Case Studies

Responding to a One-off Negative Comment

A Facebook commenter takes offence to an exhibition title, asking why certain wording has been chosen which they think misrepresents a big issue. 

Since the user was not being malicious, the response to this one-off negative comment was to acknowledge the user:

'Thank you for your comment [insert name]. We appreciate that this exhibition covers topics that may be painful for some to interact with. We hope that our exhibition offers our community the opportunity to generate meaningful discussion and reflection. We’ve passed your feedback on to our exhibition curators and encourage you to visit the exhibition in person.'

Deleting an Image

A gallery receives an Instagram private message, criticising a person in the background of a photo for not handling an object correctly (e.g. not wearing gloves).

The gallery manager speaks to the person referenced in the image to find out the details of the situation. The manager learns that a mistake was made and good practice was not followed. The manager deletes the image to avoid further attention and responds to the private message:

'Hi [insert name], thank you for bringing this to our attention. We’ve spoken to our staff who were involved and will keep an eye on this in the future.' 

An Artist in Your Exhibition is Bullied Online

An organisation promoting an exhibition online has shared an artwork by an exhibiting artist. As a result, the artist has received inappropriate feedback and bullying.

The organisation gets in touch with the artist and assesses what immediate support they need (e.g. admin support for removing or reporting accounts, counselling or even just someone to talk to). The organisations halts the issue from going further (block, report, turn off comments etc.) and informs relevant staff and stakeholders. 

The organisation then asks the artist how they would like to proceed, whether the artist would rather they remove the artwork to allow the artist to process the incident in private, or share a statement on the organisation’s profile. The artist says they would prefer a statement and the following is included on the organisation’s channels:

'We wholeheartedly support the work of [the artist] and are continuing to work with them for the upcoming exhibition. We remind all our followers that we have a zero-tolerance bullying policy both in our gallery and online. We appreciate that art sparks conversation and opinions, but please always keep in mind the intimate passion and purpose that artists offer when they generously share their work.'

The organisation then creates a plan for the future, which includes:

• prepared statements for future negative attention

• check-ins with the artist

• a review once the exhibition is over to assess how this can be avoided in the future