Johnathan Branson - Engagement Campaigns

Here's a selection of engagement projects and programmes I've developed and run over the years:

Royal Leamington Spa Colour Palette

Warwick District Council (WDC) commissioned artist Stacey Barnfield to develop a colour palette for Royal Leamington Spa based on residents and visitors' suggestions on what people, places, objects, or things people think are synonymous with the town. The new piece of public art is installed in the pedestrian underpass at Leamington Station, which was be seen by thousands of people during the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. My responsibilities included identifying an interesting and engaging creative solution for the site - within the parameters of the site's restrictions, developing the engagement campaign, stakeholder management, and artist support. The project was also replicated for Warwick station.

CultureFest 2022

Warwick district is excited to host the Lawn Bowls, Para Lawn Bowls and the start and finish of the Road Race Cycling event as part of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games in July and August 2022. In response to this once in a lifetime opportunity, I'm developing a month-long cultural programme, with the support of Warwick District Council's partners, to showcase and celebrate the incredible arts and heritage venues, artists, and creatives in the area - with events and activities taking place across Royal Leamington Spa, Warwick, Kenilworth and Whitnash from Saturday 16 July to Sunday 21 August 2022. CultureFest aims to encourage the people who live, work, and visit the area to discover or rediscover world-class venues and artists across our four towns and find new stories and experiences by young people and emerging talent. The festival will add value to Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and give people a lasting memory of the district. Visit website

Digitising a Collection (2021-present)

Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum aims to make its collection more accessible to new and existing audiences using digital technology. In 2021, I engaged RiVR, a company that specialises in virtual reality, augmented reality and photogrammetry, to digitise a number of objects in the collection with the aim of putting them, albeit virtually, back in the hands of the people who live, work, and visit the district. Digitised objects will form part of an AR trail around the town in 2022 and feature as part of CultureFest. I was responsible for developing the project idea and producing a brief, before handing it over to gallery Curators to deliver. Here's a 3D model of one of the objects:

#humansofleamington (2019)

The Humans of Leamington engagement campaign was developed as part of the Tate and Artists Rooms' Diane Arbus exhibition at Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum. It celebrated the creative talent in the town and explored the themes of self-identity and self-expressions through a portraiture campaign. It successfully engaged 16-30 year olds, and was supported by 23 local shops, BBC Coventry and Warwickshire, TEDxLeamington, and many others. The portraits featured online and in strategic locations around the town, further supporting the local authorities place making agenda. I designed and delivered the full campaign, including fundraising, artist commissions, recruitment of participants, designing and implementing a marketing and engagement strategy, PR, and reporting. Visit website

Family Days (2015-2019)

The University of Warwick's Family Days welcomed local family audiences to campus twice a year to enjoy a programme of visual arts, dance, theatre, music, workshops, sport, science, and food and drink. It engaged communities that surrounded campus to improve relationships with residents, challenge and positively improve perceptions of ‘university’, and engage audiences identified as having low levels of arts participation. I grew the programme from 11 to 52 events, increased budget by 400%, and increased attendance from 800 to 5,000 with a 60% repeat visitor rate . Responsibilities included programming, marketing, event management, fundraising, reporting, and everything in between. You can see photographs from The Great Outdoors Family Day here.

Teachers' Membership Scheme
(2015-2019)

I established a Teacher’s Membership scheme at Warwick Arts Centre, which embeded the organisation's artistic programme within schools' curriculums. It engaged 211 teachers from 71 schools in WAC's catchment area via a series of targeted communications and events.

Ambassador Schemes (2014-2019)

Family, Student and Access Ambassador schemes provided a platform for Warwick Arts Centre to test business development ideas on service users. 63 Ambassadors, who were representative of the organisation's audience base, were trusted critical friends and supported all departments to help ensure that programming, creative learning and marketing teams channelled their energy and resources in the right direction. Ambassadors developed a WeChat social media platform to engage Mandarin-speaking people in Coventry, an audio guide and fanzine for the Mead Gallery, and produced an accessibility guide for the organisation. I designed and managed the Ambassador Scheme, and was responsible for recruiting and managing participants, managing Ambassador projects, and plugging Ambassadors in to the wider business.

Instrumental (2015-2019)

The Instrumental project aimed to reduce the age of the average classical music attendees at Warwick Arts Centre by working with young people via schools and Coventry Music Service. Over five years, 1,200+ young people who wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to attend a world-class concert took part in a music workshop and attended a concert. I designed and managed the project, and was responsible for recruiting and managing participants and stakeholders (orchestras, schools, Music Services) and all associated activity, including marketing, workshops coordination, and reporting.

Mead Gallery Engagement Campaigns (2014-2019)

The Mead Gallery is one of the Midlands' premier venues for the presentation of the visual arts. I was responsible for the Mead Gallery’s audience development campaigns, which ranged from delivering online engagement projects and informing educational packs to interpretation, most notably for Clare Woods, John Piper, and the Human Document exhibitions. I also developed the gallery’s online archive of all past exhibitions. Visit Mead Gallery website

University of Warwick: Student Mentoring (2014-2019)

Every year, I mentored a small group of MA Cultural Policy students. I gave them real-world audience development challenges to tackle, informed by Warwick Arts Centre's strategic priorities. At the end of each project, students would present back proposed solutions to course leaders and Warwick Arts Centre's Leadership Team. The project formed part of their coursework and contributed to their final grade.

Echoes from the Edge (2012-2014)

Echoes was a two-year project that uncovered and explored the histories and stories of Digbeth and Highgate from the 1950s to the 1980s. Working with Friction Art's Directors, I helped engage local people, archivists, and activists to compile a huge archive of oral histories relating to the areas – which you can now access through the Library of Birmingham’s archive. As project Manager, I was responsible for the management and coordination of this flagship Heritage Lottery Funded project, which included marketing, audience development, monitoring, reporting, budget, volunteer recruitment, commissioning, event management, partnership working and stakeholder management. Visit Echoes website

The Big Picture (2008-2009 )

The award winning Big Picture successfully achieved a step change in C2DE audiences' levels of engagement across 16 venues in the West Midlands. I lead on the regional audience engagement campaign, which included delivering roadshows and workshops. I also helped attach some of the 113,000 photographs to the world largest photomosaic, installed at Millenium Point in Birmingham, which was the primary hook / driver for the project. Furthermore, I lead on the Big Picture Legacy project, which re-engaged captured audiences via a targeted marketing campaign and introduced them to arts and cultural provision in the West Midlands.