Sametz Blackstone's Transformation of the Fuller Craft Museum Leads to a Surge in...

BOSTON & BROCKTON, Mass. -- Just one year after Sametz Blackstone Associates, a Boston-based strategic communications consulting firm, helped transform the Fuller Craft Museum's brand, exhibit openings that used to attract 50 people now draw up to 1,000. Loans from private collections

have been flowing in so fast that they need to be divided into separate shows. Memberships have surged forward by 44 percent and development activity is increasing rapidly. Fuller Craft, while building on its commitment to its home community of Brockton, Massachusetts, is quickly becoming a museum of national and international standing.

It was last April 18, 2004 that the museum officially changed its brand promises and identity from the Fuller Museum of Art to the Fuller Craft Museum. Sametz Blackstone Associates, with its expertise in branding and design, was a major force behind the change.

"Both Sametz Blackstone and the Fuller Craft Museum saw a pent-up demand for a Boston-area museum devoted to contemporary craft," said Andrew Maydoney, vice president, research and strategy, Sametz Blackstone. "We helped the museum crystallize this demand into a vision for its future, and then articulate the distinctive identity that it has achieved today. By moving forward with a singular focus, Fuller Craft Museum has earned critical acclaim as one of only a handful of major craft museums in the country. It is also helping its home city of Brockton to achieve renewed economic and cultural vitality."

"Sametz Blackstone truly understands the business needs of museums and the unique world of craft, and has worked shoulder to shoulder with us to make our transformation happen," said Gretchen Keyworth, executive director and chief curator of Fuller Craft Museum. "To us, Sametz Blackstone is not an outside partner, but a critical part of the internal fabric of our organization."

Since working with Sametz Blackstone, Fuller Craft Museum has achieved:

Increased attendance--During local school vacation weeks, museum attendance is up tenfold. Attendance at OBJECTively Speaking mid-week lunchtime art programs is often at full capacity. The opening of a recent Trashformations exhibit drew 1,000 participants--20 times more than exhibit introductions "pre-Fuller Craft"--and the exhibit was held over due to popular demand.