What a bunch of drunk art handlers can teach us about PR

How can an arts organization get itself (or its latest venture) on the front page of the Arts section of The New York Times?

Not having any experience in arts PR, I can’t say for sure, but I can take a few guesses. Your best bet is probably to maintain a good relationship with the people at the Times who cover your industry.  Or, judging from some recent(ish) stories from the section’s front page, maybe you could put on a really great (or really terrible) exhibition or performance (or whatever it is you do), leak something exciting about an upcoming project, have a public falling out with one of your famous members of staff, or do something controversial.

Or maybe you could learn something from last weekend’s Art Handling Olympics, and have some fun.

The Art Handling Olympics

The Art Handling Olympics was held last weekend on the Lower East Side, and was essentially an afternoon-long joke about the art world and the things that art handlers (“the backbone of the art industry” — most of them penniless artists themselves) have to put up with. It’s possibly the most genius art event I’ve ever heard of.

Yesterday, the Times not only covered the ‘Olympics’ on the front page of the Arts section, but also gave it it’s own highly entertaining slide-show of pictures on the Times’ Web site too. That’s coverage that lots of arts organizations would kill for. So how did an event that served no greater or more artistic purpose than having fun and getting drunk get that coverage? What can arts (or other) PR people can learn from it?

• Do something different – a fairly standard PR lesson, but still a good one. Journalists (and normal people) like things that are new and different (and entertaining). If you want people’s attention, don’t always go for the textbook approach. Do something interesting and different, but remember to make sure it fits with your goals and your organization’s identity. In this case, the goal was to have fun (good goal, that) and possibly also to demonstrate that art handlers are creative and intelligent people — the coverage from the Times was, as far as I can see, unexpected and unintentional, but also unavoidable.

• Don’t take yourself too seriously — maybe less of a standard PR lesson this one, but still an important one. As I’ve said in a previous post (almost) everyone likes to laugh and everyone likes people (and organizations) that can laugh at themselves and have fun, just like these art handlers. Under the right circumstances, doing things that people enjoy, which make them laugh or which show that your organization is human and doesn’t take itself too seriously could well lead to a more positive perception of your company or more coverage of your organization (if that’s what you’re aiming for) than thousands of earnest press releases and pitch letters about how important or interesting what you’re doing is.

• Don’t try too hard — be genuine. Part of the reason the Art Handling Olympics made it into the Times, I think, is because it wasn’t a PR stunt, it was just a group of people having fun. The best PR isn’t necessarily about having the best pitch or the fanciest, most original or most fun event, but about being an honest, genuine and human organization — like this group of otherwise anonymous art handlers — that makes people want to talk about and get involved with what you’re doing.

What do you think? Valid lessons, or a transparent attempt write a PR blog about something amusing but entirely unrelated to PR? :)