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TOP and Cultural Institutions
The Technology Opportunities Program has supported significant
initiatives in the arts, as well as innovative projects focusing
on a wide variety of cultural issues. Grants have been awarded
to museums, state historical societies, independent arts organizations,
universities, broadcasting entities, and state arts agencies.
The range of problems addressed includes palliative care for
children in hospitals, arts education, provision of access
to regional cultural resources, and cultural involvement among
older Americans.
In providing assistance to cultural organizations, TOP recognizes
the central role that the arts, historical studies, and free
expression play in strengthening and preserving our national
identity, as well as the rich and exciting possibilities for
innovative teaching, enhanced outreach, and cultural preservation
that networking technologies offer to these institutions.
Museums
- In the world of museums, the University of Alaska Museum's Museum
Objects Library Interface Network (MoliNet) links materials
and objects from the University Library's collections on
Alaska and the Polar Regions, allowing users to access
these resources through the University Library online catalog
and database.
- The Cleveland
Museum of Art is using broadband to provide cultural
programming for senior citizens and disabled adults where
they live and congregate. Through IP transport technology,
content from the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Cleveland
Orchestra, and other cultural institutions is being delivered
to retirement homes and community centers.
Arts Education
- In arts education, the California Institute of the Arts'
Community Arts Partnership (CAP) Digital
Arts Network (DAN) linked ten community-based arts organizations
to provide communication technologies and arts training programs
to underserved Los Angeles youth.
- In the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, Dance
Partners used interactive telecommunications technology
to link master teachers with dance students in an innovative
new method for delivering arts education.
- The Vermont
Millennium Arts Project (VT MAP), a project of
the the Vermont Council on the Arts, connected students
and teachers in Vermont schools to professional artists
via the Internet. VT MAP recruited and trained artists
to act as student mentors and allowed arts teachers
across the state to offer feedback to student artists.
- Finally, the Wolf Trap Educational Foundation
in Vienna, Virginia, has launch the stART
smART project to create an online community
to sustain professional development opportunities
in literacy and the performing arts for early
childhood educators.
Cultural Heritage Preservation
- The Maine
Memory Network has created a statewide digital museum
and educational service designed to make rare and often
inaccessible materials – historical documents, images,
maps, photographs, and stories — available to the
public at large.
Arts Outreach and Marketing
- The Station Resource Group in Takoma Park, Maryland, has
launched the Public
Radio Exchange, an Internet-based tool for peer review,
acquisition brokering, and digital distribution of audio
content.
- The New England Foundation for the Arts' Online
Cultural Marketplace links performing artists in
a 6-state region with presenters, creating a transactional
online booking service that allows artists to market
their work and interact directly with a wider variety
of presenters.
The Arts and Medicine
- The University of Florida in Gainesville has developed Project
HeArts & Hope to improve the well-being of ill children
in and out of hospitals through a secure network that offers
arts programming, palliative care, and peer mentoring.
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