ArtworxTO: Toronto’s Year of Public Art 2021-2022 was a major initiative of the City of Toronto. The program looked to draw attention to and highlight the City’s extensive public art collection, make space for new voices, and bring more public art to all corners of Toronto. Commencing our work in late 2019, and with an initial launch planned for the fall of 2020, we went to market in early March. Then, COVID-19 happened, and the world shut down. Companies and brands known to sponsor events and properties in the Canadian market ceased seeking new opportunities.
ArtworxTO
Pivoting on a grand scale to bring art to a pandemic-shuttered city.
Challenge
Approach
We worked collaboratively with all ArtworxTO stakeholders: the City, the Mayor’s Advisory Committee, artists, and programmers. We also retooled our intended approach, pivoting to engage the City’s Developer and Property Management companies to support and sponsor the program. Leveraging City leaders and civic boosters, we reached far and wide to engage as many viable prospects as possible. We secured almost $2.2M in sponsor-funded revenue, as well as $1.5M in additional OOH media to the benefit of ArtworxTO overall as well as our partners.
Result
In the face of a pandemic, our tireless efforts, in concert with that of multiple stakeholder groups, ensured the funding of ArtworxTO’s extensive programming, events, and activities – giving artists around the city an opportunity to showcase their work like never before.
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