What is Natural?

The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) was founded 35 years ago on the visionary idea that there should be a national museum dedicated to women in the arts. While NMWA has built up their collections, mounted important exhibitions, and consistently created excellent programming, the last 35 years have seen monumental changes in the museum world.

 

NMWA came to us with the need to stay relevant and carry forward their mission. We were presented with the challenge of promoting two relatively small exhibitions through a single advertising campaign.

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We started by establishing a common theme between the two exhibitions: exploring the natural world. We then made a clear choice of whom we could most effectively target in the marketing campaign. These decisions allowed us to land on a simple but engaging question as a headline that introduced the meaning and value of both exhibitions while activating curiosity on the part of our intended marketing target with an arresting question: What is Natural?

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Strategically using the copy to lead the creative and the imagery as a backdrop allowed us to focus the exhibition advertising on a conceptual level, rather than highlighting individual works, none of which could have fully represented the diversity of these exhibitions. Choosing to have the text interact with the imagery allowed us to nod to the art’s three-dimensional nature in the exhibitions. All of the artists agreed to have their art featured in this way!

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The exhibit had the highest attendance in museum history and survey data showed the advertising as a key factor driving attendance.

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Creative Director: James Heaton

Art Director: Tanya Mangone