Arts Leaders Start a Movement With Miami Arts Brigade

Armed with a social media tool kit and ideas on how to make Give Miami Day 2014 — a unique 24-hour online giving event set for November 20 — even more successful than last year, Sonia Hendler of the Arts & Business Council of Miami and James Echols, co-founder of Life is Art, Inc. and creator of the Miami Arts Brigade name, led a meeting of cultural advocates and leaders in the Miami community at the Bakehouse Art Complex on Thursday, Sept. 18.

The initial concept behind the Miami Arts Brigade is to unite arts groups participating in Give Miami Day to disseminate a flood of social media messages beginning on Oct. 1 via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn and create awareness to those unfamiliar with the day-long fundraising effort.

At the meeting, attendees from History Miami, the Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science, Borscht Film Festival, Buskerfest, Coral Gables Museum, Bakehouse Art Complex and the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center, contributed their thoughts and ideas on how to make the social media campaigns a success.

Hendler and Echols provided everyone with handouts that included information on customizing the Miami Arts Brigade messages, a list of tips and tricks for being Twitter ready for the campaign and announcing upcoming Street Bash and All-Day Hack/Tweet-a-thon events.

“We are trying to bridge the gap between cultural and technology communities,” said Hendler. “We also want to show that cultural groups in Miami are supporting each other through shout outs on social media so the public knows all the places there are to donate on Give Miami Day.”