Episode 82 – Off The Wall (Special Episode)

This is a special episode with guests Chris Appleton and Karli Figueroa, highlighting the Off the Wall initiative led by WonderRoot...

The post Episode 82 – Off The Wall (Special Episode) appeared first on Sideways8.

This is a special episode with guests Chris Appleton and Karli Figueroa, highlighting the Off the Wall initiative led by WonderRoot and the Atlanta Super Bowl Host Committee.

The Off the Wall initiative is happening as Atlanta prepares to host Super Bowl LIII in February 2019.  Ten muralists have worked with community partners to design and install artworks that represent Atlanta’s civil rights legacy and vision for the future.  The content of the murals is informed by 41 key community conversations. The collection will be turned over to the City of Atlanta to be included in the City’s public art collection.

Chris Appleton is the Co-founder and Executive Director of WonderRoot- an arts organization that works to improve the cultural and social landscape of Atlanta through creative initiatives and community partnerships.  At WonderRoot, Chris drives the organization’s strategic growth, partnership development and oversees it’s talented and passionate staff.  Chris is an Atlanta native and Georgia State alumnus.  In addition to his work with WonderRoot, he serves on the Board of Directors of the Georgia Arts Network, the Advisory Board of Health Connect South, and the Atlanta BeltLine Public Art & Preservation Advisory Board. Beyond Chris’ professional work, he is an avid supporter of animal rights, lover of the outdoors and amateur vegan chef.

Karli Figueroa is the Associate Director of Marketing at Moxie – the largest advertising agency in Atlanta  Karli is currently the Senior Brand Manager for Moxie, the largest advertising agency in Atlanta. She also volunteers her time as the Vice President of the Atlanta Advertising Club. Her passions include networking, kickboxing, traveling, and coffee.

Adam: [00:08] Hi and welcome to the Good People, Good Marketing Podcast, a podcast about digital marketing and how to make it better so that good people and good organizations can have good marketing as well. I’m your host, Adam Walker, co-founder of Sideways Eight, a digital marketing agency; and 48in48, a nonprofit dedicated to hosting events that build 48 websites for 48 nonprofits in 48 hours.

[00:28] Today on the show, I have a special show for you. I have got guest Chris Appleton, the co-founder and executive director of the nonprofit WonderRoot. I also have Karli Figueroa, the associate director of marketing firm Moxie, and we are going to be talking about an initiative that WonderRoot and Moxie are partnering on called Off the Wall. And I’m actually going to stop talking right now and not say anymore because I’m going to ask one of you, Chris or Karli, give me a quick synopsis of what Off the Wall is and then we’ll talk about why it’s important.

Chris: [00:58] All right. Off The Wall is a citywide initiative led by WonderRoot, in partnership with the Atlanta Super Bowl Host Committee, the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, Moxie, City of Atlanta, a whole dose of other partners that seeks to elevate and amplify Atlanta’s role in advancing justice and equality; certainly building upon Atlanta’s legacy around the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s and then connecting that to other movements for justice and equality, women’s rights, students’ rights, immigrant and refugee rights, LGBTQ rights, and the many other movements that are underway here in Atlanta, all in the lead up to Super Bowl 53I. We’re doing that through murals, media and community conversation. Upwards of 30 permanent murals that explore Atlanta’s civil rights and social justice legacy will be installed here this fall and winter and unveiling them in January to the public.

Adam: [02:05] Fantastic. Fantastic. I love that. And so give me an idea of the scale of this project. I mean, I know you just said there’s a lot of sort of different components to it, murals and other things. Give me a sense of what the scale looks like for this.

Chris: [02:18] So ten artists from around the country, six are Atlanta-based, one’s in New Orleans, one in New York, one in Baltimore, and one in Miami, those ten artists attended over the summer forty-three community conversations that were hosted by, really, our leading organizations on civil rights, human rights and social justice issues in the Atlanta area: from Ebenezer Baptist Church where Dr. King was a pastor, To Care International, to Georgia Equality, Boys and Girls Club, Freedom University; amazing organizations hosted these community dialogues, forty-three of them. The artists attended all those community conversations and draw upon that for the inspiration and direction around the content of the murals that they’re going to be creating and then the associated media it will be producing with the project.

Adam: [03:13] Wow, that’s fantastic. So it sounds ambitious in scope. So, Karli, why don’t you kind of give me your take on it and how is Moxie sort of participating as a part of this as well?

Karli: [03:24] Yeah, of course. So we started conversations with Chris a while ago and as the largest agency in Atlanta and we’re rooted and very passionate about diversity inclusion, we really felt like it was our civic duty to support this initiative and we want to be drivers of positive change with purpose amongst our people and in our work. So when Chris brought this idea to us, we thrive to be Atlanta’s hometown agency so community is very important to us. So when he told us about this idea, we got so excited to the point where the folks in the room were getting goosebumps. It’s a really, really great initiative that is really aligned with what we are passionate about here at Moxie and just really raises the profile for Atlanta and the city’s legacy and the initiatives and movements they’re trying to make today.

Adam: [04:22] I love that. I’m a big fan of Moxie. Moxie has volunteered several times at 48in48, which is my nonprofit and appreciate that and definitely support the hometown. Okay. So, Chris, back to you. I’m curious like how did the idea form for this? This is a pretty broad initiative. It’s sort of citywide. We’re talking about a lot of moving parts all at once. That certainly doesn’t come together overnight. So what was the process of sort of having the idea and bringing that to the table and sort of making it happen?

