Three years ago, then-Assistant-Webmaster Amy Martin suggested that we expand our web presence to Tumblr, where she hosts her Caravaggista blog. We had no idea what kind of response to expect but felt that a blog was a good fit for the Italian Art Society’s missionto promote “the study of the architecture and visual arts of Italy, from prehistory to the present day.” Though I had been serving as IAS Webmaster for over a year, I was a novice to the blogosphere, and I am grateful to Amy for teaching me how to Tumbl.
Like the Getty, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Oxford University Press, and numerous other arts institutions and publishers, IAS chose Tumblr as its blog platform because of its dynamic and easy method for connecting with a global audience, allowing us to offer readers short posts on Italian artists and art history as well as current exhibitions, publications, and news on Italian visual culture.
Three years and over 2,100 posts later, IASblog has been an unqualified success, and it has been my privilege and pleasure to serve as IASblog editor and blogger for three years. I would have quickly given up without the support and encouragement from our fantastic readers through their likes, reblogs, questions, and suggestions. From modest beginnings, IASblog is now closing in on 9,000 followers, with many more readers who find us via Facebook, Twitter, or as casual visitors to our main blog page. IASblog’s growth and success is owed in large part to my fantastic team, who joined me a year ago, greatly expanding the depth and breadth of our posts, writing with authority and enthusiasm about the Italian art and architecture from prehistory to the present.
As of 1 July 2016, I will be a past blogger and past editor. I am a firm believer in rotation of service for the health of any organization, and it is time to pass the torch. Blogger Alexis Culotta will take over as editor and continue to write new posts as will Costanza Beltrami and Martina Bollini in their continuing roles as staff writers. Adriana Baranello and Martina Tanga will join me in “retirement.” I am grateful to all of these women for their service to IASblog. I will miss our collaboration but look forward to seeing reposts of our work. I also look forward to the new content created our continuing bloggers as well as new staffers who officially join the IASblog team on 2 July 2016, our third anniversary.
At the time of writing, 21,528 individual users had visited IASblog, viewing 71,319 pages. The majority of our viewers are American (38%), followed by Italians (12%), Brits (6%), French (4%), Canadians (3%), Germans (3%), Russians (2%), Spaniards (2%), Brazilians (2%), and Australians (2%). IASblog has reached 138 countries on six continents, with readers logging in from austria to Zimbabwe; Angola, Bulgaria, and China to Thailand, Uruguay, and Vietnam. I sign off with a heartfelt grazie ai tutti. Alla prossima…