Brighton People's Theatre –
Open Up Arts
Making art and culture accessible for the many, not the privileged few.
Brighton People’s Theatre is a grassroots arts organisation that punches way above its weight. So when they had a vital campaign message to communicate, we weighed in with a powerful, attention-grabbing solution.
Sector
Arts & Culture
What we did
Discovery & Definition
- Consultation
- Workshops
- Interviews
- Naming
Design Development
- Creative concepts
- Campaign communications
- Messaging and tone of voice
- Campaign identity
- Content creation
- Digital expression
- Print design
- Art direction
- Event branding
Delivery
- Brand guidelines
- Brand toolkits
- Brand activation
- Motion design and video
- Artwork
Context
There’s a great quote that sits in the signature at the end of every Brighton People’s Theatre email. The quote is from the late actor, director and producer Richard Attenborough, and it says this: “The arts are not a prerequisite of the privileged few; nor are they the playground of the intelligentsia. The arts are for everyone – and failure to include everyone diminishes us all.” It is this powerful sentiment that sits at the heart of Open Up Arts, a new social report and grassroots campaign from Brighton People’s Theatre.
Solution
The campaign highlights the fact that not all communities have equal access to creative opportunities, and that the real and powerful benefits of the arts are not felt by everyone. And, crucially, it asks what we can do to change this. We devised the campaign name, identity and communications, working with photographer and filmmaker Rosie Powell to capture the often unspoken creative dreams of Brighton residents.
Open Up Arts was a challenging brief: maintain the authenticity of the resident voices whilst creating a strong visual identity for us to showcase our community-led research. As an agency, Baxter & Bailey listened closely to our goals and objectives, and adapted and responded in their design quickly and creatively. We’re grateful to the team for their meticulous detail and patience.
Impact
Open Up Arts launched at a special online event for arts and culture organisations, as well as across social media. The campaign successfully achieved its goal to extend Brighton People’s Theatre’s reach nationally, spreading the hugely relevant content of the research to a sector-wide audience. Since launch, the Open Up Arts campaign has accounted for 50% of Brighton People’s Theatre’s total online traffic.
50%
Since launch, the Open Up Arts campaign has accounted for 50% of Brighton People’s Theatre’s total online traffic.
Special Thanks
Thanks to everyone at Brighton People’s Theatre for inviting us to support this important piece of work, especially to Niamh, Naomi and Marina. And a special doff of the creative cap to ace photographer and filmmaker Rosie Powell, whose expertise behind the lens helped to bring these human stories to vivid life.
