Art Fund
Together For Museums
The Challenge
Covid hit many industries hard and the UK’s culture scene took the brunt force. With many having to close over lockdown and let staff go, there was, and remains, great concern about the survival of many of the UK’s museums and galleries. Whilst lockdown restrictions were set to ease in May, enabling them to open their doors to the public again for the first time, there was still no guarantee as to their long term survival. So working with Art Fund, the national charity for art, we needed to encourage consumers to not just visit these much loved institutions, but to support them in the future too.
The Solution
We knew that May 17th would be a major milestone for broadcast, print and online media to talk about the reopening and what opportunities there now were for museums, galleries and consumers alike. So we used this to our advantage.
We conducted fresh consumer research to craft a story we could pitch to media to educate the public that the problem for the arts world was far from over.
It revealed that UK museums and galleries could be suffering from a cultural ‘long-Covid’ with many still facing an uncertain future – with the effects of the pandemic set to reverberate for years to come.
And by pitching out Art Fund’s Director, Jenny Waldman, for interviews with broadcast media we were able to expand our reach and communicate key messages to even more people.
Imperatively, we used the story to remind consumers that they can help museums and galleries up and down the country by purchasing a National Art Pass, which not only enables them to see more of the UK’s arts scene for less, but meant that these institutions can receive more support from Art Fund in the future, with the money from sales going straight back to funding museums and galleries.
