The fact that technology has changed just about everything in life comes as no surprise to anyone.

My family’s summer vacation last week involved a 10-hour drive to the coast, but we heard “are we there yet?” only a couple of times from the kids thanks to a variety of connected devices and mobile hot spots. True confession: I spent some of my own beach-time plugged in, exploring things like Ancestry.com and Pokémon GO.

I was delighted to see Cincinnati arts organizations jump on the Pokémon GO bandwagon last week and encourage players to come inside to visit Pokéstops  and collect characters. Pyramid Hill and the Cincinnati Art Museum were two enterprising cultural destinations that embraced the game. In the case of Pyramid Hill,they were rewarded with an 18 percent increase in visitors!  

(Just how are the statues, sculptures and landmarks around the globe embedded in Pokemon? This article explains it’s an agreement between Google and The Historical Marker Database, a volunteer-run website that tracks the coordinates of historical markers.)

We’re watching this whole phenomenon closely at ArtsWave, and looking to members of our new ArtsWave Tech Advisory Council to create some local variations on the theme: how can we harness technology, and geo-location capabilities, to engage even more people in the arts in Greater Cincinnati? The blurring of the lines between art and technology and the ways the two sectors can work together was the topic during ArtsWave's panel last week during NewCo Cincinnati. 

A majority of Americans believe that social media increases our exposure to the arts, according to a new opinion poll from Americans for the Arts and Ipsos Public Affairs. This is further proof of what we’ve all intuited. For the first time this year, as part of the funding from ArtsWave, arts organizations could demonstrate their community impact through the the development and use of new technologies. 

Stay tuned as ArtsWave continues to advance new technologies to connect people to Greater Cincinnati's unique arts experiences.