Social Media Successes
COVID-19 Pandemic Pivot
Due to the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic, Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park closed for 87 consecutive days.
This created an enormous challenge as a cultural institution designed for (and financially dependent on) in-person visitors and events. We quickly pivoted to provide Meijer Gardens experiences to people at home through our social media channels. We closed on Friday, March 13, and on March 14 broadcast our popular Fred & Dorothy Fichter Butterflies Are Blooming exhibition as a live walk through to more than 84,000 viewers.
We provided engaging content daily. In the morning, our Cozy Tales Storytime featured stories read aloud by members of our education team and other staff members. In the afternoon, we shared Virtual Visits on topics related to our mission: propagating succulents, a behind-the-scenes greenhouse tour, and an exploration of unique plants like ant plants.
We also had several plant shows that we were able to transition to virtual shows, like our Bonsai Show, including photo galleries and recorded and live presentations.
“Putricia” - Corpse Flower Bloom
August, 2018
It was an event 18 years in the making. In August 2018, Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park experienced its very first Corpse Flower bloom. Amorphophallus titanum is a striking plant that emits a strong odor of rotting meat to attract pollinators. The blooms last only about 48 hours before they start to wilt. Our Vice President of Horticulture, Steve LaWarre, received this plant in 2000 tending to it for 18 years before this exciting bloom. As is tradition for many botanic gardens, we affectionately named our corpse flower: “Putricia.”
When these plants bloom, they open at night. We hit the ground running at the first signs of our plant opening, beginning with a Facebook live broadcast at 10 pm. The video was dimly lit, but Steve’s excitement was clear and contagious. So much so, that it was talked about on a local talk radio show the next morning (listen here, starting at 1:55).
On top of coverage during news programs, we coordinated with one local TV station on a live stream camera, which had hundreds of viewers at any moment during the bloom window. Overall, our media coverage reached a staggering 7.9 million people, valued at $562,600.
Most importantly, Meijer Gardens saw visitors lined up to see (and smell) this plant in person. Lines formed well before we opened our doors and stayed open past closing to accommodate as many people as possible.
“THE gesture”
In 2017, Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park hosted an exhibition called Ai Weiwei: Natural State. The Chinese-born artist and activist is internationally heralded as one of the most important cultural figures of our time. He champions free speech and global human rights through his sculpture, installations, film, photography—and his widely followed social media presence.
One of his most well-known works is a series of photographs where Ai Weiwei raises his middle finger in front of world-famous cultural institutions, from the White House to Tiananmen Square. This inspired a wallpaper piece, pictured here, with a repeating pattern of arms and raised middle fingers. The wallpaper covered a gallery space during our exhibition, and received a number of complaints from shocked guests.
We took this opportunity to create a video with the head of our sculpture department, to dive deeper into this work, to explain why it was selected for the exhibition, and to education beyond the surface shock value.