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#Window
Galleries & 95 Gloucester Green
Background
The #WindowGalleries and 95 Gloucester Green are two temporary spaces that have been acquired by community charity Fusion Arts as part of the Meanwhile in Oxfordshire project. Meanwhile in Oxfordshire is a first-of-its-kind initiative supported by Oxford City Council and launched by Makespace Oxford in collaboration with six local partners to support Oxfordshire's communities in the wake of COVID-19, bringing 50 vacant spaces back into use across the county. Its mission is to regenerate highstreets, boost the local economy and create spaces for people to connect and experience culture.
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The #WindowGalleries space is series of window boxes along Friars Entry in central Oxford. The units have been renewed by Fusion Arts in partnership with The Randolph Hotel by Graduate Hotels, who own the windows. It is an exciting and innovative initiative that hosts exhibitions by local artists, designers, makers, and community groups.
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Likewise, 95 Gloucester Green is a pop-up creative space in Gloucester Green, central Oxford run by Fusion Arts in collaboration with landlord New River REIT. A variety of creative events, screenings, performances, markets, exhibitions and workshops are run in the space, showcasing work from local, national and internationally-renowned creatives. The aim of both spaces is to connect and support Oxford's communities by rejuvenating these high foot traffic
Developing a brand identity and voice for innovative meanwhile-use spaces
areas, creating a lively, accessible spaces for the public to engage with inspiring art.
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During my time at Fusion Arts, the units were just beginning to pick up steam and I was at the forefront of shaping the communications and marketing of these venues and the exhibitions and events that they hosted.
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Brief
"These pioneering new spaces have the potential to make a big impact on Oxford's cultural offering. Help us realise this by optimising the brand positioning of the units and use branding and publicity to increase their visibility."
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Process
I was brought onto the project in July 2021 when, following a seven month hiatus due to lockdown restrictions, Fusion Arts was preparing to deliver its second exhibition in the #WindowGalleries. The exhibition was Nabawanuka Creations, a solo show by local artist Nadine Nabawanuka Williams, in collaboration with the African School. It featured a vibrant range of paintings, collages and writing that highlighted and celebrated pan-African heritage, diaspora and stories. My main role was to establish and develop effective an communications framework which could then be used for subsequent #WindowGalleries exhibitions.
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My first step was to decide the brand positioning and branding of the windows. After speaking to the Fusion's Artistic Director, we determined that the unique selling proposition (USP) was the galleries' accessibility. This was the case on multiple dimensions - the galleries are located in a very central, public, non-university location, next to a wide, flat pavement. To access the work, all viewers need to do is simply walk past the windows - there is no gallery space to enter - a step that can be off-putting or intimidating to some would-be visitors. It was also planned for the windows to showcase a varied roster of informative, social justice-orientated work by local artists, giving emerging or lesser-known creatives a platform that may not be typically available to them. In all of these ways, the #WindowGalleries are a first-of-their kind project, and, as of 2022, are still one of the most accessible art spaces in Oxfordshire.
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The #WindowGalleries are located along the busy Friars Entry walkway
With this in mind, we worked together on a boilerplate description of the galleries emphasising this accessible, community minded focus. This copy could then be used in subsequent #WindowGalleries communications, including social media posts, its Google Business profile, the newsletter, websites, press releases and when pitching to potential exhibitors.
"The #WindowGalleries connect and support Oxford’s communities, creating a lively space for the public to experience inspiring work by local artists. Rejuvenating the area in this manner helps bring vibrancy and intrigue to the otherwise empty windows that so many people pass by each day."
- Extract from boilerplate
The second part was the physical branding of the windows. The organisations wanted credit and recognition for the project without taking away from the exhibition. We therefore agreed on the installation of some small stickers in the right hand corner of each window displaying both Fusion and Graduate Hotels' logos and website addresses. These stickers would be displayed permanently regardless of exhibition, allowing the spaces to have consistency and recognisability. Graphic design studio Bounce helped bring this idea to life, producing and installing the vinyls. The logos were carefully sized and positioned so that they would be visible in photos and visual communications without being centre stage.
Following this, two concomitant tasks were developing exhibition copy and writing a press release for the show. To produce these materials, I spoke to Nadine, asking her prompts about her work, the show, her inspirations and her background as an artist, making a note of her answers. From this, I was able to determine that the USP of her show was that it was a prominent exhibition that celebrates the heritage of Oxford’s African and African Caribbean communities, extending a platform to a group that is not typically mentioned in representations of Oxford’s history. The show also came a month after the recently established Windrush Day, and coexisting festival in Oxford, meaning that its subject was particularly relevant at the time.
Using its USP alongside information and quotes provided by Nadine, I was able to put together an engaging exhibition press release that presented the scope and themes of Nadine's work in relation to both the upcoming reopening of The Randolph Hotel, a historic hotel with imperialist connections, and to the recent surge in the BLM movement due to political events. The press release led to a feature by Oxford Mail, mentions from Independent Oxford and the Oxford Windrush Group, and interviews with Nadine on BBC Oxford and Get Radio.
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I also liaised with project partner Graduate Hotels to include correct promotional information about the Randolph Hotel's reopening following refurbishment as well as a boilerplate description of the hotel chain. In producing this press release, I now had a template including structure, logos, and boilerplates that could be adapted for subsequent exhibitions.
"Nabawanuka Creations combines elements of African and Western art, bridging the gap between art and craft. This exhibition is particularly pertinent following the surge of the Black Lives Matter movement last summer. At a time when it is socially and politically vital to recognise Black experiences, Nadine continues to use her creativity as a means through which to tell Black stories."