Chris: [04:51] About a year ago, in the fall of 2017, WonderRoot was wrapping up some work that it had been doing in the English Avenue and Vine City neighborhoods around the new Mercedes Benz stadium, particularly interested in and thinking about the role that community identity and community storytelling plays as so much investment happens around the new stadium and the particular sort of vulnerability and risk that exist for legacy residents around the cultural contributions that they have made and that those neighborhoods have made to our city perhaps not being as elevated as they could be as the transformation of the west side takes place.

[05:42] And as some of that work was coming to a close, some residents and partners started asking, “God, the Super Bowl is coming to Atlanta in February of 2019. What are the stories that can be told about our neighborhoods? How are we going to present ourselves to the world? Three-hundred-fifty thousand people on the Super Bowl campus in the week leading up to the game. And then, of course, the tens of hundreds of millions of people who will have their eyes on Atlanta through the media, let’s leverage this moment that is the Super Bowl to really shine a spotlight on Atlanta as a beacon for hope and change, past, present, and future. And that was the sort of initial thread that we started pulling on that it eventually became Off the Wall.

Adam: [06:33] Wow. I love that because I mean Atlanta has, I think, a huge role to play in the conversation around equality and it has had a big role to play for a long period of time and what better time to do that than when the Super Bowl is sort of spotlighting the city. I mean, the Super Bowl doesn’t get to come to Atlanta on a regular weekly basis or anything. So, I think it’s a really smart, really innovative, really, really great way to showcase how we want to be involved in that conversation and then continue to solve these problems. So, kudos to you. I’m really excited to see more about it. So, Karli, question to you. If somebody wants to participate, wants to see the murals, wants to in any way be involved, what do they need to do?

Karli: [07:19] Well, as far as our involvement, it’s actually perfect you asked that. So when Chris told us the idea and we were getting everything ready, we’re actually having an event on Thursday that we’re inviting the Atlanta community in to learn more about the progress of the project and where we are. And Moxie really love this idea so much that we wanted to build an experience so people who were either walking by the artwork or beyond the people who are walking by the artwork could see it and hear the artist’s stories and hear the inspiration behind the murals. So this isn’t going to be live until the launch in 2019 but we are working on building a digital experience where people who are either walking by the artwork or beyond Atlanta, beyond our market, across the country, worldwide, people can go to this site and get a full experience to not only see the artwork, but hear the inspiration from the actual artist in their own words behind why they came up with the work that they did. So as far as getting involved, I could let Chris speak to how people can get more involved in the actual initiative. But if anyone who wants to learn more about the artwork and its influence and the ideation and creation behind it, this site will be live in early 2019 where people can actually learn more and hear more from the artists.

Adam: [08:59] Just a couple of questions about that, too. As far as people are experiencing it that are not here, I mean, is that going to be — like what type of experience? Can you give me kind of more of a framework around that? I mean, is it photos? Is it videos? Is it VR? Is it AR? Or is that top secret and you just can’t tell me?

Karli: [09:16] We’re working through all of those elements right now. However, it’s a combination. It could be video of the actual artist, video experiences, audio experiences, down to copy and how they can do that. But we’re also working in an element that encourages people to actually go and see all of the different experiences as well. So there will be a little bit of a gaming component and the person who is walking by the mural, it’ll pick up their location and identify that they’re standing in front of that mural and will actually pop up that mural figure to this site, the exact one they’re standing in front of. So we’re working through all the different content elements, but it’s mostly just letting people hear more and experience more from the murals from the artists themselves.

Adam: [10:07] Wow. I love that. That’s exciting. I can’t wait to check that out.

Karli: [10:10] We’re excited about it, too. And it’s been wonderful working with Chris and the partners and everything. So we’re really excited to see how it comes to fruition.

Adam: [10:18] All right. Chris, do you have any other ways that people can get involved?

Chris: [10:21] Well, in addition to experiencing Off the Wall through the microsite that the Moxie team has built for us and we’re thrilled about their partnership and their work with us on the microsite, visit offthewallatl.org. Sign up for our email list. We continue to host community conversations. You can stay up to date on what the artists are working on and witness the unveiling of their designs. And then certainly, by signing up on our email list and following Off the Wall on Instagram, #offthewallatl, you can participate in our various mural activations in the week leading up to the Super Bowl in January, February 2019.

Adam: [11:11] Oh, that sounds fantastic. I will definitely follow myself and encourage others to do so as well. So this was fantastic. Thanks so much for being on the show. It’s a different type of show but I’m really excited about the initiative and appreciate you taking the time to join me.

Karli: [11:25] Thank you, Adam.

Chris: [11:27] Yeah, thank you so much for having us.

Adam: [11:29] Thanks for listening to the Good People, Good Marketing Podcast. To get more resources about digital marketing, make sure to go to goodpeoplegoodmarketing.com where you can find more podcasts, blogs, and other fun resources. Also, if you want to find me, your host, you can find me on Twitter, @ajwalker; and on my blog at adamjwalker.com, where I blog about leadership, productivity, habit building and the craziness of having five kids. Thanks and tune in next time.

The post Episode 82 – Off The Wall (Special Episode) appeared first on Sideways8.