Happy 45th Anniversary, Black History Month! It used to be just a week. But when something is awesome, you want to have it around longer to celebrate. Black history is American history, so let’s be sure we’re learning and celebrating all year long! We want to throw some love at Netflix, HBO, and others for providing curated collections of the Black experience on film, a favorite (and IMHO, under-appreciated) artform.

LOOK WHO’S BOLD AF

We love Nina Simone. Her legend is a bold, beautiful portrait in truth-telling and change. We can only imagine what her artful song and activist voice would have to say about our present world.

Now meet Nina Simon. Not related by family or name, but Simon is to museums what Simone is to civil rights. Nina Simon is an arts and culture thought-leader and doer helping museums check their egos and motives at the front door – then knock it down and invite the community in. Read about this real-time revolution at OF/BY/FOR ALL and YouTube her TEDx Talks. Your job just got woke.

CLEVER, AREN’T WE?

Missing date night? Or you might feel like you’ve been on one looonnng nightmarish date and need to mix it up? Either way, Chandler Museum AZ has you covered with their Museum in a Box: Date Night Edition. Check this out:

Sweat and Spar: Boxing Fun for Two

Ready for a date night that packs a punch? DRMTM: Yes, we’re definitely ready to punch someone. Don’t worry about your fitness level, grab your partner and step in the ring. Fitness?

Round 1: Duke it out with your partner in a series of jump rope challenges. Whaaaat?
Round 2: Find out who can talk the talk. No question.
Round 3: Weigh in on issues that matter with conversation cards centered on the exhibition Bigger than Boxing: Zora Folley and the 1967 Heavyweight Title. Something older than we are.
Round 4: Take a breather by expressing your artistic side, boxing style. This box also includes movie suggestions, drink recipes, and a sweet treat. Now you’re talkin’!

READY. SET. REIMAGINE.

AHEM. INTRODUCING DRMTM LIVE: the BAD A** BRAND CHAT

Wanna own your brand like a bad a**? Get bold with your message? We LOVE talking shop. This is the ultimate brand-building hang out. No sales allowed. EVERY FRIDAY 3 to 3:30 PM EST.

Join us on Zoom by clicking HERE. Passcode: DRMTM

FREE SWAG tossed out in random fashion! See you there.

Keep on DRMing,

Surale + Laura + Cheryl
Research + Messaging + Design

If you don’t want different, you don’t want DRMTM.

thedrmtm.com

CHEERS, doggonit! Take a moment to celebrate. We broke on through to the other side. We crossed over into the light. Goodbye dumpster fire days of 2020. Although we still see challenges ahead, 2021 is shaping up into quite a year so far. With the streaming video renaissance showing no signs of slowing and vaccines rolling out, why, we’re gonna make it after all. (That’s your cue to throw your cute corona-craft crochet hat into the air. If you don’t get the reference, you’re in the age bracket of “young professional.”)

The DRMTM just got together for goal setting. It boils down basically to “get more done, have more fun.” Now, this seems like a tall order, because we had a lot of fun doing our work last year. But we know we can make it happen, and you can, too. How, pray tell?

1. Look for breakthrough in all that you do. We’ll stay in touch on this one. It is our 2021 word, after all. Do you have your word of the year?
2. Stay inspired. Don’t OD on Tik Tok and Bernie memes, rather, keep it balanced. Yours truly will keep it going with great stuff like this from the Dance Theatre of Harlem:

LOOK WHO’S BOLD AF

Oh beauty, thou name is Black. We were awestruck by these captivating renderings of beautiful children, Black hair adorned and splendid, captured in the Klimt portrait style by Tawny Chatmon. She states, “Visually, Klimt’s use of gold and decorative elements brought about strong feelings of grace, magnificence, and beauty within me upon my first discovery of his work.” We agree with The Redemption’s ultimate statement: society needs to stop saying Black hair styles are “unacceptable.” We think some folks are just jealous.

READY. SET. REIMAGINE.

Look for us again on 2nd Fridays each month! Coming at you with a new email containing incredible fun and cool offers that won’t waste your time or make you mad like most emails inevitably do (except for Duke Cannon emails – we love them). We have an exciting program announcement to share on February 12th, so open that email, okay? Until then, can you do us a solid and click to answer the question below?

