WorK at
Contemporary Craft
Pittsburgh, PA
From 2017 - 2020, I was the Marketing Manager at Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh, PA. Contemporary Craft is an arts non-for-profit organization focused on contemporary art in craft media.
The position’s responsibility covered design, branding, and strategic marketing for the organization: graphic design and production of marketing collaterals, content generation, social media management, e-newsletter management, website maintenance, media relations, marketing partnerships, photography, project management, and event planning.
I was involved in every process relating to marketing, from researching to developing the strategies, from coordinating with multiple departments for an event or campaign to the actual execution of strategy and action plans.
One of the most exciting things at Contemporary Craft is working alongside exceptional artists and art handcrafted by regional, national, and international artists. Coming from an art and design background, I noticed how art brightens up my day and would love for everyone to find the small, creative moments in their busy lives.
Many people feel discouraged by the thought of visiting an art exhibition or attending an artist-led workshop. “This is not for me,” “I am not creative/artistic,” “I don’t understand art” are just some of the barriers I’ve heard. However, art and craft are closer to people’s lives than they think. From the cup we drink from to the jewelry we wear, from how we tie our shoelaces to making a birthday card for a friend.
When creating written and visual content for the organization, I always keep the “people” in mind - those who love art, those interested in learning about art but haven’t taken a step forward, and those looking for a place to have an experience.
One of the things I have focused on at Contemporary Craft is strengthening the organization’s institutional marketing. This strategy supported audience growth, increased visitor engagement on-site and online, raised brand awareness, and grew the number of exposures in the media.
Press release sample:
E-newsletter writing samples:
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During Stephanie's time at Contemporary Craft, the organization won the 2017 and 2018 Constant Contact All-Star Awards. This All-Star Award recognizes the most successful 10% of Constant Contact’s customers, based on their significant achievements using email marketing to engage their customer base and drive results for their organization during the prior year. Both e-newsletter examples provided below have Open Rate > 22% and Click Rate > 11%.
In addition to the day-to-day marketing efforts, I was also involved in many special projects as the project lead. Here are a few selected projects:
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2019-2020 | Relocation and sustaining marketing campaign with consultant Judy Kelly and marketing agency Blender Inc. Project included brand refresh, relocation campaign, and establishing sustainable marketing strategies and action plans.
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2019 | RADical Days are a series of free and public annual events to showcase The Allegheny Regional Asset District organizations. Contemporary Craft's RADical Day event was a full-facility, full-day event marking the organization's move to its new, permanent location in 2020. The event included a garage sale and book/exhibition catalog giveaway, an organization history timeline made with past exhibition postcards, a leave-you-mark graffiti wall art activity, and a hands-on paper weaving coaster activity.
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2019 | Contemporary Craft's new home press event with marketing agency Shift Collaborative. The project included media relations, event planning, design assets, and press materials. Renee Rosensteel documented the event, but I did the basic video editing on the published video.
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2018 | Consumer behavior project with professor Cait Lamberton from the University of Pittsburgh. The project included signage messaging and position testing, direct mail postcard A/B testing, on-site traffic flow observations, and being one of the "clients" for Professor Lamberton's consumer journey mapping student final project at the University of Pittsburgh, Katz Graduate School of Business.
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2017-18 | Market research and brand awareness project with Prescott & Associates. The project included a comprehensive online survey, one-on-one interviews, on-site intercept interviews, and behavioral observations.
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2017 | Shelter: Crafting a Safe Home exhibition video production with Two Kids and a Camera.