Five museum and gallery services across Yorkshire — Sheffield, Leeds, Bradford, York, and Hull — approached General Public to develop a campaign that would encourage the public to identify, discuss, and celebrate the region’s best oil paintings, while raising the profile of key works in their collections.
We created the ‘Yorkshire’s Favourite Painting’ campaign, inviting the public to vote for their favourite work either online or at participating venues. A shortlist of 100 paintings, developed through consultation and focus groups, formed the basis of the campaign. The visual approach was bright and contemporary, featuring real people imagining how they would display their chosen painting in settings such as the home, workplace, and school.
At the heart of the campaign was an interactive website, where participants could vote, share their reasons for choosing a painting, and upload written or video ‘stories’ about what the artwork meant to them. This approach encouraged deeper engagement with the collection and sparked conversation around the artworks.
The campaign generated strong public interest, attracting over 600 submissions in six weeks and significantly increasing engagement with the collections. The announcement of the winning entries also generated substantial PR coverage for the participating museums and galleries.
