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Community-Driven Art, Cultural Icons, Record-Breaking Sales: Canary’s Year In Review
For those of us in the business of promoting the arts, December is a month for recharging and reflecting. We’re not hibernating, mind you — just catching our breath, looking back on a spectacular 2012 and preparing for a busy 2013.
This year, we worked with some of Philadelphia’s most creative thought leaders, promoting art that connects communities, often in unexpected places, and extending Philadelphia’s cultural reach around the world. From far-reaching media relations and marketing campaigns to social media planning and messaging consulting, Canary has been proud to provide our clients with the tools they need to engage and innovate.
Read on to learn more about our proudest moments of 2012 and some new clients who’ll be making waves with us in 2013.
We wish you all happy holidays and a prosperous and art-filled new year!
Stay warm,
Megan, Carolyn and Rose
A FEW OF OUR FAVORITE THINGS FROM 2012
Open Air Transforms the Night Sky: As internationally renowned artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s interactive public art experience beamed light and sound into the autumn sky, Canary’s integrated media relations and marketing campaign spread the story of the work around the world and across local airwaves with media partners like 6abc Action News. Commissioned by Canary client theAssociation for Public Art, Open Air drew thousands to Philly’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway, providing a visual feast for residents and visitors alike.
Canary at work: NPR’s Science Friday highlighted the technology behind this groundbreaking project.
Modern Art Meets Modern Medicine at Einstein Medical Center Montgomery: It isn’t every day that a state-of-the-art medical center becomes a destination for modern art lovers, but when Einstein Medical Center Montgomery received a generous loan from the Sol LeWitt estate to install the modern master’s Wall Drawing #972, Canary was there to spread the word to the public. The installation enriches Einstein Montgomery’s brand-new, state-of-the-art medical facility, and we were honored to help communicate this innovative organization’s belief in the healing power of the arts.
Canary at work: An Associated Press story on the LeWitt opening was picked up by media outlets around the country.
Bowerbird’s Cage: Beyond Silence Festival Shines a Light on a Cultural Icon: Celebrating John Cage’s centenary, experimental music producer Bowerbird has created a multifaceted three-part tribute with Cage: Beyond Silence (continuing through Jan. 20, 2013). Canary has worked with the organization to create consistent messaging and a comprehensive media plan to drive attendance at multiple performances in venues around the city; promote Bowerbird’s partnership with the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s celebrated multidisciplinary exhibition Dancing Around the Bride: Cage, Cunningham, Johns, Rauschenberg and Duchamp; and highlight Cage’s profound influence on music, visual arts, film, dance and literature.
Canary at work: WXPN aired an Echoes Podcast interview with Bowerbird’s Dustin Hurt and pianist Margaret Leng Tan on the legacy of John Cage.
Lantern Theater Company Breaks Records: We aren’t the only ones who can’t get enough of Lantern Theater Company’s work. With media coverage increases of 70 percent for web-based coverage and 25 percent overall, plus stellar critical reviews for the company’s work, the Lantern is breaking sales records. Three productions this season have already had to extend their runs to accommodate audience demand, including the upcoming The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Jan. 10 – Feb. 10).
Canary at work: Philadelphia Weekly theater critic J. Cooper Robb calls the Lantern’s The Liar “a fanciful, fun production to get you in the holiday spirit.”
This Town is a Mystery Demystifies Philly Neighborhoods: This year marked Canary’s ninth year working with the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe, and every season brings wonderful new surprises. In 2012, Canary client Headlong Dance Theater presented an extraordinary project, This Town is a Mystery, bringing performance art into the homes of four ordinary Philadelphia families. A community-focused communications strategy and targeted media relations campaign for This Town successfully drew audiences outside of their normal comfort zones, helping to create a performance experience that was as much about community-building as choreography.
Canary at work: WHYY’s arts and culture reporter Peter Crimmins interviews Headlong and participating households.
Other fantastic organizations we worked with this year included: Asian Arts Initiative, Big Blue Marble Bookstore, Bryn Mawr College Performing Arts Series, Historic Germantown, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Mauckingbird Theatre Company,Philagrafika, Philadelphia Dance Projects and Leah Stein Dance Company, Philadelphia Young Playwrights, the Ira Brind School of Theater Arts at the University of the Arts and Woodmere Art Museum.
STAY TUNED: WHAT’S NEW IN 2013
In the new year, we’ll tell tales of world-class artists like Tacita Dean at Arcadia University,Susan Rethorst at Bryn Mawr College, Christopher Williams presented by Philadelphia Dance Projects, and Song Dong and Yin Xiuzhen at the Philadelphia Art Alliance.
We’ll help promote a statewide search for Pennsylvania’s Top 10 Endangered Artifacts with the Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts.
We’ll travel in time with clients like Woodmere Art Museumand Philadelphia Young Playwrights, who are participating in the second Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts.
We’ll celebrate contemporary cutting-edge art on the waterfront as the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe continues its plans for a new permanent home and year-round facility.
And, of course, we’ll be continuing our work with Knight Foundation, now in the third year of its mission to support the most innovative cultural ideas to engage and enrich Philadelphia’s neighborhoods through the Knight Arts Challenge, and much, much more. We hope you’ll join us!
Want more tips and arts, culture and PR news from us throughout the week? Connect with us on Twitter and Facebook.
Image credits: 1) Open Air, photo by James Ewing; 2) Wall Drawing #972on loan courtesy of the Estate of Sol LeWitt, 2012-2037 © 2012 The LeWitt Estate / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; 3) John Cage; 4) Sarah Gliko, Emily Rogge and Emilie Krause in The Liar, photo by Mark Garvin; 5) This Town is a Mystery, photo by Kevin Monko
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