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Sculpture by the Lakes (SBTL) is a beautiful, tranquil 26-acre park owned by renowned sculptor Simon Gudgeon and his wife, leading horticulturalist, Monique Gudgeon. They bought it in 2007 when it was still a working fishery set within a barren, treeless landscape. Over the next few years, Simon and Monique embarked on a labour of love planting thousands of trees, creating a haven for wildlife and providing a stunning backdrop to Simon’s evocative, majestic artworks. In 2011, they opened it to the public. Since then, SBTL has grown and evolved into a multi-award-winning tourist attraction that includes the free-entry Makers Yard, and that hosts a range of high-profile events and festivals throughout the year.
In March 2020, during the first Covid-19 lockdown, Simon Gudgeon approached Darren Northeast PR to help him organise and promote the Dorset Arts Festival. This was a very brave initiative as, at the time, nearly all customer-facing businesses, especially hospitality and visitor attractions, were closed. We took on the challenge. The Dorset Arts Festival was the first event to take place in Dorset following the lifting of lockdown. It was a resounding success with capacity attendance and generating extensive media coverage. Since then, we have continued to work with Sculpture By The Lakes on a wide-ranging brief. For this case study, we focus on our media work for them.
Our brief was to produce imaginative, targeted media approaches which would attract journalist interest and lead to significant national, regional and specialist coverage.
We devised a range of PR strategies built around imaginative media approaches that would pique journalist interest. For instance, to promote FORM: The Sculpture Show, (a 6-week exhibition featuring more than 200 artworks) we sent out a film of Simon installing a 9-foot tall Polar Bear sculpture that he wanted to have ‘floating’ on a lake. A real logistical challenge! We invited journalists, bloggers and social influencers to SBTL to experience it for themselves; we also researched and then produced targeted approaches introducing Simon and Monique’s work to specific feature writers and programme producers. Because of the breadth of their work – Simon’s Art, Monique’s horticultural expertise – plus their fascinating back story, we had some fantastic material to work with and offer to the media.
Sculpture By The Lakes has received exceptional and wide-ranging national exposure: interviews with Simon and Monique; features on the gardens and the artworks; news items about events and festivals.
Media highlights that really stand out from the last couple of years include Sculpture By The Lakes being selected as the location for the BBC 2 TV programme “Your Garden Made Perfect”; Simon on the popular BBC Radio 4 programme Ramblings, walking with Clare Balding and talking to her about his life, his work and creating Sculpture By The Lakes 25.2.21; Monique on BBC Radio 4’s Open Country talking about her work on building the National Collection for Forsythia at Sculpture by the Lakes 24.6.21.
In addition, SBTL has been featured in national broadsheets The Times, The Sunday Times, The Telegraph and The Guardian; in specialist and consumer media e.g.Great British Life; The English Garden; Country and Town House; and received wall-to-wall regional coverage.
The impact and effects of media exposure is cumulative – you might see a reference on social media, then read a news item in the local paper, then hear a feature on the radio, you put them together, and boom! You have awareness.
Despite the Covid challenges of the past few years and now the current economic crisis, interest in (e.g. FB followers have doubled since 2020) and visitor attendance at Sculpture By The Lakes is higher than ever … and FORM: The Sculpture Show won Tourism Event/Festival of the Year in the Dorset Tourism Awards 2022.
We are hopeful that SBTL’s extensive and innovative media coverage has played a significant role in their continuing success.