Art Talks Online & Webinars for Artists

I find I'm signing up for more and more ONLINE TALKS about art and artists. I've just signed up for two more! 

• Hokusai's late works: the block-ready drawings | British Museum (Friday 5th November 6pm) 
• Lucy Smith | Waterlilies, Waders and Watercolour: The Journey of a Botanical Artist | Kew Mutual Improvement Society (who use Eventbrite for ticket bookings) (Monday 8th November 6pm)

This post is about:

• What is a webinar
• Webinars for Artists
• Webinars by Art Societies - and Artists
• TIPS for signing up for an event - or hosting your own

What's in a Webinar?

Webinar is short for Web Seminar - and they started within the context of educational institutions and teaching / training / engaging with target audiences.

A webinar is

“a live online educational presentation during which participating viewers can submit questions and comments.”

It takes place at a set time on a specific date and they usually last an hour. Those speaking generally are experts in their field and/or the topic of the talk

Some are free and some require a small fee.

Some are recorded and those who have signed up for them - particularly if they have paid - can sometimes view online via another link for a short period of time. Which helps enormously if you want to hear the talk but have a commitment clash with the date and time.

Some pre-recorded webinars which are kept accessible can generate a lot of traffic for those host.
 

Webinars for Artists 

There are more and more webinars relevant to artists

• either in terms of art from a practical perspective
• or learning more about art history - popular with major art galleries and museums

The great thing is it really doesn't matter where you live - you can access from anywhere!

Here are some of the places which do live talks / webinars - typically via Zoom.

• Online Talks and Conversations | National Gallery
• Online Events | Tate - which include online courses
• Virtual Events | Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Online Events/Experiences | Art Fund
• Performing and Visual Arts Seminars Online | Eventbrite - Shame that they lump performing arts in with Visual Arts. However Eventbrite does have the advantage of also having location filters.
• Visual Artists Ireland - Online Events - used for professional development. They have a model "how Zoom works" page!

Interestingly there is no way of picking up on Online Events at the British Museum besides following via Facebook and keeping an eye out!

By and large, you can tell how much webinars have permeated the thinking of art galleries and museums by whether or their Events Menu has an "Online" option

• if you can filter events using "Online" they've been doing it for a while and probably have quite a good range of online events on offer
• If you search on their website for "online talks" and nothing comes up, then they are now switched on to the latest method of communicating with their target audiences - which means they have a learning curve to climb too....

They're also used for Virtual Open Days for various art educational courses

An upcoming example is the Courtauld's Graduate Diploma in the History of Art Virtual Open Day

Webinars by Art Societies - and Artists

Why don't more art societies do webinars?

Good question - why don't they? 

Interestingly some art societies might be very surprised to know that some of their members are already running webinars off their own bat as it were. These tended to start during the recent C19 lockdowns etc and have continued ever since.

One excellent example for my botanical artist friends are Julia Trickey Talks - which are not talks by Julia so much as talks by botanical artists from all over the world who do an hour long webinar for other botanical artists from all over the world - typically UK, North America, Europe, Asia and Australasia. Julia organises the schedule of people giving a talk and hosts the webinars on Zoom.

I've even done one! See WEBINAR: How to be a "business savvy" botanical artist (for more about my talks see this page)

Julia is an excellent example of somebody who doesn't wait for an art society to realise something might be a good idea. Like every other intelligent busy woman, she just "gets on and does" - which is how her talks - now entering their second year of scheduled talks came about. They're very popular and very successful.

TIPS for signing up to an event or hosting your own

ALWAYS check out who the organiser is before you sign up. 

• If you don't know or haven't heard of the organiser, just remember to be a little circumspect - there's a lot of scammers out there
• Then check out their programme and whether their webinars have got any reviews.
• Do not pay any money over until you're convinced they are reputable and provide good quality content.

When signing up be sure to use the email address that you use for

• either Zoom - if the Webinar 
• or Eventbrite - used by many organisers for online talks and webinars
• or whatever other platform is being used

Do check the confirmation email for the "add to Calendar" link. It's a marvellous way of getting the event PLUS THE LINK into your digital calendar

When searching for events, do look for and use the Online Filter (if available). Saves a LOT of time and avoids frustration!

If you're interested in hosting a virtual event, there are number of links below which you might find interesting

• Eventbrite - Virtual Platform
• What is a webinar? Everything you need to know | Biteable
• What is a webinar and how does it work? | Venngage
• Unsolicited Advice: Tips for Artist’s Talks on Zoom
• How to Look Good on Camera, According to Tom Ford | New York Times - A master class in lighting for your next video conference.

Webinars allow presenters to share documents of all kinds including but not limited to voice notes, videos, presentations and other documents, etc with their attendees.