What?s the story?

All too often, arts PR campaigns look no further than securing listings, and if you’re lucky, a quick preview piece. But there’s much more to it than this. Coverage of cultural events doesn’t just belong on the arts pages, and with careful thinking, your exhibition or show could feature across many different sections of the media, reaching out to wider audiences, including non-arts attenders. The key is to think about the stories behind the work, and not just the finished performance or exhibition. For starters, talk to everyone involved in bringing the project together. Find out about their backgrounds, what they’ve done previously and how they got involved in the current project. What else do they do? What have their experiences been of working on the project? Obviously, not every interview will throw up a front page story, but you’ll be surprised once you get going just how many interesting tales are buried in the making of an arts event. From national women’s weeklies to regional television news, and from national Black and minority ehthnic titles to repeated hits of the news pages of regional newspapers, offering actual stories rather than just press releases detailing event information allows your project to increase its media coverage exponentially.

Consider sections other than listings, previews and reviews right from the start when planning your PR campaign. Consider radio and TV programmes other than just ones about the arts. If you are not familiar with them, buy all the Saturday and Sunday papers and cut out and keep the feature/ interview type sections that may be relevant. If you have the time and money, repeat this throughout the week. Some but not all sections will be replicated on newspapers’ websites. Also, make sure you listen to as much radio and watch as much television as possible to familiarise yourself with possible outlets. But be sensible. You’re not going to get your work on Eastenders! Keep an eye and an ear out for news angles that may relate to your exhibition or show. Think about the cultural context of the work and tie it in to current events. When pitching to a news desk, make sure your news angle is up front. ‘XYZ show opens on such a date’ is not news – unless you’re talking big names. You need to point out why your work is relevant to current issues in the news.

Make sure you know everything you can about the artists. Women’s magazines are always hunting for first person stories and don’t mind giving a plug alongside. Newspapers such as the Mail and the Express are good targets for a winning human interest story. Self-published author Robert Graham secured a double page spread in the Daily Mail for his first novel ‘Holy Joe’, along with a prime-time interview on BBC Radio 2. The reason for the media interest was Robert talking about his inspiration – the ever-topical subject of stillbirth in the family. Letters pages can be a good place to start a debate about your event. Local is easier than national, but working with Beacon Art Project in 2006, we colonised the Guardian’s letters page for a whole week, debating art and refugees in rural UK communities.