Social outreach has become an essential tool for arts organizations looking to expand their visibility, grow their audiences, and make a deeper impact in the communities they serve. No longer is it enough to simply advertise performances or exhibitions; today’s arts organizations must foster meaningful relationships across diverse sectors of the community. Strategic outreach helps you do just that—connecting the arts with everyday businesses and service providers who are also seeking ways to engage with local culture and community life.
But where should you start? While it’s tempting to focus only on the obvious partners—such as schools or fellow non-profits—true social outreach extends far beyond traditional allies. In fact, some of your most fruitful connections may come from unexpected places like local service businesses, healthcare providers, or even tradespeople. These industries are deeply rooted in your community and interact with the public in ways that can complement and amplify your organization’s mission.
This blog explores 12 unique places where arts organizations can build partnerships through targeted social outreach. From local roofers to local preparatory schools, each section demonstrates how creative collaboration can elevate both the arts and the partnering business. These collaborations can result in co-branded events, educational programs, community art installations, and other innovative engagements that benefit everyone involved.
By the end of this guide, you’ll see how social outreach can go far beyond mere marketing. It’s about building bridges, creating shared value, and bringing the arts into the everyday spaces where people live, work, and interact. Whether you’re a theatre company, gallery, community art collective, or youth music organization, these outreach ideas can help you establish strong local roots and cultivate a loyal support base.
We’ll also show you how to incorporate key strategies for engagement, like customized content, co-sponsorships, volunteer exchanges, and even health and wellness tie-ins. These are not just generic ideas—they are actionable, proven tactics designed to help your arts organization thrive through dynamic local partnerships.
Let’s dive into 12 high-potential places your arts organization should be targeting for effective and sustainable social outreach.
1. Partnering with Roofing Companies
One creative and community-centered opportunity for social outreach is collaborating with local roofers. While it might not seem like an obvious choice, these businesses often have deep community ties and a loyal customer base that can benefit from a cultural connection. Hosting joint charity events, such as a “Raise the Roof” fundraiser, can both promote your arts organization and demonstrate the roofer’s community involvement.
Roofing companies often sponsor local sports teams and festivals. Why not pitch them on sponsoring an arts event or gallery night? Their involvement can offer them positive public relations and introduce their brand to new audiences. In return, your organization benefits from increased visibility and the opportunity to connect with homeowners and contractors in your service area.
Using social outreach in this context means leveraging shared community values. Work with the roofing company to create content on social media about the collaboration, spotlight their team, and offer behind-the-scenes looks at both your artistic process and their craftsmanship. This not only elevates both brands but creates an authentic narrative that your audience can engage with.
2. Collaborating with Preparatory Schools
Local preparatory schools are natural allies in your social outreach strategy. These institutions are constantly looking for opportunities to enrich their students’ education through cultural experiences. By offering your arts programming as part of their extracurricular or enrichment options, you build lasting relationships with educators, students, and parents.
You could offer workshops, masterclasses, or student performance nights in collaboration with their academic schedule. Co-branded art showcases or school-wide art contests can make your arts organization an integral part of their curriculum. This positions your group not just as entertainment but as an essential educational partner.
Social outreach with prep schools should also involve digital presence. Tagging the school in posts, encouraging parent and student engagement online, and sharing collaborative projects on social media can enhance visibility for both parties. These interactions create long-term goodwill and elevate the community’s perception of the arts as vital to education.
3. Engaging Local Piercing Shops
It may seem unconventional, but a partnership with local piercing shops can bring unique edge and creative flair to your outreach. Arts organizations, especially those serving younger audiences or promoting contemporary art forms, can benefit from aligning with the bold, expressive aesthetics often seen in these shops.
By joining forces for events like “Art & Ink Nights,” where visual artists collaborate with piercers and body modification experts to showcase expressive art, your organization taps into a niche community of creatives. This creates a powerful platform for discussing art as self-expression, opening the door for new conversations about visual identity and community representation.
From a social outreach standpoint, piercing shops usually have loyal followings and strong social media engagement. A mutual promotion campaign could be as simple as displaying each other’s art or flyers, or as complex as hosting interactive art installations or performance art at the shop.
4. Teaming Up with Title Companies
A local title company may seem like an unlikely partner, but they can play a crucial role in community engagement. Title companies work closely with homebuyers and real estate agents, many of whom are interested in supporting local culture and creative spaces.
These companies often participate in community festivals, charity fundraisers, and networking events. Use social outreach to propose co-sponsoring home-themed art shows, housing history exhibits, or even neighborhood walking tours that feature public art and performance.
Their corporate office could also serve as a venue for rotating art displays or small concerts. These acts of partnership humanize their business, offering a creative way for clients to interact with their brand while helping your organization reach new audiences.
Social media collaborations, real estate newsletters, or co-branded brochures offer further opportunities for extended outreach.
5. Partnering with Tattoo Shops
A collaboration with a local tattoo shop offers incredible potential for community engagement, especially among younger audiences and the artistically inclined. Tattooing is an art form in itself, and many tattoo artists already see themselves as part of the broader creative community.
Your arts organization can host collaborative events like “Ink and Improv” nights, live music sessions during tattoo appointments, or visual artist residencies inside the shop. These immersive experiences enhance the visibility of both your organization and the tattoo artists.
Use social outreach to showcase this unique partnership with engaging content such as time-lapse tattoo videos, artist interviews, or Q&A livestreams about artistic inspiration. These platforms attract viewers who may not traditionally engage with theater, dance, or gallery exhibits but are highly loyal to their local tattoo culture.
