Adriana Alarcón studied Cultural Studies and Graphic Design at the York/Sheridan Joint Design program as part of her Bachelor of Fine Art degree. Adriana has worked with Artist Run organizations such as A Space, CARFAC Ontario, and Mayworks. At CARFAC Ontario, Adriana was responsible for managing e-announcements sent to members, press and other arts organizations. She edited the weekly e-newsletter sent to members with calls for artists and other opportunities. She also edited the quarterly newsletter DISPATCH; managed the organizations print publications; designed and distributed advertising materials. CARFAC Ontario's website, a hub for activities such as distribution of information and sales, was also under Adriana's oversight. Members and non-members could access a variety of resources. The implementation of PayPal and "Staying Alive!" - a two-year online project intended to distribute Health and Safety resources for visual artists were coordinated by Ms. Alarcón.
Adriana has many interests in various art practices such as writing, music, design and visual arts. Adriana has contributed to the production of a zine by the Latina Writing Group and a CD recording by Rainbow Voices of Toronto. She is committed to maintaining strong ties with Toronto's queer community and participates in community art projects such as Sherbourne Health Centre's Outside the Lines, and currently sings back-up for the punk-rock band Tomboyfriend.
Julianna Yau completed a Bachelor of Independent Studies from the University of Waterloo, and is an artist, advocate and tech enthusiast. Julianna is active in the arts community, running her own e-broadcast for the Waterloo Region and working with various arts organizations, such as CARFAC and SAVAC, to fulfil their communication needs.
From 2006 to 2009, she managed all aspects of Artifice, a weekly e-newsletter covering announcements, event and workshop listings and calls for artists pertaining to the visual & media arts in the Waterloo Region. The mailing list grew to a readership of over 150 with virtually no traditional advertising. To manage the growth of the readership, Julianna has moved the newsletter delivery system from manual emails to an automated email system residing on her own website, and then to a blog-based news feed using a free third-party service to deliver the emails. To support the growing demand for the service, Artifice was replaced with a full-service website in 2009: CultureBlast. This website hosts an arts calendar, calls for artists, job postings and more. The service is entirely free to submit and access content, and is a project of 2Picas.
Working with organizations like CARFAC Ontario and SAVAC, Julianna has leveraged her technical knowledge to present various options for managing high-volume email communications with a large readership. These options considered the cost for technical and administrative infrastructure and daily management, in addition to standard sector requirements such as audience targeting and measuring the effectiveness of mailings. She helped these organizations with the installation of software (phpList) on their existing websites so they could automate the sending of emails, rather than spending valuable staff time with deploying emails. She also provided the organization's staff with hands-on training on the software and helped them develop procedures to use the software effectively for their specific needs. Julianna has also served on the Board of Directors for CARFAC Ontario, charing the Communications Committee and developing administrative guidelines for staff to help manage the organization's email usage on a policy level.
2Picas was formed out of the collaborative experience of Pica A and Pica J at CARFAC Ontario. We repeatedly encountered artists and arts organizations who felt they could not afford to venture into new technology. Our understanding of artists' needs generated confidence and we guided them into the world of social networking, online-conferencing and e-marketing with ease. We saw an opportunity to help artists and bring professional design, web programming and e-market solutions to support their practise.
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