commission to collaborate on a new student focused project. This initiative would engage university students from across the globe in an arts management project. The commission agreed to support this project in the upcoming year.
June 21, 2015: Prague
Our Prague commission meeting focused on several new initiatives for the upcoming year including:
OISTAT members and invited guests came from Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Serbia, Taiwan and the United States. In addition, the commission welcomed five Taiwanese graduate students participating in OISTAT’s Core Strategy Project, an eight-month arts management learning experience. Students investigated OISTAT’s history, explored our decision-making process and networked with other OISTAT members. Jerôme Maekelbergh, Jan Rolnik, Carl Walling and Wanjung Wei met with the students after the meeting to discuss the project’s goals and their firstimpressions about OISTAT. Over several days, the five graduate students attended other commission meetings and OISTAT Celebration Day.
Several updates were provided on OISTAT publications. Jerôme Maeckelbergh presented an update on Digital Theatre Words. PCC members briefly discussed the advantages of continuing "flash sales" for Digital Theatre Words during OISTAT Centre conferences (similar to the OISTAT Celebration Day sale).
There was discussion about supporting the Research Commission’s Bibliography of Theatre Arts project. This database provides a database of books, book chapters, and scholarly articles that may be useful to other theatre professionals, practicing artists, researchers, educators and theatre students. A current listing of recommended texts is available on the OISTAT website.
After the Prague 2015 Commission Meeting
Several commission projects were pursued between the Prague and Rotterdam/Amsterdam commission meetings.
Core Strategy Project
The Core Strategy Project provided a team of Taiwanese graduate students an opportunity to learn about OISTAT as an international arts organization. Students have investigated the organization’s history, explore the organization’s decision-making process and networked with members of OISTAT’s Headquarters and the commission chair. Students met with OISTAT members during the Novi Sad Executive Committee and Governing Board Meetings.
In 2016, the Core Strategy Project’s students presented their final report during the Executive Committee & Governing Board meetings in Taipei. Their report included an organizational analysis (qualitative and quantitative data) and a proposal for an “OISTAT Channel” consisting of short videos contributed by OISTAT members that highlight a key topic within international theatre practice.
More information about the students’ final project can be found on the Publication & Communication Commission webpage.
Communications & Information
In Salt Lake City, several conversations occurred about further improvements to OISTAT communications including:
(1) Creating a listserve e-mail addresses available to OISTAT commissions to support internal commission communications and consider a web-interface for commission business (such as an online discussion forum).
(2) Creating a calendar on the website of OISTAT Centre meetings and special events.
(3) Developing commission membership lists to be shared with incoming commission chairs (commission delegates and non-delegates).
October 15 – 17, 2016: Rotterdam & Amsterdam
Last fall, the commission had a successful three-day series of commission meetings, presentations and theatre experiences in the Netherlands, which included:
In addition to these activities, the commission hosted a small colloquium sharing current research projects, ongoing scholarship and new commission projects ideas. Each presentation was 20-25 minutes in length with additional time for audience participation/feedback. Presentations included:
In addition to the colloquium, the commission encouraged new collaborations between commission members, regional trade magazine editors and local academic journal editors. Many years ago, the Publication and Communication Commission’s membership were connected to the performance industry’s publications. As such, the commission wanted to reconnect with regional editors during the Rotterdam meetings.
Several journal and trade magazine editors and/or their representatives attended the session, including STEPP Magazine, Zichtlijnen (VPT), Art Studies Quarterly (Bulgaria) and ProScen (Sweden). In the future, the commission would like to provide members information about these peer-reviewed journals. The Publications and Communication Commission’s webpage will include information about submitting work for the journal’s peer-review process, frequency of publication and how members could subscribe to the journal.
During the three-days, the commission discussed several ongoing projects including the future of the Core Strategy Project, new social media goals, OISTAT archival projects and new communication projects.
Communications
Beyond the website, the Publication and Communication Commission would like to remind all OISTAT members about our various communication channels. OISTAT maintains an extensive social media presence on Facebook (OISTAT International) and Twitter (@OISTAT).
In addition to these social media channels, all OISTAT members should receive the OISTAT Newsletter for important news and updates. If you have not received the OISTAT newsletter in the past, please register online! Registration is a very quick process (less than two minutes) here.
