A fusion of digital activity and street art is aiming to generate local media coverage and build a diverse audience for the UK's first major international urban art exhibition, Spank the Monkey. Conceived through a new partnership involving BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art and TH_NK, a brand technology company in the North East, the promotion uses an SMS campaign to draw together a city-wide trail of site-specific, one-off artworks and new commissions across Newcastle Gateshead.
The artworks are accompanied by a mobile number which signposts the location of each piece, taking participants on a journey through the exhibition. As well as the street campaign (pictured), digitally mastered street art is being hosted on the homepages of some of the regions leading organisations, including Newcastle Gateshead Initiative, Galaxy Radio, the Gate and Gateshead Council.