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

WTF is up with 2020, we still can’t say. Summer is officially here, and the weirds just keep happening. If #thevirusthatshallnotbenamed and murder hornets weren’t enough for you, a gajillion cicadas are about to come up out the ground after a 17-year hiatus to scream at us and turn around and go back home. Where were we 17 years ago? SUMMER of 2003, HEY YA! Shakin’ it Like a Polaroid Picture, Crazy in Love and In da Club. Great way to live.

You’re welcome for the memory. We’re going back underground now. It was fun then.

LOOK WHO’S BOLD AF
We all have places that live deep inside us, make us feel connected, bring out our pride. For Dora Garcia, Miami is one such place. Check out her brilliant idea to join citizens in creating their personal love letters to The Magic City.

#virusthatshallnotbenamed COERCED QUESTION-OF-THE-WEEK

Question: How much are you missing sports? Click here to answer.

ALL THE FEELZ
Just call them the Lost-Out Generation. The Class of 2020 really got the short end of the stick during this pandemic. We have one glorious and shining word to give you. PROM. Sheesh. But this generation is proving to be our next “greatest” with their resiliency and creativity. No time for party-pooper woes with these kids. See how a high school in Pennsylvania made a  mobile prom “hands down the best prom ever. “

WHAT CAN WE DO FOR YOU?
We get it. It’s a weird time for life and work. But eventually, we’re going to get back into a routine with new ways of living and fresh, positive insight. Will you be ready to share your gifts with your communities? DRMTM stands ready to help you evaluate, create (or re-create) and communicate who you are and what you stand for. Contact any of us through our emails below, and schedule a call to discuss what that could look like for your success. Forward!

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

So Monday was International Museum Day. Museums across the world, open and closed, offered up some special delights for their visitors both on site and in the uni-virtual-verse. Thanks, gang! It got us to thinking that there is a museum out there dedicated to just about anything – so we looked up a few that came to mind. Broken hearts? Check. Rubber Chickens? Uh huh. Lost Socks? Yep.

So if you didn’t get a chance to tour a new exhibit last Monday, don’t worry. Just start your own. I’m off to make a museum of old nail polish.

LOOK WHO’S BOLD AF
Because OMG. Of course creative types are CRUSHING the whole mask thing. Wear a plain, white, boring piece of trash across their face? As if. Check out this Covid-Induced brilliance.

#virusthatshallnotbenamed COERCED QUESTION-OF-THE-WEEK

Question: Where’s the first place you want to go when it’s safe to be around others? Click here to answer.

ALL THE FEELZ
Wash your damn hands. We’ve learned this is imperative to keep ourselves and others safe. But what if you’re homeless and don’t have access to soap, water, or a place to wash? Enter LoveSinksIn. This incredible project from Love Without Walls sets up portable sinks for our most vulnerable people in the highest traffic homeless areas across the good ‘ol U. S. of A. (Home of Unbelieveably Selfless Angels.) ‘Cause everyone deserves to stay healthy, amiright?

WHAT CAN WE DO FOR YOU?
We get it. It’s a weird time for life and work. But eventually, we’re going to get back into a routine with new ways of living and fresh, positive insight. Will you be ready to share your gifts with your communities? DRMTM stands ready to help you evaluate, create (or re-create) and communicate who you are and what you stand for. Contact any of us through our emails below, and schedule a call to discuss what that could look like for your success. Forward!

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

It was a MOTHER’S DAY MIRACLE. Still snuggled in bed with coffee in one hand and a mimosa in the other (thanks, kids!), it was time for church CBS Sunday Morning-style. Half-way through came joyous weeping into my mama-morning-cocktail as a story took us into zoos across the land. They pointed out that just because people can’t visit, the animals aren’t eating less, dammit. FINALLY a nod to the extra needs and efforts of our critical cultural sector during the time of #virusthatshallnotbenamed. Like, wake up and send some cash and meat + bananas. Now, Nancy P. — send that billion dollars to the IMLS ‘cause Mufasa is gettin’ hangry.

LOOK WHO’S BOLD AF
For real we’ve been seeing ALL THE BEST people have to give right now. But not for a second will America tolerate the nasty BS some folks are flinging about. We’ll never be OK with discrimination. NEVER. Check out how these Bold AF artists decided enough is enough and formed StopDiscriminAsian.

#virusthatshallnotbenamed COERCED QUESTION-OF-THE-WEEK

Answers to last week’s questions:

In a VERY strange turn of events, the majority of respondents have . . . . drumroll please . . . . .LOST WEIGHT? It’s a #virusthatshallnotbenamed anxiety-induced-sensation and we’ll take it.

Question: Remember going to the MOVIES? What’s your current cinematic experience? Click here to answer.

ALL THE FEELZ
If this adorable doggie doesn’t make you reach for your last square of toilet paper to wipe away the laughing tears, then we may have to officially break up. We at DRMTM basically live for the next installment of this little dude Pluto on Instagram, and because he’s Canadian, we’re gonna go eat some fries and gravy in his name now.

WHAT CAN WE DO FOR YOU?
We get it. It’s a weird time for life and work. But eventually, we’re going to get back into a routine with new ways of living and fresh, positive insight. Will you be ready to share your gifts with your communities? DRMTM stands ready to help you evaluate, create (or re-create) and communicate who you are and what you stand for. Contact any of us through our emails below, and schedule a call to discuss what that could look like for your success. Forward!

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