Carrie Culpepper developed messaging and materials for the Institute for Contemporary Art during the startup of this forthcoming museum at Virginia Commonwealth University. When it came time to plan the groundbreaking festivities, rather than a standard suits-with-shovels groundbreaking event, she and her team planned a paint performance in which major donors splattered paint on the site of the future museum. A stencil was then peeled back to reveal the ICA logo. The logo reveal was followed by an actual groundbreaking via a giant backhoe performed by VCU School of the Arts Dean Joe Seipel to cheers from the crowd of donors, university leaders and city supporters.

The Result: The events earned us a front page story in the daily paper, articles in all major Richmond publications, numerous social media photos, as well as an award by the Public Relations Society of America Award for Special Events.

See a slideshow of groundbreaking images on the ICA web site.