Question

Topic: Strategy

Not For Profit Art Studio Needs Foot Traffic!

Posted by asmith on 10/2/2011 at 2:21 PM ET 100 Points
I work for a not for profit art studio in a small town and we have been here for years and we want to greatly increase foot traffic.
We currently have an art exhibit going on about Migrant Workers in the community and have advertised in the papers, on radio, on kijiji, through Culture Days Canada (because it is a culture days Canada event), through mass email, through posters in the community and through word of mouth and hardly anyone has shown up. The weather has been terrible (lots of cold, rain, wind) so the foot traffic in town has been down a lot. The 3 people who do come out a day to see it say it is a great exhibit. Where are we going wrong with advertising? All of our advertising has been free except for printing costs. Help us increase foot traffic - we are keeping the exhibit on for a few weeks.

In case you wonder what we normally do: we host a lot of art camps for kids as well and art programming for kids, we do youth at risk programs and art therapy type programs with youth, and we occassionally have earth friendly art exhibits and recycled art exhibits but never had a great turn out for anything except art camp.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 10/2/2011 at 5:08 PM Accepted
    Do you have videos/stills showcasing the studio (ideally with an interview/commentary) that you can post on local social media sites to show people what they'd be seeing? Interview the people who DO show up as well.

    Since it sounds like you have an ongoing problem with exhibition interest, perhaps it's time to find out what people DO want to see. Ask your mailing list to vote. Feature kids' projects (including art camp).
  • Posted on 10/3/2011 at 1:52 PM Accepted
    As Jay said, take the time to find out what people want. Nobody will turn up if it is something they're not interested in. That doesn't mean you can't encourage people to visit more often though.

    Engaging in other avenues: senior art camp, mom & tot art camp, pre-schoolers, wine & paint, bitch & stitch (for stressed out moms). Then exhibit the results, the more activities people can engage in at the studio the more likely they are to come out to support it.

    Engage in a town wide gallery with kids from the local school(s) with the party/judging/ located at the studio.

    Theme nights for local painters, such as local gardens, then include the gardening club, local landscapes and involve a photography club. Still life and get farm stores/wineries involved

    Anything in fact that draws in people's other interests into your studio and thus the people themselves, has got to increase your foot traffic. Then when you have exhibitions that maybe don't immediately have obvious appeal you have a wider, already knowledgable group of people you can market to.
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