Tom Sachs: Europa

Tom Sachs: Europa

Tom Sachs is a celebrated artist with a global following. We wanted his first large-scale exhibition in San Francisco to be among his most popular, by providing experiences of his artwork that no gallery has offered before. As digital content strategist, I used a variety of emerging social media & videomaking formats to take the exhibition beyond the gallery walls, attracting both devoted fans and new audiences to the artist's highly anticipated spectacles.

A Live Multimedia Journey to Space

The highlight of the exhibition was a 4-hour performance where artist-actors rigorously enacted a space flight to Jupiter’s moon, Europa. I produced a livestream of the sold-out gallery performance, hoping to replicate the lo-fi feel of watching vintage moon landings on TV. It was Tom Sachs’ first foray into livestreaming, and a massive success reaching 1 million+ viewers. We built up to the moment by showing how a full-scale space program was built inside the tallest gallery in San Francisco — an engineering feat of its own — giving fans a never-before-seen look at Tom Sachs’ craftsmanship.

The Craft of Space Exploration

We wanted San Francisco’s huge community of creative scientists & engineers to discover the work of Tom Sachs. To reach this audience, I identified a popular DIY science personality and planned a video series aimed at space fans & science educators. Our host, NASA Citizen Science Advocate & Spacehack.org founder Ariel Waldman, toured Tom Sachs’ handmade space program through the eyes of real aerospace science.

To expand our promotional reach, I initiated a brand partnership with Chronicle Books, which had just published Waldman’s first book, “What’s It Like in Space? Stories from Astronauts Who’ve Been There.” The partnership began with cross-promotion of the exhibition, book, and video series, and grew into future collaborations between Chronicle Books and YBCA.

The Astronaut Cafe

Tom Sachs transformed YBCA’s lobby into a NASA breakroom-styled cafe, offering space-themed snacks of his own invention. I made a series of social media ads for the cafe showcasing the playful ingenuity of the menu items, and adopted the lo-fi visual style of Tom Sachs’ popular how-to videos.