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#PaintMy
Meadow
Background
#PaintMyMeadow was a project started by landscape artist Elaine Kazimierczuk in spring 2020. Spring is typically a busy time for Elaine, who is renowned for her colourful, semi-abstract studies of meadows, woodlands and hedgerows. However, that year, due to the lockdown restrictions in place, she found that her usual plans to get out into nature and take preparatory photos and sketches could not be realised. Instead, she turned to Twitter and Instagram for help. She invited members of the public to send her photos of their own wildflower hotspots using the hashtag #PaintMyMeadow.
Elaine's callout was successful and she received a huge variety of photographs submitted by social media users from across the UK and beyond. She was overwhelmed by the response and the beauty of the images she received, including some from committed botanists and conservationists. She then spent summer 2020 creating a vibrant series of work based on her favourite images from those submitted.
In December 2020, these pieces were shown as a solo exhibition at the Magdalen Art Space in Magdalen Road Studios, east Oxford in partnership with Gala Fine Art. At the time, I was the Digital Marketing Coordinator for the studios, therefore it was my job to help promote the show on social media and share the interesting story of #PaintMyMeadow.
Growing a social presence for this solo exhibition
Brief
"Lockdown has been challenging for everyone. We would love to bring a slice of spring to more people by making them aware of this uplifting show and the interesting story behind it. People are still cautious about coming out to exhibitions and as a result, visitor levels are lower than usual. Promotional material should inform people that the space is Covid regulation compliant and that an online version of the exhibition is available for those not able to attend in person."
Process
Using the exhibition brochure, online information and quotes provided by the artist, I produced an Instagram stories campaign for #PaintMyMeadow. I went with a sage green, lavender and white colour scheme to pick up on some of the accent colours in Elaine's work. The stories platformed pieces of art from the show, providing another accessible way for people to experience and engage with the exhibition. The stories introduced Elaine with an artist bio and went on to describe the concept behind the show, mixing insights from Elaine with images of the vivid landscape paintings, letting them stand out and speak for themselves against the simple, cohesive background. The stories also provided the address and Covid safety policies of the exhibition space, ending with a call to action for people to come and experience the stunning pieces in real life. The aim of the campaign was to tell the project story in an engaging, visually appealing and accessible way, starting with the basics such as who Elaine is, and then progressing onto the project timeline from inception to exhibition. I made sure to tag Elaine and online exhibition partner Gala Fine Arts as well as making use of the pre-existing #PaintMyMeadow project hashtag to optimise its shareability and findability. View the full campaign here.
A selection of the campaign's stories cards
“It was such a good way to solve the problem, because I received so many fabulous images of places I’d never even heard of - many were definitely too far away for me to have ever visited in a single summer...The entire project has been a joy and I hope that comes across in the paintings.”
- Elaine Kazimierczuk
I supplemented the campaign with Instagram and Facebook posts and tweets, complimenting the eye-catching paintings with zippy, upbeat copy. These were shared during the week of the exhibition's run.
I also made sure to respond to and reshare any content posted by Elaine or Gala
Fine Arts in relation to the exhibition, in order to maximise the reach of the material.
Results
Launching a few days after the exhibition began, the campaign resulted in an average
20% increase in exhibition visitors per day. There were 36 visits to the online exhibition
using the campaign's Linktree link, and, by the end of the show, the artist had sold
several paintings. The story campaign received a total of 143 views and 3 reactions (all
of which had a positive sentiment), equating to a great engagement rate of 12%. The
Instagram posts received a total of 176 likes and 2 users comments, averaging a
healthy engagement rate of 4% per post.