How to Connect Your Art with Your Audience

There is a big difference between simply hanging art on a wall and creating an engaging art experience. If you’ve worked with NINE dot ARTS before or are familiar with our collaborative art consulting and curating process, you know that thinking holistically is central to our approach.

We’re not just identifying artists and procuring artwork, we’re thinking about how the people our clients want to reach will experience the space. Because we recognize that one of the most important ways we can demonstrate the value of investing in art is by creating a powerful experience that resonates for our clients’ audiences. A big part of ensuring that experience is successful? Effective marketing.

According to our recent State of the Art Consulting & Curating Business survey, only 29% of respondents light their art or have placards and less than a quarter – 17% – celebrate and promote the artist and artwork. This is a huge missed opportunity.

We regularly tell our clients that art maximizes its potential when it connects with its audience. And whether you are welcoming guests to a hotel, residents to luxury condo development, or visitors to an office, the experience – what they see and how they feel – plays an outsized role. This is because when an audience feels connected, a space comes to life.

Here are a few examples that highlight how a modest marketing investment can generate positive returns for the art experience you have created.

Identify Your Project

At the most basic level, marketing an art experience should accomplish two things: help your audience understand where the art came from and why it’s there in the first place.

One low-cost tactic to consider is art identification labels. Mandatory for all NINE dot ARTS installations, art identification labels provide the name of the artist and title of the artwork, in addition to the medium and material (i.e. oil on canvas, watercolor, mixed media, etc.).

While we consider art identification labels the baseline for engagement, offering this level of detail creates context for your audiences and helps create an appreciation the artwork.

For more complex installations, we work with clients to produce printed marketing collateral that helps their target audience experience the artwork as they move around the property or space. We can even deliver social media tips and guidelines to extend and amplify the experiential impact in a digital setting.

Create an Experience for Your Experience

For projects that use art to weave together a more in-depth brand narrative, an investment in materials with a richer story can yield award-winning returns and renown.

Look no further than The Perry Lane Hotel in Savannah, Georgia. With more than 3,600 objects and antiques and 1,200 total artworks, Perry Lane has earned a reputation as an intriguing destination for innovation and artistic merit among luxury hotels worldwide.

To drive Perry Lane’s marketing and storytelling efforts forward, NINE dot ARTS produced a custom coffee table book that’s gifted to VIPs and sales prospects and placed in each guest room.

The book tells the story of both Savannah and the Perry Lane, from the voice of Adelaide Harcourt, the fictional muse (she’s a seventh generation Savannahian) NINE dot ARTS created to weave together the story of the art collection and its connection to Savannah and the hotel. The book helps visitors and guests embrace the unique experience and feel more at home and connected during their stay.

Perry Lane also created an online destination so visitors can learn about the art experience before their stay begins or during their stay. They even partnered with the Savannah College of Art and Design, placing 51 original student sketches throughout the hotel’s guest rooms.

Get the Artist Involved

One of the most powerful ways to promote your art experience is to get the artist or artists involved.

Depending on the size of the art collection, we’ve helped orchestrate everything from large-scale speaking engagements to fireside chats that feature a relaxed conversation between an artist and guests.

For high-profile projects in popular destinations like the Crawford Hotel at Denver Union Station, tours are a fantastic marketing and engagement tool. The Crawford regularly leads open house tours that elevate the experience with a special focus on celebrating the artist, the artwork and the history of the property.

It’s easy for businesses and developments to hang art on walls, but having an artist articulate the inspiration behind their work can bring audiences directly into the vision and create an emotional connection.

Whether it’s a placard, a dedicated website or an artist tour, the value of marketing your project cannot be overstated. The result gives your art experience a sense of purpose and helps your target audience feel a deeper connection to you, your brand and your space.