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Digital signage takes 'Art Everywhere'

The out-of-home advertising industry, both static and digital, is partnering with some of America's top art museums to take America's greatest art to the public.

August 7, 2014 by Christopher Hall — w, t

Great works of art are usually reserved for the hushed halls of museums or galleries — quiet places of serious contemplation.

But for a few days at least, some of America's greatest works of art will be dropped right into the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

"Art Everywhere US," being billed as "the largest outdoor art show ever conceived," will see more than 50 masterpieces of American art displayed on as many as 50,000 digital and static advertising displays in all 50 states, from roadside digital billboards to static displays on bus shelters and subway platforms to digital signage screens in airports and health clubs.

The display runs through the end of August, and the 58 images were in part chosen by online voting from the collections of five major museums across the country — the Art Institute of Chicago; the Dallas Museum of Art; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. The museums have collaborated with the Outdoor Advertising Association of America and its members to present Art Everywhere US with the cooperation of artists, estates, foundations and rights agencies.

Art Everywhere US also is running on social media channels including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest, including an Instagram contest encouraging viewers to post selfies with Art Everywhere US displays using the hashtag #ArtEverywhereUS.

"We're bringing art to the highways, byways and mobile devices so people can discover and engage with great American art in unexpected places," National Gallery spokeswoman Deborah Ziska told Digital Signage Today in an email. "Hopefully, this will be the start of a massive public American art appreciation course that will continue for many years to come."

Complementing the social-mobile connection, selected pedestrian-level displays, such as bus shelters and kiosks, will feature Blippar interactive image recognition technology. By using the free Blippar app on smartphones or mobile devices people can view the artwork through their devices to unlock additional information, including augmented reality experiences, audio guides, and artist and museum content.

The out-of-home advertising industry has a long history of public service, donating more than $450 million every year in pro bono advertising space for public service and worthy causes, OAAA CMO Stephen Freitas told Digital Signage Today in a recent telephone interview.

"Our interest in doing this was really twofold from the Association's point of view," he said. "First off, we think it's a great way to show off the capabilities of out-of-home advertising, the range of formats that we have and the variety of the locations and the quality of the imaging that out-of-home can provide in the marketplace, and, second, we want to be good stewards of the public space."

So when the opportunity was presented to the OAAA membership, Freitas said, "Our members got very excited very quickly."

The monthlong project, which kicked off with a digital takeover of Times Square in New York City earlier this week, includes both static and digital signage across the country.

"In terms of the digital specifically, it's been really a wonderful platform to have," Freitas said.

The OAAA members have "an enormous volume" of static out-of-home inventory around the country showing the artwork, he said, but they also have a significant number of digital locations, "from roadside digital billboards to digital spectaculars in Times Square to digital in airports, malls and subway systems, as well as smaller-format screens in health clubs and movie theaters around the country" providing "tremendous" exposure for Art Everywhere US. (The first Art Everywhere project was carried out last year in the U.K.)

"What the digital really does, though, is it allows us to bring more art to more people in more places," with digital signs cycling through numerous pieces of art on a single sign, he said. Of the 58 artworks, 17 were formatted specifically for the digital format. "So that brings more art to more people."

Outdoor advertising giant Clear Channel Outdoor is one of the more than 60 OAAA members participating in Art Everywhere in the U.S.

"At CCO we take very seriously our responsibility to give back to the communities in which we operate," the company's senior vice president of marketing and communications, David Grabert, told Digital Signage Today in an email. "We do this every day though emergency and weather alerts, AMBER alerts, support for law enforcement (including the FBI), PSAs for local charities and government agencies — and also local arts organizations.

"The beauty of Art Everywhere US is that the entire industry has rallied to create an incredible moment for the American people," he wrote. "By working together, we're bringing breathtaking works of art to the masses, including many who might otherwise not see them or learn about them in school. Creativity is core to out-of-home media, and through our displays over the decades we have helped to curate the public space with incredible commercial art. Art Everywhere demonstrates the power of the visual image to stir emotion, incite the imagination and move people."

That recognition of the industry's public service responsibilities and its capabilities to bring added value to communities around the country was a significant motivator to participate for the OAAA and its members, Freitas said. The OAAA hopes this kind of project can "inspire" the people seeing it to not only appreciate what out-of-home can provide to them but also what it is trying to do in terms of sharing American art on the out-of-home platform, he said.

"We understand and recognize that our medium operates within the neighborhoods and communities of America, and so we have to be good stewards of that space and partners in a community," Freitas said. "And so anytime we can do something that helps, that helps find missing children or that helps locate criminals, or that helps in emergency situations, or that can bring beautiful art to America so that Americans can see some of the great art in America's greatest museums, we think that that's a good thing."

According to Freitas, Richard Reed, the co-founder of smoothie company Innocent Drinks who also came up with the idea for the first Art Everywhere, was at the Times Square kickoff for the U.S. iteration of the project. The germ of the idea for Reed was just seeing a piece of art as he was walking down the street to work one day and getting a lift out of it, Freitas said.

"And we just hope that's what we can do here with this campaign, that people will find something beautiful and unexpected during their commute or when they're going to the market or whatever they're doing," he said. "And they'll just pause and they'll take a moment and they'll just enjoy it. And if we can do that, I think everybody wins."

See a photo gallery of the Times Square takeover and additional Art Everywhere US signs around the country by clicking here.

(Photos courtesy of Robert Landau/OAAA.)

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