Where Art Makes Culture

Independent creative agency JOAN, recently partnered with the Nia Centre, Canada's first professional multidisciplinary Black arts facility and home for Black-Canadian creativity, to promote the center’s opening. This is the first space where Black artists are celebrated, their stories validated, and their dreams empowered.

Developed by JOAN Creative, the launch campaign titled "Nia Centre: Where Art Makes Culture” focuses on a rebrand, inclusive of a new strategy that builds awareness of the NIA Centre’s location and space ahead of its grand opening in the Fall of 2023. Which positions the facility as a beacon for Black artists to cultivate and hone their artistic expression.

The marketing platform strengthened the reach of their launch campaign through film, digital OOH, wild postings, audio, pre-roll and digital banners. The marketing assets emerged as a potent driver which resulted in over 20 million impressions for OOH, and an outstanding video completion rate of 60.64% from skippable placements. Spotify and YouTube took the lead with the broadest reach, collectively exceeding 2 million impressions.

The brand platform establishes Nia Centre as a top-tier Canadian art institution through the redesign of key brand visuals such as the logo, static and motion graphics, typography, color palette, interior wayfinding, exterior facade, exhibition design and merchandise. The unique graphic element which frames stills and motion celebrates the art and talent as having a place to finally call home, and a tagline that evokes a calling for all artists in the African diaspora.

As part of the campaign, JOAN designed the opening of ‘Here to Stay’ alongside TIFF as a co-branded exhibition, presented by Nia Centre for the Arts. Here to Stay is an experiential exploration of the Black spaces (past, present and future) that have shaped Toronto culture. This moment was shared with the greater Toronto community before the Canadian premiere of Ava Duvernay’s latest film, Origin, which also launched the Viola Desmond Cinema on Viola Desmond Day. The exhibition ran through 1/7 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.

At the center of the project is a hero film. The :60 film, with :30 and :15 cutdowns, begins with a Black teenage girl in the center’s neighborhood of Little Jamaica. She has a wide smile as she looks up at the institution's bold, modern facade. As the film showcases Nia Centre’s premium spaces and Black artists at work, a woman's voice delivers a powerful poetic manifesto that reminds the audience to think about what it means to "make your place."

Throughout the film, various artists create, perform and show their works in the center’s multiple spaces, which were designed using materials, color choices, shapes and structures reminiscent of the African diaspora. This uplifting pro bono campaign combines JOAN's mission to make modern brands legendary with its commitment to giving a voice to underrepresented communities.