Life Between Islands was a landmark group exhibition celebrating 70 years of Caribbean-British art at Tate Britain in 2022.

Previous audience research showed us that over 50% of Black audiences who visited Tate Modern’s Soul of a Nation visited solely due to the relevant subject matter. Therefore, we knew that this exhibition would be a great opportunity to reach a diverse range of audiences who perhaps didn't feel as though Tate Britain was for them. However as a white person I was very aware that I was not best placed to make some of the key comms decisions without insight from the Caribbean community. With this in mind, I briefed an external research agency, Ethnic Dimension, on the exhibition. This allowed us to undergo qualitative research on the positioning of the exhibition, key messages, the title and lead images as well as gaining a thorough understanding of the brand perception of Tate Britain among Caribbean and other Black, culturally-engaged audiences. These insights were invaluable in the refinement of my strategy and shaped our partnerships, poster design, and title, as well as helping me form a list of language do's and don'ts, which were integrated into the work of multiple teams across Tate.

To build on the exhibition campaign, we wanted to take our celebration of Caribbean-British culture outside of the gallery and reach new audiences through relevant partnerships. I invited artists from the exhibition, community leaders and Tate staff to share their stories about the places and spaces in London that are most important to them, resulting in the Caribbean-British art trail.

We highlighted these moving stories in the places where they happened, across a range of billboards, pavement stickers, bookmarks and paste-ups with media provided through a partnership I led on with JackArts. This activation took the exhibition into the streets and was a joyful celebration of Caribbean-British culture in London.

The results were:

• Life Between Islands was a huge success, doubling its attendance target.

• The exhibition attracted a more ethnically diverse audience, with over double the usual amount of attendees identifying as Black, Asian or of the Global Majority compared to other Tate Britain exhibitions.

• The exhibition attracted a much younger demographic compared to the average of other Tate Britain exhibitions.