I am passionate about how technology can be used to spread information about the visual arts and design. I am also fascinated by the intersection between complex (analogue) project management and (digital) communications strategies. My one-year contract with the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York allowed me to deepen my experience with curatorial projects, exhibit design, website development, and digital research.
Dr. Lowery Stokes Sims (MAD's Chief Curator at the time), hired me on a one-year contract as her Curatorial Assistant and Digital Strategist. My responsibilities included:
- launching the exhibit New Territories: Laboratories of Design, Art and Craft in Latin America;
- overseeing the production of the exhibition catalogue;
- designing the exhibit's digital presence (which would travel with the exhibit to subsequent museums); and
- creating a test-case digital strategy for MAD connected with the exhibit.
From January 2014 - 2015, I lead and implemented a test-case digital strategy for MAD connected to New Territories that included social media activity, a strategic partnership with Artsy, and an independent website for the exhibition that could be easily updated by subsequent host institutions. This project drew on a range of skills (from legal to complex digital project management) but would not have been possible without Luiza Brenner (my incredible assistant), LeftLoft (who created the exhibit's brand identity) and Perry Garvin (our wizard web designer).
I. PROCESS
This is an overview of some of the tasks I coordinated/led connected to the NT digital strategy:
Legal
- Redrafted the museum's Incoming Loan Agreement to ensure compliance with current best practices related to image rights and social media
- Redrafted museum's Image Rights Release Form to ensure broad rights for use of images on social media and in the "travelling website"
Fundraising
- Created and presented fundraising pitch to Philips auction house. The exhibit website was partly funded by Philips
- Coordinated follow-up to ensure funding of the exhibit's dedicated website
Branding
- Participated in exhibition branding meetings with LeftLoft
- Oversaw application of exhibition branding to all social media platforms
Information Management
- Oversaw capture of artist/designer information (e.g social media monikers, YouTube/Vimeo videos, and images)
- Personally populated the exhibition website's multiple pages
Internal Diplomacy
- Collaborated with the museum's press and social media representatives
Legal
- Redrafted the museum's Incoming Loan Agreement to ensure compliance with current best practices related to image rights and social media
- Redrafted museum's Image Rights Release Form to ensure broad rights for use of images on social media and in the "travelling website"
Fundraising
- Created and presented fundraising pitch to Philips auction house. The exhibit website was partly funded by Philips
- Coordinated follow-up to ensure funding of the exhibit's dedicated website
Branding
- Participated in exhibition branding meetings with LeftLoft
- Oversaw application of exhibition branding to all social media platforms
Information Management
- Oversaw capture of artist/designer information (e.g social media monikers, YouTube/Vimeo videos, and images)
- Personally populated the exhibition website's multiple pages
Internal Diplomacy
- Collaborated with the museum's press and social media representatives
- Worked with registrar team to initiate use of new forms drafted
- Regularly explained the test-case strategy's objectives/framework to museum staff
Recruiting & Supervising
- Identified, interviewed and hired a website programmer (Perry Garvin)
- Provided the design direction and edited multiple iterations of the website
- Identified, interviewed and hired a graduate of General Assembly's Digital Marketing course (Luiza Brenner) to work for 3 months at the museum
- Supervised drafting of tweets, Facebook and Instagram posts for content calendar
Live Tweeting
- Generated content during the events that led up to the opening of the exhibit to build an audience for the exhibit's dedicated Twitter account
- Generated content during the events that led up to the opening of the exhibit to build an audience for the exhibit's dedicated Twitter account
II. DELIVERABLES
Website
A complex, mutli-page and searchable website in which each maker has a dedicated page linked to all his/her social media platforms, on-line video content and Artsy page.
Twitter
A dedicated feed that includes both organic and pre-programmed curatorial content. 750 tweets were drafted and buffered prior to the opening of the exhibit. Tweets link to artists/designers' monikers.
Facebook & Instagram
40 posts based on curatorial content were drafted prior to the opening of the exhibit for use on MAD's accounts.
Artsy
Over 200 objects were uploaded and captioned here prior to the opening of the exhibit. Marketing support (in the form of inclusion in email blasts and landing page banners) was negotiated and deployed during the first month of the exhibit.
www.newterritorieslab.org (now available here) | @NewTerritoriesL | #NewTerritoriesLab
A complex, mutli-page and searchable website in which each maker has a dedicated page linked to all his/her social media platforms, on-line video content and Artsy page.
A dedicated feed that includes both organic and pre-programmed curatorial content. 750 tweets were drafted and buffered prior to the opening of the exhibit. Tweets link to artists/designers' monikers.
Facebook & Instagram
40 posts based on curatorial content were drafted prior to the opening of the exhibit for use on MAD's accounts.
Artsy
Over 200 objects were uploaded and captioned here prior to the opening of the exhibit. Marketing support (in the form of inclusion in email blasts and landing page banners) was negotiated and deployed during the first month of the exhibit.
www.newterritorieslab.org (now available here) | @NewTerritoriesL | #NewTerritoriesLab
A selection of slides created by Luiza Brenner explaining our digital strategy and screenshots are included below:
We created a Twitter account for the exhibit. The intention was for the account to "travel" with the exhibit - as different museums displayed New Territories, they could continue deploying content on their own Twitter account and the exhibit's. Unfortunately, it did not remain active after the show's run in NY and did not "travel."
Part of our content calendar was aimed at motivating audience participation through campaigns identified with different hashtags (e.g. #NTWeekendLab).
The content calendar also included images and text for MAD to release via its own Twitter account.
Examples of tweets using #NewTerritoriesLab.
These are examples of Facebook posts drafted prior to the opening of the exhibit and deployed via Buffer. They include text taken from Lowery Stokes Sims' catalogue essay and other materials provided by artists.