- Extract from press release
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Having written the press release, I was able to put together exhibition text that succinctly explained the premise of the show and included a quote from Nadine. I then worked with Bounce to turn this copy into vinyl stickers which they installed in the far left pane of each window. We went for a round, friendly sans-serif typeface similar to that used in the web address stickers. We also created and installed image captions for each piece of work to add a sense of legitimacy to the pop-up show. Lastly, Bounce installed a QR code in each window, that if scanned, would take users through to the exhibition press release.
Left: Bounce peel off the window vinyl; right: the finished window
Writing the press release and determining the exhibition's USP gave me text that I could use to broadly promote the show. The exhibition was shared on Fusion's social media, as a Facebook event, on local event listing sites, Fusion's website as an event and article and the organisation's newsletter. This publicity formula, including asking the exhibiting artist or group for their show's USP, would be replicated for subsequent exhibitions with great success.
L-R: #WindowGalleries events listings on Fusion's website; #WindowGalleries exhibition feature in Independent Oxford; #WindowGalleries tweets from Experience Oxfordshire; #WindowGalleries feature in newsletter; exhibition article on Fusion's website
My interview with Nadine gave me lots of quotes and material, that, paired with snazzy photos and videos, allowed me to continue sharing and publicising her exhibition on socials throughout its several week run.
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Another component of #WindowGalleries publicity that I developed was the #WindowGalleriesWednesday hashtag, a hashtag Fusion often used to share work from an ongoing or newly launched exhibition. This was a useful promotional tool when there were multiple exhibitions running concurrently or back to back, as it introduced the windows as an ongoing feature of interest with frequently changing exhibits.
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After several exhibitions, I was able to see what worked and what did not. I wrote a proforma for subsequent communications and exhibitions staff, sharing what to do and when. This included timeframes for things like producing and releasing press releases, gathering information from artists and sending this to Bounce, sharing promotional material with the Graduate Hotels team, and sharing exhibition announcements on social media and events sites. It also included guidance on how to support exhibiting artists with flyers and determining the exhibition USP if necessary, how to write a press release, who to share it with and how to share it compellingly, how to get radio interviews, how to shout out and tag involved artists / organisations, and when and where to share the galleries boilerplate. Considerations for installing and positioning temporary stickers of other affiliated exhibition partners was also included. The purpose of this was to systematise what could otherwise be a convoluted and overwhelming process, allowing it to be easily replicated going forward.
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This proforma was also useful for launching 95 Gloucester Green a few months later in September 2021. As this space, which was regenerated as a part of Meanwhile in Oxfordshire, was a walk-in unit, it had the potential to host a more varied roster of events, such as performances, screenings and installations. I again worked with Fusion's Artistic Director to formulate a boilerplate description and a press release template for the exhibitions running in the space. 95 Gloucester Green's USP is that it is a central, accessible multi-purpose creative space showcasing both local and non-local exhibitions and events, including work by internationally acclaimed artists and organisations. As well as its varied offerings, 95 Gloucester Green also functions as a city centre touchpoint for the public to access Fusion Arts. It can also be rented out for pop-up events at affordable rates, making it an accessible option for local groups, businesses and organisations.
"95 Gloucester Green is a multi-purpose temporary-use arts space. Opening in October 2021, the gallery has hosted a range of inspiring, socially engaged exhibitions and events in partnership with both local and international artists."
- Extract from boilerplate
I also once again worked with Bounce to develop a signature logo and brand identity for the space, which both linked it to Fusion Arts but differentiated it from the nearby #WindowGalleries. More information on this here.
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Understanding the spaces' different offerings / USPs was also helpful for writing venue hire copy for Fusion's website and a callout for artists to put on events and exhibitions in the spaces.
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In addition, I was able to combine the spaces' varying attributes and brand identities with photography from events and shows held in each space to create two separate distinctive Google Business profiles.
Results
I established, shaped and refined a framework of publicity for events and exhibitions in the spaces that is still in use today, almost a year and a half later, with more than 20 shows having been displayed in the #WindowGalleries, and 19 arts events having taken place in 95 Gloucester Green.
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The spaces have gone from strength to strength, having hosted a diverse range of events, from workshops to art sales, private views and film screenings over the past two years. Exhibitions and event themes have included sustainable craft, the black female experience, practices of the Ainu people and globally pioneering human cell research. These have been presented by a range of local, national and internationally renowned artists and individuals, turning dormant spaces into enriching arts hubs for the community. The popularity of the units has been thanks in part to their consistent publicity and a well-received callout that I circulated (which had an engagement rate of 17%), opening up the potential for a range of people to use the spaces.
Thanks to the publicity framework, events and exhibitions in the spaces have garnered numerous articles, features and mentions by outlets and organisations including Oxford Mail, Daily Info, Independent Oxford, Experience Oxfordshire, BBC Oxford, BBC South Today, BBC Buckinghamshire, Makespace Oxford, Oxford City Council, Green Arts Oxfordshire Network, GLAM, Oxford Windrush Group and TORCH.
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An average of 450 people walk along Friars Entry and past the windows each day, seeing the distinctive Fusion and Graduate hotels branding alongside the current exhibition. Online and in person, the shows have garnered a lot of positive feedback, with posts about Nadine's exhibition achieving an average engagement rate of 9.2%. Spectators have left comments on social media and to various members of staff about how "engaging, welcoming and accessible" the shows feel, whilst complimenting the compelling, original and socially engaged subject matter.
