Artist Richard Briggs with Misheye Media
Public art can be an impactful presence in the public realm – a powerful tool for placemaking, cultural enrichment, and economic development. However, for public art to achieve its full potential and maximum positive public response, effective marketing and communications are vital. Promoting public art projects isn’t hard or complicated, but unfortunately it often not done very well, so here’s my guide to promoting public art projects.
Let’s start with the basics…
Credit where credit’s due. Public art is a team sport. It is not the achievement of a single artist or commissioning body. There are a number of key players involved and its basic professional courtesy to credit all involved. This includes
Client
Artist
Curator/commissioning lead
Curatorial advisory panel (where applicable)
Fabricator, the unsung heroes of the public art sphere
Installation team (if separate from fabricator)
Photographer/videographer
It is hard to imagine, but there have been projects where the comms team have failed to include the name of the artist as they considered them to be “a supplier”. While this level of basic fail is thankfully unusual, failing to credit the wider team shows a lack of professionalism.
Great photography and videography. While seeing the artwork in real life is important, a far greater number of people will experience the artwork via still or moving image. The first impression given by these still or moving images will directly impact whether the audience chooses to visit the artwork in person.
Rose Nolan commission at Hallam station by LXRP
Rose Nolan commission at Hallam station by Christian Capurro
They say a picture tells a thousand words and this point is best illustrated by example. Above we have two images taken of the same commission, the first was taken by a well-meaning, but untrained comms team member, the second image was taken by professional and highly experienced professional photographer Christian Capurro.
Context. Commissioners and the accompanying comms teams can sometimes get nervous about public art. How will the public respond to the artwork? How will the press respond to the artwork? There are cases where this discomfort has led to public artworks being completed and given no promotion or public communications, no context provided to explain who the artists is, what their artistic intention is, who the commissioner is or why they commissioned the artwork in the first place. While the hope, presumably, is that the artwork will quietly exist within its surroundings, the reality is more likely to be a poor public response caused by the vacuum of information and context.
Transparency is the best policy. Trying to hide or divert attention from any aspects of a public art project is not a good idea. For commissioners, if you are going to commission public artworks be loud and proud about the intentions and aspirations.
Understand your audiences – when developing a marketing campaign, identify and understand your target audience. This might include local residents or work force, visitors and tourists, local businesses, government officials and stakeholders and of course artists and the arts community.
Be proactive not reactive – plan your public art media campaign well in advance. Consider sharing information about the commissioning from the earliest stages. Work collaboratively with artists and curators to create messaging that clearly shares the commissioner and the artist’s intentions for the artworks.
Have clear objectives. Define the specific goals and key messages. These might include increasing public awareness of the project; generating excitement and anticipation; encouraging community participation; building partnerships with local organisations or businesses; increasing visitation and tourism and securing media coverage.
With this in mind be realistic about the potential for public artworks. I have seen projects where commissioners seem to have unrealistic expectations for what public art can achieve. For instance, a public artwork is not going to win round a community who are opposed to a wider infrastructure project or create positive distraction from other negative factors. These are unrealistic and unfair expectations to have of either artists or artworks.
Social media – social media platforms are powerful tools for reaching a wide, often global, audience - through which you can share a range of features throughout the commissioning process. Social media is also a great way to connect and interact with a local or specific community.
Public Relations – establishing and maintaining strong relationships with relevant media is essential for generating coverage of projects. It’s important to plan marketing well in advance and to be proactive not reactive. Develop a comprehensive media plan, including press releases, consider potential audiences, related platforms/media, key messaging, tones, pitch angles etc.
Community/audience engagement – public art as the name suggests is for the public - so engage with the public. Involving the community in the public art process is crucial for building ownership and support. Options include public workshops and consultations; opportunities for community input on art locations; artist talks or demonstrations and creative partnerships with local schools or community groups.
Engage and inform – it’s vital to have great signage which clearly attributes the commissioner, the artists, curator etc. Deeper and often more impactful knowledge and appreciation can be generated via educational materials including physical or online brochures, pamphlets, or other resources which can provide more in-depth information about the project.
Track and measure communications and marketing success. If you fail to do this there’s no hope of improving or building on successes. It’s not hard to track the performance of your marketing and communications by using key metrics including social media engagement, media coverage, website traffic, attendance at events, survey results and the general public’s response to commissions.
Respect. Finally, be respectful to the creatives involved in delivering these projects - always discuss any imagery and copy written about the project with the artist and curator/commissioning lead. These are the people who understand these projects the most, therefore they are the best placed people to ensure that the best, most appropriate information is shared with the wider public
By following these guidelines and adapting them to your project, you can effectively promote and engage the public with your public art initiative. Successful public art is not just about delivering great artworks it is also about informing and engaging the public with the artworks.
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