Publications

For over a decade NAMAC has published it’s anthology publication series A CLOSER LOOK. Under this series title, we offer reports, case studies and analyses of the changing landscape of the media arts.

From less explored histories to future trends, A CLOSER LOOK brings together a full view of significant themes and intersections among the arts, public media, activism, youth media, cultural/media policy, and new organizational models.

LEADING CREATIVELY: A CLOSER LOOK 2010
When we pay attention to the people who work in the arts – from individual artists building organizations to organizations supporting artists and their work – we discover that the commitment to leadership awareness, training, and sustenance is crucial for long-term sustainability and relevance in our complex and globalized cultural ecology. Since 1999, NAMAC has made intergenerational leadership development a keystone investment in its service to the field of arts and media.  As part of our A Closer Look anthology series, we invited seven authors to report, reflect on and interpret arts leadership as it is being practiced today. In its diversity and scope, this collection of essays reveals how dedicated, passionate and visionary nonprofit arts leaders can be as they negotiate mission, business, and values through a fast-moving and demanding terrain. Learn more, download a free PDF, or order a print copy. 109 pages/ $20.00.

Featured Publications

A CLOSER LOOK: Hidden Histories
Seven authors look back at some of the “hidden histories” of the media arts movement over the last thirty years: reevaluating the role of artists, collaborations, organizations and intentional media communities. 97 pages / $15.00

Continue reading, download chapters and more.

Deep Focus: The Future of Independent Media
Bold and imaginative, Deep Focus offers a rare preview of the likely new ecologies emerging for independent media. It offers an invitation to anyone working in media today to consider how they will adapt to the possibilities and demands that are defining this next great era for independent media. 64 pages / $15.00. 

Continue reading, download chapters, and more.

A CLOSER LOOK: Case Studies from NAMAC's Youth Media Initiative
Edited by well-known media education scholar Kathleen Tyner, this voiume showcasesthe work of a diverse range of rural and urban youth media programsacross the United States. The journal also features a study of 59 youthmedia organizations who responded to an on-line poll about theircapacity, missions, successes and challenges. 83 pages / $15.00.    

Continue reading, download chapters, and more.

Our Other Publications

A CLOSER LOOK: MEDIA ARTS 2002
This volumefeatures studies on: IFP-North and MARC's successful merger(Minneapolis, MN); Bay Area Video Coalition foray into "going global"(San Francisco, CA); Davis Community TV's innovative approach tooutreach, marketing, and public participation (Davis, CA); TheKitchen's struggles in preserving a rich video art archive (New York,NY); Scribe Video Center's Community Visions program and its success asa community development tool (Philadelphia, PA); Children's MediaProject and their youth mentorship program (Poughkeepsie, NY) and ananalysis of the worldwide Indymedia movement. 68 pages / $15.

A CLOSER LOOK: MEDIA ARTS 2001
Read about a unique capital campaign project in San Francisco; ahighly creative and enterprising digital arts department at RensselaerPolytechnic Institute in New York; the practice of "shared management"at Street Level Youth Media in Chicago; the ways MIX Film Festivalreinvents itself; "open media" models at Lowell Telecommunications inMassachusetts; how Global Action Project produces media with refugeeyouth in NYC; and what happens to a New Orleans media arts center whenit is faced with crisis. Vivid and great collective storytelling at its best about a field at the forefront of American culture. Ordering information below. 86 pages / $15. To pay by credit card: Order securely online. To pay by check, call 415-431-1391

A CLOSER LOOK: MEDIA ARTS 2000
Who finds the time to step back to articulate the leaps, bounds, andstumbles the field is making in its endeavor to keep the art andfiercely democratic voice of media making alive? This is one of ourjobs at NAMAC: to find those stories in which the visionary meets thepragmatic, and to chronicle the development and growth of this youngfield over time. These eight case studies illustratechallenges, successes, developments, and reinventions that otherprofessionals in the media arts can learn from or be inspired by:Downtown Community Television, International Center for 8mm Film,Educational Video Center, International Film Seminars, Los Angeles OpenStudios, Media Working Group, and Vietnamese Youth Development Center. Ordering information below. 78 pages / $15.

DIGITAL DIRECTIONS: CONVERGENCE PLANNING
This report looks at the media arts field as its representatives arein the process of constructing possible futures, futures that carrytheir aesthetic and political values, and their organizations, into theemerging global media culture. With support from the FordFoundation, NAMAC convened a "working groups" throughout the US. Eachgroup considered the effects of digital conversion on the field, andmade

mediaworld. This White Paper is the culmination of the summits in Austin,Boston, Benton Foundation Open Studio Program, Twin Cities, New York,San Francisco, and Seattle. Published October, 2000. Ordering information below. 100 pages / $16.