Art + Commerce = Wilkinson Media: Cool Ideas to Leverage Art for Advocacy

Posted on by Dana Hutchins

Andrew Wilkinson of Wilkinson Media is a Princeton area photographer, videographer and all around creative genius who’s creative philosophy is to marry the creative energies of art and entrepreneurship. We’ve been fortunate to collaborate with Andrew on a number of projects, with Andrew providing photography for many of our client’s Web sites (as well as the images on this site). Andrew often fills the role of Inforest Art Director, and he has a real knack for understanding the design needs of his clients.

We wanted to share with you some of the very cool work that Andrew has been doing forging the concept of Art + Commerce. Andrew is leveraging his professional skills as an artist and marketing professional to advocate for and mentor the homeless and hungry in Mercer County. His involvement has spanned both hands-on mentoring of aspiring artists, organization of events and his own creative efforts to bring awareness of the plight of the needy in our area.

We are excited about how fresh Andrew’s approach is to promotion and marketing. With so much clutter in traditional advertising and marketing, Andrew’s work invites people to view the issue with a new, more personal, perspective while also building community involvement. That’s what we call “art”.

Fostering efforts of A-TEAM Artists


Brook’s Book

Last winter, Andrew organized a collaborative exhibit at Artworks for the A-TEAM, a arts program associated with the Trenton Soup Kitchen. He managed to flood the gallery with over 200 pieces, with over 20 sold opening night. During the run of the exhibition, they sold a total of 53 pieces for $3,800. This was A-TEAM’s most successful show to date.

Andrew collaborated with A-TEAM artist Brook Beatty to create a book of her collection of hand-made rag dolls. Andrew photographed forty of these for a book, starting with a short-term run with an on-line book company while they seek a publisher. During the course of the project, many of Brook’s dolls and books have sold. The book is available from the on-line publisher, Blurb (http://www.blurb.com/books/650651).

Andrew has produced several video profiles of A-TEAM members for their upcoming Web site and a potential mini-documentary. Some examples:

Media Work with Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness:


Irony In The Alley

In collaboration with Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness, Andrew sought to document homelessness in an artistic, non exploitative fashion. This conceptual premise translated into creating domestic interior environments on the street in areas where some of the homeless live. The long term goal was to place the images in galleries, museums and state institutions and raise awareness about homelessness in Mercer County.

The images were on display at the Arts Council of Princeton’s inaugural exhibition called Return Home, (raising the question of what “home” actually is), New Hope Arts in New Hope, PA in a show called ‘Speak Up, Speak Out’, the Mercer County Chamber of Commerce and the State House.

In conjunction with the photography assignment, an art video was also produced about a day a the soup kitchen. The 2 minute film was awarded best experimental short film at the Bucks County Film Festival. The film can be viewed on Comcast Channel 1, (local section) and YouTube. The title of the film is ‘Loop Kitchen’. The United Way of Bucks County posted the film on the home page of their web site for a month.

Raising awareness for Homes for New Jersey


Gnomes For New Jersey

Andrew is orchestrating another ongoing campaign to raise awareness of homelessness in New Jersey. Working with Homes for New Jersey, Andrew has organized Gnomes for New Jersey an exhibition of over 50 plaster gnome sculptures modified and painted by local artists. Andrew used the iconic garden gnome as a symbol of settlement and home life, but also might be seen as a warden or scarecrow against affordable housing in his own back yard. The Gnomes have been on tour throughout New Jersey as Andrew continues to expand on this project. By involving many known and less-known artists, he has helped to broaden the perspective on how we relate to homelessness on a community level.

Professional Profile

Working as an artist in the arena of art and commerce Wilkinson has worked in marketing communications for over 15 years. Starting in London for a public relations and design firm specializing in film clients such as: Disney, Virgin Interactive and United Artists, Wilkinson was part of the design and interactive team for this start-up. In New York, Wilkinson worked for Ernst & Young LLP in creative services. He furthered his corporate experience with Merrill Lynch in Princeton. Client projects included Coke, McDonald’s, Fed Ex, Cendant and Haworth. Wilkinson managed internal interactive assignments, support materials for their annual client conference and internal career development.

With a background in print media and photography, Wilkinson brings strategy and campaign experience to any project. His strength in fine art is the foundation for conceptual ideas that go beyond expectations and communicate the client’s message both accurately and effectively.

Wilkinson has been a working and exhibiting fine artist for over ten years, exploring both photography and sculpture. His work has been shown regionally and internationally, recently participating in exhibiti ons in Russia and Beijing. Publications include three New York Times reviews through exhibitions at the Jersey City Museum, NJ, and the Hudson Valley Museum of Contemporary Art. Locally, Wilkinson is an active member of the Arts Council of Princeton, Princeton NJ, and donates work to raise money for community development programs.

Wilkinson currently serves on the Board for Artworks as Chair of Exhibitions, a non-profit art space in Trenton. (http://www.artworkstrenton.org).

Wilkinson is also a Board member for the A-TEAM, an artist collective of patrons from the Soup Kitchen. (http://www.trentonsoupkitchen.org).

We’re blessed to have Andrew Wilkinson as a colleague and resource. If you need a different approach to your photography or a new perspective on your marketing efforts, give Andrew a holler.

Wilkinson Media
http://www.wilkinsonmedia.net
609 818 0363

Andrew Wilkinson on Linked-In
http://www.linkedin.com/in/wilkinsonmedia