The Fearless Artist · Go-to-market, collaborations, press, speaking · 2020 to 2023
An art platform grows when it partners outside the art world.
Kiki Somerville is an entertainment lawyer who once worked in business and legal affairs at MTV Networks and Sony BMG. She founded The Fearless Artist to take on the art world’s gatekeepers, teaching artists to build careers and connecting them with collectors through TFAPOPUP, a pop-up gallery during Art Basel Miami. With Olay backing her mission, we built her go-to-market around collaborations with brands and culture figures from outside the art world, and put her in business and culture press.
- Client
- The Fearless Artist
- Founder
- Kiki Somerville
- Role
- Go-to-market strategy, brand and influencer collaborations, press, speaking
- Period
- 2020 to 2023, retained September to December 2022
Founder portrait, The Fearless Artist.
The problem
An arts nonprofit can’t grow on art-world attention alone.
Art press covers the galleries and artists that already hold the market’s attention. A platform built to open the art world up can’t win coverage from the gatekeepers it’s challenging, and Art Basel week in Miami is the most crowded news cycle in the art calendar.
The Fearless Artist had assets most arts nonprofits don’t: a founder with an entertainment and legal background, a curriculum she built herself, and a major beauty brand paying for artists’ scholarships. Those are business and culture stories, not gallery stories.
So the go-to-market went outside the art world, to brands, youth culture and business press, where the story was news.
When the gatekeepers won’t cover you, go to the audiences they don’t reach.
The campaign
Press first, then a full Art Basel go-to-market.
The relationship started with founder press, moved to the Olay announcement and the New York pop-up, and became a retained go-to-market campaign for Art Basel 2022.
Founder profile
The Knockturnal interviewed Kiki on the business of art, putting her background in entertainment law at the front of the story.
New York pop-up and the Olay grant
Rolling Out covered TFAPOPUP’s New York Young Creators Showcase, and Black Enterprise covered Olay Body’s $100,000 commitment funding 100 artist scholarships.
The Art Basel plan
A go-to-market proposal for Art Basel week: the Olay scholarships as proof, the Fearless Artist Method as the product, and collaborations outside the art world as the growth path.
Rollout, release and profile
A rollout plan, a release on The Fearless Artist’s presence at the CryptoGC Retreat in Miami, and a founder Q&A written for business and founder platforms.
The collaborations
A skateboard deck project pairing Sprayground with a Fearless Artist artist, a skater and the Harold Hunter Foundation, making boards for underserved Brooklyn youth, with one planned for Art Basel. We also pitched holiday card-making activations to Macy’s and Target in Brooklyn.
Art Basel week
Speaking panels and VIP rooms for Kiki, including Untitled Art Miami, alongside national pitches built on N.O.R.E.’s keynote at the TFAPOPUP VIP opening, and an interview with SHEEN.
The Washingtonian
After the retained season, a Washingtonian profile of Kiki and The Fearless Artist’s work to help creators get past the art world’s barriers.
The collaborations were the go-to-market.
The placements
Culture and business press, not art trade press.
The four features below were secured across the relationship. None of them are art trade publications, which was the strategy.
| When | Outlet | Placement | Our role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 2020 | The Knockturnal | Kiki Somerville on the business of art | Secured |
| Jun 2022 | Rolling Out | The Fearless Artist heads to New York City | Secured |
| Jun 2022 | Black Enterprise | Olay’s $100K pledge to women in the arts | Secured |
| Feb 2023 | Washingtonian | The Fearless Artist helping creators overcome obstacles | Secured |
The Olay Body grant itself belongs to The Fearless Artist and Olay. We don’t claim the partnership, only the press we secured around it.
Not claimed
iHeart’s coverage of N.O.R.E. at the 2022 TFAPOPUP opening, TFA’s own SHEEN feature from June 2022, and the February 2023 Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women announcement came from The Fearless Artist’s own channels.
The number
This one isn’t measured in impressions.
Of the four outlets, only Black Enterprise publishes an audience figure: 414,047 average monthly digital users in its 2019 media kit. One stated figure isn’t enough for an honest total, so this page doesn’t carry impressions or an earned media value.
The results are business and culture press for an arts founder, a grant story carried nationally, and a go-to-market built on collaborations outside the art world.
What it cost
The honest part.
- Brand partners work on their own calendars
- The Sprayground, Macy’s and Target collaborations were pitched in October and November for Art Basel and the holidays. None of them replied in time. Large retailers plan holiday activations months earlier, so these pitches needed to go out in the summer.
- Art Basel week is the hardest week to get press
- National outlets from the AP to Miami New Times were pitched around the pop-up, and most didn’t answer. Every art brand in the world is pitching the same desks that week.
Pitch brand partners on their planning calendar, not yours.
What transfers
Three rules for any mission-driven arts platform.
- Lead with the proof point
- A $100,000 commitment from a major beauty brand tells a business editor more than any description of the mission. Put the funder in the first line of the pitch.
- Collaborate outside your category
- A skateboard deck, a holiday card table or a sneaker brand puts art in front of audiences that galleries don’t reach. Collaborations are how a small platform grows beyond its own audience.
- Pitch outside Art Basel week
- The June New York pop-up and a February profile landed more easily than Art Basel pitches. Keep the founder in the press all year, not only during Art Basel.
Arts platforms don’t need the gatekeepers’ approval. They need partners and press from outside the art world.
Playbook MG is a boutique public relations and influencer agency in Brooklyn, working with Caribbean heritage and culture-rooted brands, founders and nonprofits across the arts, music, entertainment, beauty, fashion, and food and beverage. We worked with The Fearless Artist from 2020 to 2023, with a retained go-to-market campaign from September to December 2022.
All case studiesPlaybook MG · Industry City, Brooklyn · No impressions claimed where no publisher states an audience · As of September 2026