Title	GROUNDWORK
Brand	SERPENTINE GALLERIES
Product/Service	SERPENTINE GALLERIES
Category	G07. Corporate Purpose & Social Responsibility
Entrant	WETRANSFER Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Idea Creation	WETRANSFER Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Production	WETRANSFER Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS

Name	Company	Position
Holly Fraser	WePresent	Editor In Chief
Danielle Boelling	WePresent	Managing Editor
Suzanne Tromp	WePresent	Commissioning Editor
Karen van de Kraats	WePresent	Art Director
Lumir Spanihel	WeTransfer	Designer
Leonora Chance	WeTransfer	Public Relations Manager

Why is this work relevant for Direct?

The project’s uniqueness lies in the fact that it's a storytelling project with a different cadence. By enabling ‘crowd philanthropy’ on our digital platform, we enable ‘the little guy’ to participate in raising funds to help combat the climate crisis during an unprecedented year where people have spent the majority of their time at home. Out of the two artist campaigns that have launched so far, over 20,000 euros have been raised. The largest single donation made by a member of the public has so far been 500 euros.

Background

As a B Corp certified company, we balance people and planet with profit. One of the ways we do this is by using our Climate Neutral Certified digital platform to bring positive change through ethical storytelling and supporting causes we care about. Why? Because we believe creativity can be used as a force for good. Our collaborator the contemporary art institution, Serpentine Galleries, has an Ecology department that pushes the boundaries between art and activism led by curator Lucia Petriousti and Hans Olrich Obrist, one of the world’s most famous contemporary art curators.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

From January until June 2021, contemporary art institution, Serpentine Galleries and our editorial platform come together to present Groundwork: a series of five digital multimedia compilations exploring the inspiration and research behind 5 artists’ new work for Back to Earth, the Serpentine’s multi-year project focused on instigating change in response to the climate crisis. The five artists participating include Revital Cohen & Tuur Van Baalen, Vivienne Westwood, Himali Singh Soin, Karrabing Film Collective, Tabita Rezaire. Each artist comes from a different part of the world - UK, Belgium, India, French Guiana, Australia - presenting diverse perspectives on the climate crisis. Groundwork aims to bring greater awareness to the global climate crisis through a compelling presentation of artistic research and expression. Inspiring readers to act on the artist’s ecological vision by enabling public donations to their chosen climate charity via our digital platform.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Delving into their creative process, we asked each artist to share their research and inspiration for their Back To Earth work. From visual references to written excerpts, we turned this material into digital multimedia compilations encompassing imagery, film, soundscapes and animations, which tell the story of their environmental campaign. Groundwork’s visual identity combined the simplicity of Wikipedia encyclopaedias with the activist connotations of graffiti spray paint to present a unique online series which gave each artist the opportunity to share their vision with a large global audience of 4M monthly site visitors in an innovative way. We enabled crowd philanthropy to the 5 artist-chosen charities by creating wallpaper backdrops for the charities to display on our digital platform. Our 70 million monthly users in 190 countries could donate by clicking on the wallpaper to a landing page or via the editorial. Our platform’s community is made up of creative professionals.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

To create the 5 editorial features, artist wallpaper and charity wallpaper backdrops, our creative studio used a mixture of archival material and previews of the artworks presented by the artists in Groundwork. Including animations, photographs, film material and immersive soundscapes that would trigger when a user hovers over certain icons on the page. The graffiti elements were animated to give it that spray paint aesthetic, and the archival material was placed in grey boxes as if they’re taken from Wikipedia. A series of animated keywords relating to the specific artists were presented as text breaks throughout each editorial feature. The production started - 16th December 2020 The first artist launched on 28th January 2021 with the campaign ending 31st June 2021. Second artist launch: 23rd February Third artist launch: 26th March Fourth artist launch: Fourth artist launch: 22nd April Fifth artist launch: 3rd June

List the results (30% of vote)

Groundwork has so far had over 1m site visitors spending an average 4 minutes on site . Groundwork has enabled these artists to continue sharing their work about the urgency for climate action during the pandemic while Serpentine has been closed to the public. Our digital platform’s reach - Groundwork has so far had over 1m site visitors spending an average 4 minutes on site - also means that these artists’ environmental campaigns are being shared with a much larger audience than would have ever visited the galleries.

Please tell us how the brand purpose inspired the work

But the project’s uniqueness lies in the fact that it's a storytelling project with a different cadence. By enabling ‘crowd philanthropy’ on our digital platform, we enable ‘the little guy’ to participate in raising funds to help combat the climate crisis during an unprecedented year where people have spent the majority of their time at home. Out of the two artist campaigns that have launched so far, over 20,000 euros have been raised. The largest single donation made by a member of the public has so far been 500 euros. The donations made to the 5 artist charities (Climate Emergency Fund, Cool Earth, Live to Love, Art Residency for Ancestors, and Amakaba) will help support climate activists on the frontline, halt deforestation in the Amazon and sustain communities in Australia and the Himalayas.