Capturing the Voice of the Artist

Side Street Projects (http://sidestreet.org) is a 17-year-old nonprofit organization headquartered in Pasadena, CA, that provides educational programs to help artists develop the ability and the means to support their creative endeavors.

As part of their education outreach, Side Street Projects has been conducting a series of interviews with notable artists, curators, and other players in the art community around the Los Angeles area. When Side Street Projects wanted to expand their “Shop Talk” podcast series, they turned to Cogi. In-person interviews were going to be really expensive. So, Executive Director Jon Lapointe came to Cogi and signed up for an account.

Interviews are now conducted by phone using Cogi to capture it all. Side Street Projects staffers are now able to schedule and conduct the interviews much more easily, and at significantly reduced cost and hassle compared to on-site visits. The interview topics range from discussions with artists about their experiences producing major pieces, as well as with gallery owners.  You can find them all on their Podcasts page http://sidestreet.org/category/podcasts/

Jon said in a recent email “We’re happy Cogi customers… we use your service to record phone interviews that we use for a free Podcast series that teaches business skills to young artists. The 14 episodes produced thus far have been downloaded 11,000 times.”  Wow! Nice work Jon and team.

Be sure to check out their website where in addition to the podcasts you can learn about their cool, solar-powered “mobile headquarters”, the woodworking bus and their BookMeat gala event and silent auction coming on November 21, 2009.