Keep on DRMing,

Surale + Laura + Cheryl
Research + Messaging + Design

If you don’t want different, you don’t want DRMTM.

thedrmtm.com

Congratulations for making it another month. We’ve come through a lot again. It’s the holidays, and we here at DRMTM are taking a moment to grieve losses for ourselves and humanity, light candles in the name of hope and healing, and turn toward grace and gratitude.

We started The Silver Lining as a way to stay connected when we realized the pandemic would separate us from each other for no-telling-how-long. By sharing a little humor and highlighting the generous creativity of arts and culture in healing communities over these difficult months, we hope you’ve breathed a little lighter now and then.

Hope is always on the horizon. Soon we will look back at this dark time and see how much light we made – how blazing, and brilliant, and true it was – how deeply it shined in all of us.

In the spirit of unity and a voice for all, we share this soul-stirring rendition of Broadway for Georgia’s performance of Georgia On My Mind. You’ll see some familiar faces, and you’ll wonder how anyone can sing and smile like that at the same time.

LOOK WHO’S BOLD AF

Well, it’s no surprise to us ‘cause we’ve been talking about it all year, but it’s nice when things get official. Artists Are 2nd Responders is the campaign from Californians for the Arts, the state’s advocates for the arts and culture sector. “A first responder comes in and saves a life, a second responder comes in and helps to rebuild a life.” Read about it and champion this cause in your own community.

READY. SET. REIMAGINE.

We’ll be back to business in January 2021. For now we wish you peace, prosperity, and great health.

And on earth peace, goodwill toward men,

Surale + Laura + Cheryl
Research + Messaging + Design

If you don’t want different, you don’t want DRMTM.

thedrmtm.com

Well, it’s a sunny 84 degrees outside and we seriously just got chills. With the pandemic spiking and the election only days away we needed a lift and our good friends at inspiremore.com were happy to give our spirits a good heft in the upward direction. Gotta be honest here, another virtual “experience” of multi-voice choirs with individuals’ heads in boxes with bad lighting didn’t sound exhilarating at first. But these aren’t your ordinary sing-alongs. These classics – like Bacharach’s What the World Needs Now & Close to You – and renditions of West Side Story’s Somewhere and Godspell’s Beautiful City  absolutely SOAR. The fun of Close to You is the fact that it features 1,000 people from 18 countries dubbed Couch Choir. We are all over that and are signing up for the next sing. We hope you sign up, too!

Can’t Touch This. And if the return of football (hell yay!) and inspire choirs aren’t enough – dance and football together should raise our collective spirits as high as the top of the goal post. Watch Coach Carter of San Jose State Football break it down like the old days as part of MC Hammer’s dance squad.

Feel better? Us, too.

LOOK WHO’S BOLD AF

You wouldn’t expect to see the glow of neon on the 1932 and 1933 Matheson History Museum buildings in Gainesville, Florida. But their outdoor installment, Lights of Conversation, by artist Sylvi Herrick is timely for a public coping with a pandemic and addressing a social conversation about race. In public space weaving luminous colorful lights with poetry by Janessa Martin, the artist’s work builds on current activism about racism and inequalities in America. The exhibition hopes to evoke new discussion and clarity about underlying prejudices and nurture a new and equal future for everyone.

READY. SET. REIMAGINE.

We just delivered a great webinar series on research, messaging, and design for fundraising with our digital partner, Achieve. We enjoyed hearing from organizations across the nation (and had Nigeria on the line, too!). If you missed it, you also missed a chance to sign up for our special:

A FREE Happy Half-Hour session to ask us questions and get expert advice. Seriously. It’s free! Email us and we’re yours for thirty minutes. You can talk about the weather, new games you invented under quarantine, or try out your stand-up routine on us. But we suggest you pick our brains with burning fundraising questions. It’s fun. Really!

Just email us and we’ll schedule your H.H.H. a.s.a.p.

Stay well and keep smiling under that mask. We like the way it makes your eyes crinkle.

