New phone application devoted to calendaring Ashland events
By Art Van Kraft for Ashland.news
A group of dedicated entrepreneurs have launched a “new and better” way for people to find out what’s going on in Ashland. They said at the official launch of the Storytown app Wednesday, Nov. 19, at the White Rabbit Clubhouse just off the Ashland Plaza that it’s something that has been sorely needed: something to provide access to cultural events and, in turn, create an economic boost to the town.
Ashland resident and award-wining film director Matt Hoffman is a co-founder of “Storytown App,” a calendar of events app that allows everyone in Ashland to find out “what’s going on and where.”
“It’s a way to connect the community around our amazing events here that we miss a lot of times. It’s free to anyone or any organization,” Hoffman said.
“When I moved back home to Ashland after living in Los Angeles for 23 years, I saw that Ashland, at the end of Covid, kind of lost its groove a little bit,” Hoffman said.
“Knowing what I know growing up here, I knew the potential was untapped. I wanted to bring more of the experiences to Ashland to complement the Shakespeare Festival and other great venues here. I wanted to advertise Ashland as a unique storytelling place,” Hoffman said.
“In a way, it’s a return to the Chautauqua, something buried deep into Ashland’s history,” he said.
“Around the turn of the century the Chautauqua movement gained prominence in the United States as a form of entertainment across the country and Ashland was a very well known Chautauqua town. It’s what the Shakespeare Festival was born out of,” Hoffman added.
Storytown Board Chairman Jim Fredericks has a long history of community leadership, including Britt Festivals, the Ashland Film Festival and the Camelot Theatre Board. Fredricks started the groundwork with nonprofit status. He was joined by Hoffman and Matt Haines, who founded the PBS series Immense Possibilities. The trio of experts also enlisted the expertise of A.I. entrepreneur Thor Muller, who operates the White Rabbit Clubhouse on Ashland Plaza.
Get the app
To download the Storytown calendar app for Ashland, click here
“We started planning out a series of events. We ran into Thor and he gave us a great intersection of technology and storytelling,” Fredericks said.
“There are events to come, so stay tuned. The first few years are to get feedback from the community and build technology that continues to evolve,” Fredricks added.
Muller said he was ready to add his expertise, he had started building the AI lab two years ago.
“We’re entrepreneurs, we want to make Storytown Ashland an amazing experience for locals and out-of-town guests. It will be unified and coherent, everything in one place. It’s complete and accurate because we are all going to make sure it’s accurate. It’s designed for a collective effort,” Muller said.
“We’re inviting all kind of venues to use our app. Events happen at venues, any restaurant or retail shop on a First Friday becomes a venue, so it’s import for us to communicate about their events. Also, artists who want to promote what they are doing around town,” Muller added.
Art Van Kraft is an artist living in Ashland and a former broadcast journalist and news director of a Los Angeles-area National Public Radio affiliate. Email him at [email protected].
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