CTM 17 Visitors don t belong to any department: work together! Muriel Jaby, Head of communications @mu_jaby
A beautiful setting but only temporary exhibitions Inaugurated in 1995 near the central park Lyonnais, the Parc Tête d Or. The museum is situated within the Cité Internationale, whose architect is Renzo Piano (just as Pompidou Centre!). Our neighbor are a cinema, a casino, a congress center, offices It s a very nice setting, but nobody is coming in front of the museum by chance, or living in the area, we always have to decide people to come and visit us.
In between We do have a collection, of about 1300 artworks, but no permanent display: we show only temporary exhibitions, regularly renewed and in between we are closed for installation. So every 3 or 4 months, we have two big challenges: - let know out and loud that we are open - be attractive enough to persuade visitors to come and visit our exhibitions and as always in the cultural field, with a tiny budget! And in between, we have to maintain the interest in our institution, create a link even if a physical visit isn t possible, share contents announcing upcoming events, etc.
Case study Yours ideas to bring a museum alive between two temporary exhibitions? How to go beyond the classical «behind the scene» posts on social networks?
Educators + curators + communicants = powerful effects Wall Drawings in maclyon, France: 1 exhibition 10 days «behind the scene» 1 festival Works across all the city
The exhibition Wall Drawings Icônes urbaines 30.09.16 > 15.01.17 Globe Painter Julien Malland invited 10 artists that he had worked with all over the world: Charley Case (Belgium), Jaz (Argentina), Kid Kréol & Boogie (Réunion), Addam Yekutieli aka Know Hope (Israel), Reko Rennie (Australia), Saner (Mexico), Teck (Ukraine), Elliot Tupac (Peru) and Wenna (China). Look at the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xsautpp2h0
10 days «behind the scenes» From September 19th to 28th, more than 2500 «visitors» discovered the exhibition in preview. Look at the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn2niwg3vnm
10 days «behind the scenes» We ended Yoko Ono s retrospective mid July, and opened Wall Drawings end of September (because of the artists schedule). So we were about to be closed in between for a quite long period of time, and the idea came to half-open to allow people to see what is going on in the museum when we are closed. We already experienced press-visit during the installation, and event on evenings or with influencers during closing, so we knew there is a huge curiosity for behind the scene, as you all know it of course. As we work with contemporary artists, they are always coming for installing the works, and it s great to share these moments on our social accounts. The artists of WD came all around mid-september to create directly on the walls of the museum, so we decided to open during 10 exceptional days so that the public can see them at work. VIDEO 10 days https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn2niwg3vnm France 3 : http://culturebox.francetvinfo.fr/arts/expos/les-street-artistes-de-wall-drawings-creent-enpublic-au-mac-de-lyon-246255 From September 19th to 28th, more than 2500 people had the privilege to discover the exhibition in preview, to see the works being created directly on the walls and to exchange with 11 street-artists from all over the world! Many of them came several times during these 10 days, to be witnesses of the evolution of the works.
A street-art festival on Sunday, gathering local art scene & «our» artists in a previous school no more in use A street-art festival took place on Sunday during these 10 days, gathering the art scene in Lyon and our artists from abroad. They painted on the walls of a previous school, disused for the moment. It took a very very very long time to have the official authorization to be in that former school. So we had only a few days to communicate about this event. Finally, a success: a very cool day, music & oysters & beers, artists working together, families spending time with friends in La Croix Rousse the place to be on that day ;) See the VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayaiqesyivc
works across all the city (see the googlemap) Wall drawings artists also created works within the public space: metro stations, squares, cinema, a cemetery
Conclusion We all experienced very popular moments, which have greatly contributed to the notoriety and commitment of the exhibition to the public. Education s, exhibition s and communication s teams worked closely together to organize these 10 days and address the widest audience: persuading the artists to work in public, contacting individual & group audience (even school teachers wanted to be part of these days, although it was just at the beginning of the school year), teasing on social networks, contacting bloggers, guiding the artists through the city to their spot for wall drawing & updating the map of the works in the city, etc. It was the first time our museum opened widely during the installing period, and this invitation to come and see behind the scene was acclaimed and generously shared by the public. It gave a real boost to the opening of Wall Drawings exhibition, as quite everyone in Lyon have heard of the exhibition through relatives, blogs, media, social networks We also gained much in capital sympathie as we say in French, that is to say people having a good feeling about maclyon
> What worked well? Buzz, buzz, buzz. 67 000 visitors at the end of the exhibitions, quite the same figure than Yoko Ono s retrospective!! We didn t expect such a success and it what mainly due to Wall Drawings A collective project: a hard job within a short period of time, but everybody contributed in >Not so well? Before the summer, our director kept on saying it is not a street art exhibition, don t call it like that We need to convince him that it was too bad, notably for the social networks, not to use that term. Finally, he agreed the first of the 10 days was quite deceptive for people because there wasn t much to see on the walls. Difficult to keep school groups quiet during what didn t look like a traditional visit