Silver Anvil Highlights: Nasher Xchange Citywide Exhibition. 10 Years. 10 Artists. 10 Sites in Dallas
PRSATo celebrate its 10th anniversary, the Nasher Sculpture Center undertook nothing less than the first citywide art exhibition ever organized by a museum in the United States. The four-month-long free exhibition featured 10 newly commissioned works by 10 local, national and international artists displayed at 10 diverse sites around the city. Media was key to accomplishing the goals of showcasing the museum and the exhibition, and celebrating the 10th anniversary with as wide a community as possible. The team used conventional and unconventional marketing strategies, with the help of agency Moroch Partners, working pro bono. 
First, they secured two media partners: Texas Monthly (print and digital) and Univision Channel 23 (Spanish) to magnify their reach. Then they got busy with some unconventional tactics. They used spotlights, street teams, a mobile pop-up shipping container and an interactive iPhone app. They posted hundreds of “found” flyers throughout the city and on Craigslist. They placed 5,000 coasters in restaurants in art site neighborhoods. They made a shopping center the venue for a creative and impactful large-scale art photography display. The media relations plan launched with a local press conference to announce the exhibition, followed by a national press conference in New York telling the Nasher story of making art accessible to all. A Summer Countdown Reveal of each of the artworks and locations engaged communities and built excitement. Finally, the Opening Day Activation of each site featured neighborhood-centric media events, an opening day bus tour with local/national media and a broadcast media gift with clues leading to each work. Visitors sampled in person and via social media delivered 95% positive testimonials. The mix of donated and paid media resulted in 11.4 million impressions locally and regionally. Nasher Xchange was recognized as the #1 Art Event in 2013 by The Dallas Morning News. Cover and feature stories acknowledged this unprecedented initiative, emphasized the Nasher’s role in sculpture, provided discourse on the practice of public sculpture and celebrated the Nasher’s 10th anniversary. The Nasher social media street team succeeded in reaching more than 125,000 Facebook and Twitter users on opening day and gained 7,000 new Facebook fans, a 45% increase, during the campaign. Twitter followers grew by 41% and Instagram followers by 50%. And users engaged with the iPhone app 10,643 sessions and the website received 144,376 unique page visitors. At the end of a busy year, this integrated campaign succeeded in inspiring dialogues on public sculpture, introducing new audiences to artwork and increasing visibility of the Nasher Sculpture Center on a local, regional and national level. For more information, click here: https://bit.ly/2018anvils
