CommonTime Uses Arts Education to Break Down Barriers Thanks to the Vonage Video API

Through CommonTime’s platform, individual learners have the ability to book art lessons and events in music, dance, theatre, and visual arts, while teaching artists and arts organizations can host live interactive video lessons and get paid for their expertise. CommonTime partners with arts organizations to support underserved communities, expand the scope of outreach beyond local or national audiences and connect different cultures in a virtual space. All are welcome to learn, enjoy, or teach the arts from anywhere in the world on CommonTime.

“At CommonTime our goal is to engage and educate through dance, theater, music, and visual arts. Often, educators lack the means to bring artists and arts experiences into their classrooms and at the same time artists struggle to find consistent work, with many unemployed or underpaid - we seek to connect educators, students, and artists through one secure platform,” said Christine Matovich, Founder, CommonTime. “The joy of technology is that it enables borderless interactions and experiences. By integrating the Vonage Video API directly into the CommonTime platform, we have grown from an arts and art education community into a global arts ecosystem.” 

Collaboration and Connection 

The Vonage Communications Platform provides global performance and scale for video, voice, SMS and social messaging communications channels. Because the Video API was built using WebRTC standards, video sessions are easily accessible over the Internet across web browsers, mobile devices and desktops, including simple web links with no downloads or plugins - meaning that CommonTime users don’t need to waste any time before they start making beautiful music together. 

“When we began building the CommonTime platform, we chose Vonage partly because of the ease of building it into our platform,” recalled Jaskaran Rana, Development and Technology Lead, CommonTime. “The amount of documentation and examples available to our developers sped up the implementation process for us, so within a week or two of seeking out Vonage we already had a chat service built in to have internal meetings and discussions. Our team is located all around the world, so we had our brainstorming and collaboration sessions on the application - powered by the Vonage Video API we were able to literally design and build CommonTime using CommonTime.” 

Working in Perfect Harmony

Because CommonTime was built by artists and arts educators, for artists and learners, the platform has been designed to provide an intuitive, aesthetic experience that meets the specific needs of its users. To accomplish this, the team needed more than a generic, off-the-shelf video conferencing solution. They needed the flexibility of the Vonage Video API.  

“As an arts educator there are a few features that make the CommonTime platform really uniquely designed to meet our needs,” explained Michael Skillern, Co-Founder and Education Outreach Coordinator, CommonTime. “From being able to share specific windows or tabs instead of the full screen to enabling a smartboard function and most importantly, sharing quality audio. I’m a music teacher - good audio is paramount. The Vonage Video API provides clear audio and video quality, which enhances the experience on both sides.” 

Building a Global Arts Community

CommonTime welcomes artists across all languages, art mediums and styles and seeks to democratize access to arts education through technology and engagement. The platform connects different cultures in a virtual space, allowing students across the world - from Kenya and Pakistan to Uganda and the UK - to engage with one another in meaningful arts experiences. The scalable, reliable Vonage Video API enables the CommonTime team to build a global arts community - and the growth continues. The CommonTime app is in beta testing now and will expand the accessibility of CommonTime even further, across multiple devices. 

“Because we’re facilitating connections through art, we wanted to create a virtual experience that feels as close as possible to in-person interaction,” noted Matovich. “We’re proud that with CommonTime, users really feel like they are there interacting directly with the teaching artist, no matter where they are in the world. Since our inception, we have nurtured a growing community of 110+ registered artists, 78 educators, and 12 partnered arts organizations across six continents. The power of the Vonage Video API has allowed us to support 1,700+ visitors and 6,700 virtual engagements across 108 countries in a single month - and we’re just getting started.” 

To learn more about Common time, visit https://commontime.online.

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