6. Hosting Events at Community Spaces
Sometimes, the best social outreach comes from using existing community venues. Libraries, recreation centers, local cafes, and shared outdoor spaces all provide neutral grounds for arts engagement. Hosting pop-up events, poetry readings, mural projects, or flash mobs in these areas can surprise and delight passersby while increasing your community presence.
These locations already have built-in foot traffic and a diverse audience that may not yet know about your arts organization. Use signage, QR codes, and social media geo-tags to encourage on-the-spot interaction.
By consistently showing up in familiar community spaces, your group becomes more accessible. Social outreach isn’t just about who you reach; it’s also about how often and how visibly you engage. Regular presence fosters trust, recognition, and participation.
7. Reaching Out to Urgent Care Centers
Collaborating with a local urgent care provider may initially seem unrelated to the arts, but there are strong connections between health, wellness, and creativity. Many healthcare organizations look for ways to support mental health and emotional resilience—which is where the arts excel.
Propose art installations in waiting rooms, calming music playlists curated by local musicians, or storytelling workshops for staff wellness. These collaborations create healing environments and support frontline workers.
Social outreach campaigns can amplify this work, sharing stories about how art improves well-being and reduces stress. These human-centered narratives are powerful content that resonates online and elevates your mission beyond performance.
8. Connecting with Pest Control Companies
A local pest control company is often active in neighborhood networking and community improvement efforts. Use this to your advantage by pitching partnerships that highlight shared values like cleanliness, comfort, and livable spaces.
Create a “Clean Spaces, Creative Places” campaign where both businesses promote healthy, pest-free environments through art. For example, murals in alleyways, interactive sculptures in parks, or educational art on eco-friendly pest solutions.
These partnerships are excellent candidates for neighborhood-based social outreach. Capture before-and-after stories, tag local locations, and feature community member testimonials. Both the arts and pest control industry benefit from being seen as proactive, community-oriented, and solution-focused.
9. Collaborating with HVAC Contractors
Local HVAC contractors are always looking for unique ways to market their services. Partnering with your arts organization offers a refreshing and memorable approach.
Consider thematic events like “Cool Nights with Hot Performances,” co-sponsored by the contractor. Or commission art installations related to airflow, sound, and environmental design. These themes align surprisingly well with both heating/cooling and performance spaces.
This form of social outreach thrives when amplified with humor, creativity, and visual content. Showcase your collaborative events with behind-the-scenes looks at HVAC setups in your performance venues or conduct interviews with technicians about how climate affects sound and audience comfort.
10. Using Transit Spaces for Public Installations
Transit spaces such as bus stops, train stations, or car parks are underused platforms for social outreach. These are places where the public gathers and waits—perfect for impromptu performance art, sculpture gardens, or visual art displays.
Reach out to local transit authorities or community development agencies to secure permission for temporary or rotating exhibits. Highlight public transport as a sustainable way to reach your venue, strengthening both community ties and eco-conscious values.
This form of outreach invites engagement from those who might never attend a formal art event, encouraging inclusivity and awareness. Additionally, these installations offer an element of surprise and accessibility that traditional venues often lack. Imagine a daily commuter being greeted by a new mural or violinist each morning—it transforms routine into ritual, making the arts part of everyday life. Transit spaces are also perfect for interactive projects, like community chalkboards or traveling exhibits, that invite participation and dialogue among strangers. When shared on social media, these installations gain extended reach and help establish your arts organization as an innovator in public engagement.
11. Partnering with Chiropractors
Working with a local chiropractor can lead to wellness-focused arts programming. Chiropractic offices often promote holistic health, making them great partners for stress-relieving, movement-based art forms like dance, yoga, or even theater.
Propose in-office events like guided meditation or interpretive movement classes. Alternatively, offer discount tickets to patients or co-sponsor health fairs.
Social outreach content can include educational reels, stress-relief tips, or collaborative livestreams that blend creative movement with wellness insights. This helps both organizations reach audiences interested in whole-body health.
12. Engaging Mortgage Lenders and Law Firms
Partnering with a local mortgage lender opens doors for high-impact fundraising events and corporate sponsorships. These professionals often support local causes as part of their branding and client engagement strategies. Invite them to underwrite gala events, host legal-themed play readings, or join arts-based networking mixers. These partnerships position your arts organization as both culturally rich and professionally relevant.
Social outreach here should focus on gratitude and relationship-building. Share sponsor spotlights, donor recognition posts, and community testimonials to show the value of supporting the arts. You might also try reaching out to local lawyers: they often have similar events and sponsorships as mortgage lenders.
Social outreach isn’t just a strategy—it’s a philosophy. It’s about embedding the arts into the fabric of everyday life and forming reciprocal partnerships that enrich the whole community. By targeting a diverse range of industries—from local roofers and tattoo shops to chiropractors and lawyers–your organization becomes a visible, valued, and versatile part of the local culture.
What makes this approach so effective is its ability to expand your reach beyond traditional art supporters. These partnerships can attract new patrons, generate additional funding, and most importantly, create long-lasting bonds that strengthen your organization’s role in the community.
The 12 strategies we’ve shared are designed to inspire action. They offer practical ways to grow your audience, amplify your message, and align your mission with businesses and service providers who already understand the value of community engagement.
Whether you’re a small grassroots theatre or a major regional arts center, embracing this broader view of social outreach will help you remain resilient, visible, and relevant. The arts thrive when they are connected—and your next great partnership could be right around the corner.
Start reaching out today. Your community is ready to connect.