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

Right now we’re still not seeing an end in sight. In speaking to arts friends around the country we keep hearing that as we’re retreating indoors, we’re also looking inward. Perhaps one of the more positive effects of this time is the growing inner-reflection and spirituality we’re experiencing individually and as a community. We are appreciating that we are more than our buildings, our collections, our performances. We can exist beyond them and still dwell in their power at the same time.

It is our belief in the value and strength of human expression, history, creation, and connection to our natural world that endures. We long to see it, touch it, hear it, and share in it – but until that time returns, we abide in a sustaining, transcendent place that should not be forgotten when our buildings, gardens and theaters welcome us home.

LOOK WHO’S BOLD AF

Ohhhhh – Jazz. Melt or Chill, your choice. On March 20th, Creative Alliance (MD) launched their Sidewalk Serenades series. This program is reaching audiences around the city who are shut in at home while maintaining distance and safety measures. Musicians featured include jazz bass clarinetist Todd Marcus and jazz trumpeter Brandon Woody’s Quartet. Says Performance Director Josh Kohn, “This program has put nearly $40,000 back into the hands of Baltimore musicians.” (Thank you Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation)

READY. SET. REIMAGINE.

A transcendent art experience is directly related to the strength of your mission’s brand and culture. Not feelin’ it? We’ve got you.

Not sure how to go about your fall fundraising campaign? We’ve got you there, too.

You can reach out to us through email by clicking on our names.

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

These past weeks we hit pause and took some time. Like many of you, DRMTM stopped to reflect on the changes life is showing us and how to keep moving forward in active, radical love. We are convinced THIS IS IT. No going back, world. The old ways don’t get it on so many levels. Goodbye and Good Riddance.

It’s time to get on with it, so The Silver Lining is switching from keeping spirits up during quarantine to rallying around each other to bring desperately-needed arts + culture back to our communities. We’ll be dropping this letter on the last Wednesday of the month.

LOOK WHO’S BOLD AF

Honest, healing art and history. Two antebellum plantation descendants came together to honor their shared heritage and the unspoken voices of the enslaved African Americans who were the heart of the home for generations in Migratuse Ataraxia at Klein Plantation. Witness how Alabama’s Wideman Davis Dance Company brings audiences right into the true human emotion and story of their performance.

WHAT NOW? BEING THE HUMAN IN HUMANITIES

We think it’s the end of June, but who really knows. But we do see signs that people are trying to get back to real work, whether that means staggered schedules in offices, social distancing in community spaces, or whatever brilliant ideas creatives are coming up with. Just remember: you don’t need to do everything all at once. Things are not “back to normal” and SHOULD NEVER go “back to normal.” This is a good thing.

We’re learning some valuable lessons and refocusing priorities. So ease back in and let your people know the lights are on, the coffee is brewing and damn it, the sun is going to shine on a better day. Keep it real and human when communicating and simply stay in front of your community with a smile and say “hey, we’re here for you.”

Need help doing this? DRMTM stands ready to talk about whatever will help you get back to doing what you love, which is bringing arts + culture to the people. You can reach out to us by email by clicking on our names.

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

If you’re looking for the silver lining this week, it’s glowing a beautiful, bold shade of blended skin tones. We are moved and humbled by the unified voices for justice and human rights in the wake of the horrific murder of George Floyd.

We are also proud of the place the arts hold in paying tribute to the life of our lost brother and the countless Black victims and hundreds of years of oppression his death represents. Demonstration murals are becoming places of public gathering, solidarity, memorials, and maybe even some healing.

On the famous Graffiti Bridge in Pensacola, Florida, artwork typically lasts less than eight hours before being painted over by the next spray can-wielding expressionist. Recently an extraordinary image of George Floyd was painted on Graffiti Bridge, but shortly afterward was defamed with splashes of ugly brown paint that was intentionally racist. The artist repainted, and the mural has since been protected around the clock from vandals by the city’s people and has hosted peaceful demonstrations and candlelight vigils nightly.

No doubt this scene will soon dissipate as the bridge’s tradition of ever-changing illustrations returns. But for a brief moment there was a pause. Not because the art itself was more valuable than the life it represented, but it did what art is supposed to do: lay bare the human condition in all its forms.

Black America hears us when we all stand up and speak out for them. Help us listen, learn, and push your voice to the top. Stay strong, stay safe, stay well and spread love, DREAMERS.

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