Proctors Collaborative announced today that it is extending its community media outreach with the launch of Collaborative Studios.

An integral component of Proctors Collaboratives’ media portfolio, “Collaborative Studio is dedicated to exploring, amplifying and empowering creative arts in New York’s Capital Region through the development and distribution of localized telecast, videocast and live-stream content,” according to Philip Morris, CEO. 

Collaborative Studios will augment Proctors Collaborative’s existing Open Stage Media public access operations, which has broadcast in Schenectady since December 2010, and in Albany since late 2019.

Collaborative Studios is available several ways:

  • Through apps on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Roku. These can be downloaded free by searching for Collaborative Studios on those devices. 
  • Open Stage Media is also rebranding its Arts and Education channel to Collaborative Studios in Albany and Schenectady (Spectrum channel 1302 and Verizon Fios channel 37).
  • Content will also be available soon through Collaborative Media’s YouTube app.
  • And Collaborative Studios will broadcast live occasionally on Facebook Watch.

Collaborative Studios has reached out to regional arts organizations and artists to share content and a number are participating at launch including The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College and The Hyde Collection. Other content includes a local music version of the popular Rochmon Record Live music shows at Universal Preservation Hall and a new set of videos from local artists who recorded performances from Bob Dylan’s “Blood on the Tracks” album. Programming updates will be regularly announced on Collaborative Media’s social media and email newsletter.  

The studio is also broadcasting and live streaming the kickoff to the Capital Region Antiracism Training Initiative on Monday, July 27. New York Times bestselling author Ibram X. Kendi, Ph.D., will discuss the ideas presented in his book “How to Be an Antiracist” in a virtual presentation at 5:30 p.m. with Denise Murphy McGraw, president of the Junior League of Schenectady & Saratoga Counties and Hayward Horton, PhD, associate professor of Sociology at SUNY Albany. The event will be available immediately following the event for five days on-demand.

Morris said Collaborative Studio “embodies the word collaborative in Proctors Collaborative by soliciting and sharing works created by local artists and other arts organizations through Collaborative Studios’ outlets.”

“We know of several other organizations and individuals who will be supplying us content,” said Zebulon Schmidt, Open Stage Media director. “And we encourage others to talk to our programming team about possible collaborations.”

The organization has also utilized its MainStage to create a large, “safe” studio with social distancing protocols from which many of its own productions are being created during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Open Stage Media will continue to broadcast its public access (1301 on Spectrum and channel 36 on Fios) and government (1303 on Spectrum and channel 38 on FiOS) channels. 

Collaborative Studios is an affiliate of Collaborative Media, which published The Collaborative regional arts magazine from February 2019 through April 2020 before going on hiatus due to pandemic. The magazine was named “Magazine of the Year” in the Capital Region MARCOM Awards before the publication reached its first anniversary; it was one of 10 finalists. The organization is currently examining when and how to bring the magazine back. “It was tremendously well received by artists, arts patrons and the community at large,” Morris said.