Cultural Counsel began working with the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas in Austin in the summer of 2017, ahead of the opening of a major new landmark for both the museum and the city: Ellsworth Kelly’s Austin, a chapel-like structure that stood next to the museum and might be considered the recently deceased artist’s magnum opus. For the Blanton it was an opportunity to show off its chops as a contemporary museum on par with any found in New York or Los Angeles. Cultural Counsel capitalized on the opportunity, with a number of significant press coups, chief among them a meaty feature on the work in T: The New York Times Style Magazine, a rave review in The Wall Street Journal, and the coveted cover of Artforum.

The Blanton also hired Cultural Counsel to help it launch a show displaying a new acquisition: a painting of the KKK by Vincent Valdez. Cultural Counsel managed to secure clips at Artsy, The Guardian and The New York Times, all while navigating the museum through choppy political waters. Most recently, we helped develop the Blanton’s profile as a national model for museums in times of crisis, garnering a Wall Street Journal op-ed by Director Simone Wicha on avoiding layoffs amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Selected Press