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Art Fairs

CEL has a passion for promoting art fairs!

In 1999, the Uptown Association hired us to re-position the historic Uptown Art Fair within the media because it was being portrayed as a summer fun, food and beverage event instead of a high-end, juried art fair, and qualified art buyers were not inspired to attend. Rather than promote the event, we felt it was important to focus on the amazing artists: most of them have pieces in galleries across the U.S. and some have work in the Smithsonian!

Mission, accomplished: by drawing from the rich history of the event and bringing it to the forefront in key messages and media angles, we uncovered the stories behind the art and artists and reflected the passion that fuels the Uptown Art Fair. In addition, we brainstormed with the Executive Director and team on strategies to increase sponsorship revenue with creative community collaborations.

That year, the Uptown Art Fair attracted more media coverage than it had in the history of the event —62 television segments, 7 radio interviews, 9 newspaper articles and 30 electronic media placements. Each year we uncovered new angles and strategies to meet the goals of the Executive Team. To this day, after 10 years of CEL service, the Uptown Art Fair continues to hold its position as one of the most prestigious art fairs in the country.

In 2004, CEL started the Wayzata Art Experience on the shores of Lake Minnetonka in the western suburbs of Minneapolis. The juried event attracted artists and the community, generating positive revenue its first year and each year thereafter. The Art Experience was donated to the local Chamber and continues its growth today.

In 2009, our artistic reputation took us to Saint Louis to handle the publicity for the Saint Louis Art Fair. CEL has a Saint Louis office, which makes interaction with the media a bit easier prior to the event. Saint Louis media specialist Carol Sheer handles the pre-publicity and the rest of the media team joins her on-site during the three-day run of the art fair.

Within the first year of working with the Saint Louis Art Fair, we secured an unprecedented amount of media coverage with 53 television segments, 12 radio interviews, six newspaper articles and 17 electronic media placements. We are proud to say that we helped the Saint Louis Art Fair rise to second in the nation!

We love to showcase the passion behind the work — highlighting the artists, their pieces, and bringing the community behind-the-scenes.

Published on: October 9, 2012

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