Social Media

from UrbanSketchers.org Annual Report 2020

Drawing Attention

SOCIAL MEDIA 2020 FOCUS ON USK COMMUNITY REACH AND ENGAGEMENT

The unique circumstance of 2020 defined USk Social Media’s activity and purpose as the primary Urban Sketchers communication tool with our community around the world.

ROW BY ROW FROM TOP (L-R): CHRISTINA WALD, USA; DOMINIQUE EICHI, SPAIN; ERIC NGAN, NZ; FEDERICA MARINARO, UK; JAVIER MAS PINTURAS, BRAZIL; JEAN EDWARDS, UK; MARIE-HELENE BROHAN DELHAYE, IRELAND; NOGA GROSMAN, USA; RIONA KUTHE, GERMANY; STEF THELWELL, UK; XANA JUAREZ, USA. When people around the world were in lockdown, confined at home for months, the USk Social Media team rose to the challenge: to adapt to the new reality, to reach out powerfully (and more frequently) to our sketchers community, to provide content, to inspire and to encourage sketchers to keep sketching, to tell the stories they saw from within their four walls at home, through their windows or balconies, in support of the notion that became obvious: that sketching from observation is a powerful healing tool!

With the ban on world travel, and the call for socialdistancing, the cancelation of planned USk social engagement programs, workshops, and events was inevitable. Keeping the USk community together, engaged and providing support to thousands of sketchers worldwide became the top priority. With limitations or prohibitions against groups gathering for on-location sketching, the USk Social Media web platforms became the home for thousands of sketchers worldwide to connect and keep us together as one international supporting and loving group – a family!

Urban Sketchers Executive Board members and a small army of USk Social Media volunteers team urgently came together to carefully and creatively craft new programs that would fit the new reality, fill the void, and empower our sketchers.

In the virtual world that served humanity throughout 2020, keeping people engaged and sane, sketchers and USk chapters have met through Zoom and Google virtual rooms. A big emphasis was given then by USk Executive Board members to keep the urban sketching art form true to its Manifesto. This is where the USk Social Media platforms have served as a clear voice guiding our community through Urban Sketchers’ strong foundation as the lighthouse for the community throughout this big storm.

USkTalks is the 2020 flagship program that came out of the pandemic – a weekly one-hour live broadcast filled with rich Urban Sketching contens and discussion topics that was brainstormed as an idea in mid-March by four USk members from Education and Social Media, and first aired live on a USk IGTV feed three weeks later, on April 5th.

The program was assembled and developed into 17 weekly episodes, coordinated, and promoted on USK Social Media feeds weekly throughout these months. Inspirational content such as the USk Talks weekly Sketch Challenges continued to be featured by the Social Media team during the hiatus months between USk Talks Season 1 and Season 2.

As more assessments were made of the scale of work that went into USk Talks, four USk Social Media team members answered the call with a significant contribution to graphics development, video production, and weekly promotion across all USk social media platforms.

In Season 1, the USk Talks team hosted over 30 guests – the incredible USk instructors and influencers who joined Urban Sketchers’ Call during the pandemic and agreed to share their sketching knowledge, styles, tips, and inspiration from their homes and with the entire USk global community. USk Talks Season 1 attracted 88,200 viewers on Instagram, 16,700 on YouTube, and 14,000 visitors to the USkTalks webpage on the Urban Sketchers Blog. USk Talks’ vision for 2021 is to include Sponsorship and Membership segments as content enrichment.

The USk 2020 Year-end Fundraiser was another program, exclusively designed, promoted and successfully executed by a small group from the USk Social Media team. Over $6,000.00 was raised to benefit the Urban Sketchers organization programs.

USk Social Media involvement and development during this year included work on other USk Eexecutive Board programs: the monthly promotion of Drawing Attention web magazine; the development of the Streamyard broadcasting platform; and enhancement of the YouTube channel’s performance. Throughout 2020 the entire USk Social Media team, comprised of 10 volunteers, kept the community’s morale up by sharing daily inspirational posts on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, empowering USk sketchers to keep sketching and stay connected.

It is my honor to recognize and highlight the Social Media members for their incredible contribution and devotion to the Urban Sketchers cause, especially during this pandemic year. Some of the team are serving our community for over three years now, while some are new volunteers. All have a great sense of mission, helping the USk grassroots movement reach-out and bridge across cultures and languages, to maintain the passion for the art form of urban sketching through good times and bad.

Noga Grosman, Social Media Director

CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: RITA SABLER, USA; MOHAN BANERJI, UK; ROB SKETCHERMAN, HONG KONG; CHRISTINA WALD, USA; FEDERICA MARINARO, UK; NOGA GROSMAN, USA; LUDWINE VAN CRAENENBROECK, BELGIUM.