Where is the media coverage?

Artes Mundi is the largest art prize in the UK, with a prize fund of £40,000 and a shortlist featuring international contemporary artists at the top of their field. However, throughout our 12 years we have received little attention from the national newspapers (with the exception of The Guardian) and no national interest from the BBC or other national broadcasters. In contrast, we have always had incredible support from the international press, a highlight of which was making the front cover of The New York Times. But here in the UK, each year the smaller Turner Prize receives blanket coverage across national media, and as a result, maintains its position as the most well-known art prize among the British public.

…working with an agency with a narrow focus can be problematic if you are not its highest paying client

Last week a report by the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport select committee criticised the London bias of Arts Council England (ACE) funding, claiming: “There remains a clear funding imbalance in favour of London at the expense of taxpayers and Lottery players in other parts of the country.” Unsurprisingly, the national press and the BBC were quick to point out this criticism of government spending, yet, earlier this year, when David Anderson, President of the Museums Association and Director General of National Museum Wales, publicly criticised the BBC for its unreasonable bias towards covering culture in London, his comments went unreported.

I raise these contrasting responses because there is a clear parallel between the London centricity of the BBC and the London-weighted funding of ACE. Our national media need to be more conscious of their influence in creating a sustainable cultural economy for the entire UK and not simply London and the south of England. As a Welsh institution we do not gain our funding from ACE, but the impact that the British national media has on our longevity is paramount. Coverage means exposure, exposure means footfall and footfall means success. The more successful we are, the greater the impetus for further investment from our donors.

One of the biggest challenges we face is breaking through the invisible, often arbitrary barrier used by the national media to differentiate between events of national significance and those that are purely regional. This is despite the fact that Artes Mundi brings together contemporary artists from around the world who have either made new work for the show or are exhibiting important pieces in the UK for the first time. The BBC, our national broadcaster, cannot even be persuaded to send someone to look at it before deciding not to cover it.

We decided quite early on that we would have to commit a large amount of time, energy and finance into promoting an event of this scale at a national level, and though some money went towards advertising, the majority of our marketing budget has been spent on outsourcing PR. PR is a risk in itself as there is never a guaranteed result as there is with advertising. A bigger risk still was our decision to move away from an arts-only PR agency to one with a wider focus on the arts and cultural sphere more generally (Midas Public Relations). One thing we have learnt over the years is that working with an agency with a narrow focus can be problematic if you are not its highest paying client, and if your location requires a more considered and timely approach than a standard London-based exhibition campaign. This is because you are always competing with your agency’s other clients for the limited pitch time it has with arts editors, and you might be up against a major show at say the Tate, Whitechapel Gallery or Frieze. Another thing we have found is that an arts-only agency can be quite insular in its approach and focus. One of the key aims we had was to escape the ‘art ghetto’ and gain a wider coverage across consumer magazines, news and features, lead interviews, travel, finance and world affairs.

We deliberately chose an agency with a track record of delivering diverse and resourceful campaigns for clients, which targeted new as well as existing audiences. This is important if you want to move away from being an event known within the arts industry to one that is recognised by the general public. The move has been successful as we have had multiple pieces in The Guardian, The Independent and its sister paper i, The Times and The Sunday Times. We have also reached out beyond these papers to mainstream consumer magazines such as ShortList and Harper’s Bazaar.

Artes Mundi 6 opened at the end of October. For that month alone our media campaign has reached a total readership of over 31 million and the coverage we have received has had an advertising value equivalent of approximately £150,000, a 1000% return on our initial investment. We have received support from within the arts industry, for example, from Sir Nicholas Serota, Director of the Tate: “Artes Mundi opens our eyes to art and ideas from across the world. It gives us a new perspective on questions that confront us all in a global society where no one and no country lives in isolation from another.”

Despite the success we have had with our change in PR agency, there are still deep-rooted problems within the media and government arts spending that need addressing. Thanks to support from the Welsh government, we are fortunate that we can afford to outsource our PR. Many arts organisations outside London simply do not get the funding needed for their voice to be heard above those from the capital. How can smaller arts organisations compete? Further, quality coverage (features, interviews and news stories) would be easier to attain if we were based in London. We may have pierced a small hole in the old arbitrary barrier but it remains a strong inhibition to our success as a national arts event.

The relationship between the establishment in London and the rest of the UK is becoming increasingly strained, not just in the arts, but in general, as the recent Scottish referendum demonstrated. Until the national media recognise that the geographical definition of national and regional is not defined by the M25, and until the arts funding system enables those operating outside London to invest time and money into publicity and marketing, the cultural economy of the whole of the UK will be stunted.

Karen Mackinnon is Director of Artes Mundi 6 Exhibition and Prize.
www.artesmundi.org