Keep it DRMY ’til next week,

Surale + Laura + Cheryl
Research + Messaging + Design

If you don’t want different, you don’t want DRMTM.

thedrmtm.com

Sometimes we need a little change. Maybe not 2020’s kind of change, but we’re all trying to make the best of it. If you didn’t see last spring’s video of little Edward and Annie all gussied up and enjoying a promenade around the Shedd Aquarium outside their glassed-in glacier you missed a real treat. (Here’s the link. We’d never tease you with penguins and not deliver.) The sight of the pair of rockhopper penguins waddling around the visitor’s side of the center reminds us of what we are missing, but also gives us a fresh perspective. We’re happy for E & A’s chance to roam free and safely explore new surroundings while we wait to press our faces to the glass again and escape into their world.

In South Florida, the animals at Busch Wildlife Sanctuary just endured a muggy, lonely summer season. During pre-Covid days, the natives would tend to go off and hide when they tired of the multitude of staring eyes, talk-talk-talking, and weird human smells. But after reopening, the animals are happy – dare we say eager? – to engage with their visiting people. They missed us! Not only has the visitor experience improved, but the animals’ level of happiness did, too. It all seems to say they need some healing and a mental health lift as much as we do. Thank you, zoos, aquariums, and sanctuaries – from all of us.

LOOK WHO’S BOLD AF

LIVE ENTERTAINMENT at your dining room table. The Gallo Center of Modesto, CA, is celebrating a sold-out performance: a 500 piece puzzle that keeps the Center in the center of things and is raising some serious coin. Old school fun saves the day again. Can we all steal this idea? On it.

READY. SET. REIMAGINE.

We’ve been hard at work strategizing the best way to raise money in these “wtf times.”  We have a ready-to-go plan for you. It’s not hard and it costs less than you think.

Our Fall Fundraising Package includes EVERYTHING! You’ll get coaching, strategy and deliverables to launch your next campaign.

Time is ticking and our schedule is almost full.  For a full list of deliverables click here and we’ll be in touch right away.

Show us how you’re staying positive and creative. Post your Insta photos with the hashtag #drmtmsilverlining and we’ll share the love.

Keep it DRMY ’til next week,

Surale + Laura + Cheryl
Research + Messaging + Design

If you don’t want different, you don’t want DRMTM.

thedrmtm.com

We’ve seen a lot of statements made lately. Most are saying the right thing and are long overdue. As we head into a nationwide presidential election, no doubt we will be heralded with more brilliance and blunders as we hash out what the heck we believe our nation should stand for. We’re so proud of the arts world for stepping up and starting to listen the right way. As arts organizations are reimagining how they will survive and thrive, they are taking responsibility to protect their local culture not only in how they curate community art, but by bringing diversity into their leadership.

Vanity Fair magazine (my mother lovingly calls it “high class smut”) makes a great statement on museum responsibility this month with their article What Should a Museum Look Like in 2020? This important read is in the September issue under a stunning cover portrait in tribute to Breonna Taylor by Amy Sherald, who painted Michelle Obama’s First Lady portrait in 2018.

LOOK WHO’S BOLD AF

SO MUCH TO GIVE. Opositivefestival.org (O+) got our attention this month as a superb example of empowering communities to take control of their collective wellbeing through the exchange of Art & Music for Healthcare. Seriously, brilliant. This amazing nonprofit has grown to serve multiple cities and is taking on COVID in big ways. Check them out. You will clap and maybe even cry a little.    

READY. SET. REIMAGINE.

We’ve been hard at work strategizing the best way to raise money in these “unusual times.”  We have a ready-to-go plan for you. It’s not hard and it costs less than you think.

DRMTM suggests you take these 3 Critical Steps before launching your fall campaign, event, or end of year appeal:

1. Reach Out to Donors the Right Way
2. Engage Donors through Research
3. Make your Ask Based on Donor-Defined Data

Our Fall Fundraising Package includes EVERYTHING! You’ll get coaching, strategy and deliverables to launch your next campaign.

There’s no time to lose.  For a full list of deliverables click here and we’ll be in touch right away.

Show us how you’re staying positive and creative. Post your Insta photos with the hashtag #drmtmsilverlining and we’ll share the love.

Keep it DRMY ’til next week,

Surale + Laura + Cheryl
Research + Messaging + Design

If you don’t want different, you don’t want DRMTM.

thedrmtm.com