Lafayette American Launches GLAM Arts with Gary Gonya

Lafayette American has partnered with Gary Gonya, an ad industry veteran, to launch GLAM Arts, a niche service offering for museums and cultural institutions. Gary will serve as the head of strategy and director for GLAM Arts, focusing on helping museum marketing leaders successfully connect with digital-savvy audiences and diversify the people they invite to their exhibitions and performances. GLAM Arts is a culmination of Lafayette American's work with cultural institutions and the arts throughout the years.

GLAM Arts will offer a full range of agency services, including brand strategy, audience research, brand identity design, advertising campaigns, paid media planning and buying, and social media strategy and content.

"Gary's strategy background uniquely positions us to help cultural institutions. It's exceptional to find someone who has the agency track record he does along with his rich museum experience." says Lafayette American founder and CCO Toby Barlow, "America is currently suffering from an epidemic of isolation and loneliness, and arts organisations and public spaces can play a huge role in curing this. We want to help any way we can." 

Lafayette American worked with Gary on the award-winning Toledo Museum of Arts (TMA) rebrand last year while Gary was TMA's director of marketing and communications. At TMA, Gary envisioned a new brand strategy experience for patrons driven by data strategy, digital art collaborations, and an overhaul of the museum's marketing infrastructure. As a result, TMA was able to modernize its marketing, attract more diverse visitors, and strengthen the museum's reputation as a leader in the field.

"Lafayette American has a deep and inherent commitment to the arts with a savvy sense of how to make the arts feel vital and relevant to regional communities, so a partnership catering to cultural institutions is a natural evolution to help other cultural institutions," says GLAM Arts director, Gary Gonya. 

Along with their D&AD and Cannes-winning rebrand for TMA, Lafayette American already has worked with a broad range of cultural and civic institutions, including award-winning work for Zekelman Holocaust Museum, Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan Central, and Detroit Opera. They also regularly collaborate with Signal Return, a centre for Press Arts co-founded by Barlow. 

Gary was the director of brand strategy for the Toledo Museum of Art and previously held roles at Common Good, Sid Lee Toronto, Deutsch LA, Crispin and Doner Detroit.