Give ‘Em What They Really Want: How To Create An Effective Artist Press Kit

Recently, my company updated my wife’s professional artist website: HollyMulcahy.com. A large part of that project was updating all her press kit information.

Previously, all the typical press kit content, such as bios and pics, was available via direct download from her site. But times have changed and there are better ways to go about making that content available.

Ultimately, the goal is to make things as easy as possible for arts marketers to acquire that content so they can maximize the time spent compiling effective promotional material. Saving arts marketers time and effort is the real gift that keeps on giving.

Since we were doing the work anyway, I decided to document the process and use it as an example for how to go about reproducing similar results for your own efforts.

To that end, I published an article at ArtsHacker.com that provides step by step instructions on how to modernize artist press kits. Everything from the content artists should include to the most efficient delivery methods.

If you ever wondered what dimensions to use for dedicated Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram promotional images, you’ll find that and much, much more.

Press Kits: What Arts Orgs Actually Want

About Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house.

I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why.

In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu.

For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

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