Celebrating Culture, Building Connection
Dawnland Festival of Arts & Ideas, hosted annually by the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, is a multi-day gathering that celebrates Wabanaki art, knowledge, and community, while also welcoming Indigenous artists and leaders from beyond the region. The festival brings together artists, culture bearers, and thought leaders to share stories, spark dialogue, and highlight both traditional and contemporary creativity.
To help amplify the voices at the heart of this event, the Abbe Museum partnered with Nimble Pixel Studio and event planners Getting Married in Maine. Together, we worked to build a cohesive brand strategy, craft messaging, and created an engaging guest experience that resonated far beyond the weekend celebration.
Step One: Messaging & Brand Strategy
We began by shaping a campaign identity that honored Wabanaki traditions while positioning the festival as something found nowhere else: a gathering that blends Indigenous thought leadership with a vibrant marketplace of art and ideas.
Our messaging highlighted the dual experience of panels that tackled urgent conversations alongside a marketplace that celebrated creativity, which grounded the event in Wabanaki voices while inviting a broad audience to engage in both reflection and celebration. Yes, plenty of sticky notes and brand voice docs were involved along the way!
Never one to shy away from a good spreadsheet or project management tool like Asana, we built a structured marketing timeline that mapped out every touchpoint from early spring through the festival weekend. This allowed us to “see” that all media, social content, and grassroots outreach worked in sync, with consistent branding and messaging across every platform.
Step Two: Event Marketing Plan & Timeline
Step Three: Social Media
Our social calendar lived in a Google Sheet but came to life in Canva, where we developed a full library of graphics and templates for artist spotlights, panelist introductions, and countdown posts. We also leaned on panel transcripts to pull quotable moments for the post-festival Moments You Missed series, making it easy to turn panel recordings into snackable content. The result? Engagement grew more than triple compared to baseline organic performance!
Step Four: Media & PR
Press releases, media advisories, media kits, and outreach lists (all organized in a color-coded spreadsheets) helped us streamline communication with journalists. We coordinated placements in statewide outlets and Maine tourism publications, while also making sure reporters had easy access to bios, photos, and schedules. Our goal: make covering the festival as frictionless as absolutely possible!
Step Five: Website & Signage
The festival’s digital home based was refreshed with updated bios, panel information, and sponsor recognition (all run through our trusty content checklist). On the ground, Canva and InDesign were our best friends for creating rack cards, posters, directional signage, vendor displays, banners, and more. Each piece was designed to carry the same visual language, so guests felt guided and welcomed at every turn.
Step Six: Festival Week Support
Before, during, and after the festival, we worked alongside Getting Married in Maine, who led event logistics and planning, to help the weekend flow seamlessly. Our team handled social coverage and media relations in real time (laptops, phones, and three portable chargers were always at the ready!). Quick Canva edits, a shared Google Drive for assets, CapCut for templated quick videos, and a running checklist kept us nimble so we could capture and share the unfolding energy of the event for audiences beyond Bar Harbor.
Why We Loved this Project
Supporting Dawnland Festival of Arts & Ideas was more than event marketing for me; it was a full-circle moment. My background is rooted in nonprofit work and city-wide event creation, from large-scale community festivals to hands-on day-of management, including recruiting and leading volunteers. Stepping into July 12 felt like returning to those roots: working alongside a mission-driven team, juggling the moving parts of a multi-day event, and making sure the vision translated seamlessly from planning spreadsheets to the lived guest experience.
What made this project truly special was being allowed the chance to help amplify Wabanaki leadership and celebrate Indigenous artists, storytellers, and thought leaders while also learning into the skills that shaped my career - campaign strategy, event branding, and the behind-the-scenes coordination that keeps everything moving. Collaborating with Abbe Museum and Getting Married in Maine to bring this festival to life reminded me why I love this work: the intersection of purpose, creativity, and community. Seeing the festival come alive, online, on paper, and on the ground, was not just humbling and energizing, but also a reminder of why I built Nimble Pixel Studio in the first place.
Outcome & Impact
The festival achieved broad visibility across multiple channels, with paid campaigns performing well above industry benchmarks (CTR nearly 2x higher than average and cost-per-click significantly lower). Social content exceeded engagement goals, press outreach secured statewide coverage, while our Google Ads dashboard showed steady click-through growth leading up to the event. On-site, branded signage and collateral created a seamless experience for guests, from wayfinding signage to panel presentations/backdrops.
For me, the data is just as important as the design. Every decision we made was guided by baselines and benchmarks, keeping us nimble and ready to pivot when needed. But numbers only tell part of the story: most importantly, the festival sparked post-event momentum, deepened community connections, and positioned Dawnland Festival of Arts & Ideas as a signature Maine event.
Key Impact Highlights:
CTR nearly 2x industry average
Cost-per-click significantly below benchmark
Social engagement 3x baseline performance
Special showcase and banner in airports
Print and digital advertisements
Google Ads: steady growth in click-throughs leading up to event
Seamless on-site experience with branded signage and collateral