News

A great article by James Dowd of The Commercial Appeal: Is art alive in Memphis? UrbanArt's new website says emphatically: Yes. 

Read the full article below:

As published by James Dowd in The Commercial Appeal.

Thanks to a digitally driven campaign to market its artists and heighten awareness of its projects, the UrbanArt Commission is embracing technology to expand its reach.

As part of the plan, the nonprofit organization has launched a new website at urbanartcommission.org designed to make public art more accessible to, well, the public. With nearly 10,000 online visitors during the site's first couple of days of operation, the campaign appears to be working.

"The form and function of the site was very important to us because we wanted the pieces we put out into the world to look good online and represent us well," said John Weeden, executive director or UrbanArt. "The new site and campaign have developed a significant and compelling message of public art and design."

The project was funded by a $16,000 enhancement grant from Arts Memphis. To introduce the organization's new digital presence, local advertising firm Doug Carpenter & Associates developed a robust Is Art Alive campaign that included distributing 45,000 postcards and 1,000 posters touting the revamped online home.

"The idea driving the promotion was to reintroduce the organization to the community and put art in the public realm," said Doug Carpenter, agency principal. "By asking the question, 'Is art alive?' we wanted to provide the answer that in Memphis, it most definitely is."

UrbanArt's grant proposal received full funding because of wide-ranging impact of the project, said Karen Spacek, chief operating officer at ArtsMemphis.

In addition to creating a new interactive online presence to engage the public, the site features an artists' registry that provides a venue for creatives to bid on projects and showcase their work.

"This will help UrbanArt be more efficient and streamline operations because so much of what they do is now automated," Spacek said. "Project guidelines and requests for proposals that previously had to be manually processed may now be done through the site. This creates a better platform for them to conduct their business."

Lori Brunson, whose firm RocketFuel designed the new site, said the old site didn't reflect the organization's vitality, and made it difficult to accomplish tasks like collecting artists' résumés. "Now the artists can submit photos of their work and offer online bids on projects they'd like to pursue."

UrbanArt, which was founded in 1997, is funded through ArtsMemphis, the Tennessee Arts Commission and private donors. The organization collaborates with community groups to create a variety of public art works.

And through its new digital platform, leaders hope to draw more attention to the local arts community.

"There are so many talented people here who are creating amazing work and that's something that should be showcased in Memphis and across the country," Weeden said. "With our new site, it's a lot easier for other artists and curators nationwide to see what's happening in Memphis."