United by Art drove record attendance during a time of social distancing.
Capacity utilization increase
The Challenge
Fall 2020: Minneapolis/St. Paul was ground zero for racial trauma after George Floyd’s murder and still reeling from Covid-19. Cultural institutions faced plummeting attendance as lockdowns and social unrest kept communities fractured. The city didn’t just need reopening—it needed healing.
Stagnant separation
COVID isolation kept people apart. Racial division drove people into corners. Cultural fatigue made beloved institutions feel stale. The absence of change had become a barrier to healing. Minneapolis/St. Paul was trapped in trauma, unable to reconnect with the creative power that had always defined it.
Art as the great unifier
MIA, Walker, Weisman—held centuries of human expression designed to connect people across time, culture, and experience. When everything divides us, art unites us. InspireMSP brought these “competing” institutions together under one banner as collaborative healers using creativity to reconnect our community. Famous works from different institutions and Prince’s Paisley Park came together to create new art, symbolizing unity in crisis—launched across outdoor, TV, and print as the city reopened.
The Idea
We set an iconic Prince song against iconic art from Minneapolis’s cultural institutions—juxtaposing the city’s legendary musical heritage with its world-class visual collections. The music reminded us of our shared creative soul. The art showed us it was still alive, still powerful, still capable of bringing us back together.
Citywide takeover
Then we blanketed the city with OOH, print ads, social, and digital—iconic imagery reminding people about the healing power of art. Every touchpoint reinforced the same truth: when a wounded city needs to reconnect, our cultural institutions aren’t competing for attention, they’re collaborating for community.
