Chasing Waterfalls: Collections & Cascading Content Strategy
Lindsay Bosch Associate Director of Communications, Marketing, and Digital Strategy Melanie Garcia Sympson Curatorial Coordinator, Collections Information and Digital Interpretation
Our Context:
Expansive Teaching Goal and a Hidden Collection • Northwestern University’s free art museum • 25 staff, 5,000 square feet of display • Only collecting since 1998 • 2020 digitized collection of 6,400 objects • Focus traditionally on special exhibitions -no permanent collection galleries
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How can we leverage an unexhibited collection to drive organization-wide teaching, learning, and engagement?
We were seeking a strategic, achievable digital project that would... Build institutional identity beyond exhibitions
Prove collection relevance to our audiences
Increase awareness of digitized collection as a resource Create a process that is replicable for a small staff with limited capacity
Our Solution: Building Collection Content Around Northwestern’s “One Book” Program One Book One Northwestern is a communitywide reading program hosted by the Office of the President. It aims to engage the campus in a common conversation centered on a carefully chosen, thought-provoking book. Annual theme
Crossdisciplinary goal
Expansive interest outside campus and alumni
Conversational topics
Capacious ideas
Year-long duration
Our Process:
What can be routinized? • Select 10 to 12 works that are in some way in dialogue with the theme • Curatorial team of two writes 250 to 500 words on each work • Produced PDF booklet and download package, in a replicable template • Annual social promotion campaign
Simple PDF Book Design
4 years running!
10 Artworks – A Year of Digital Content! 10to 12 “One Book” Objects Selected Annually
Curatorial produces short essays for each ~ 200 words
Communications produces PDF Download Booklet
PDF Resource offered as museum blog announcement
PDF cross promoted all year by One Book Office
Printed Booklet distributed onsite at museum front desk
PDF offered Direct on Issuu education account
Essays Become interpretation within E-museum Record
PDF Offered on Museum Website
Selections become Bloomberg Connects Online Exhibition
Selections become basis for quarterly Zoom Art Talks
Essays become social content throughout the year
Video Edited into Instagram Reels
Talks become evergreen recorded content
Video Reposted as Museum Blog “Collection Spotlights”
Promoted Live event included on museum engagement calendar
Video Called out as Items in Museum Newsletter
Bloomberg exhibition promoted to national audiences
Video Embedded in E-museum record
Project Goal:
Drive to Users Collection Search Interpretation in the content record greatly increases time on site “One Book” packages become our highest viewed sections of collection record Content views doubled YoY over last four years
Project Goal: Evergreen Collection Content Short videos shared to social
Longer videos embedded in Collection Record
3 or 4 annual online public programs are promoted in museum calendar. These focus on single works from package and draw ~200 live attendees
These online talks are recorded and edited down
Blog Post
Project Goal: Access & National Reputation Content presented as online exhibition through Bloomberg and advertised to staff and national alumni base – audience who often cannot visit in person. App showcased onsite offering language translation and audio accessibility of texts.
Project Goal:
Showcase Collection Relevance to Institutional Outcomes “The One Book One Northwestern readings help unify the campus around a theme, and the artworks from The Block’s collection help expand the focus by bringing in multiple perspectives and histories."
Modest Institutional Investment… Big Impact Internally: • Increased cross-departmental orientation for building digital collections projects outside of the structure of exhibitions • Moving towards KPIs that take into account digital engagement in its own right – not as a driver to inperson attendance Externally • Engagement in this project has grown knowledge and perception of our collection and role as a campus leader • Success has justified institutional investment in digital collections work and donor investment in the growing collection as a teaching & learning tool
Keep in Touch @nublockmuseum https://bit.ly/BlockOneBook lindsay.bosch@northwestern.edu melanie.sympson@northwestern.edu