IMPACTFUL: Part 4 – 4,100 days of news for Dad’s amateur art exhibition thanks to B1G1

by Steve Pipe


Recently my lovely Dad, Ken Pipe, an 82 year old amateur artist who has lived on his own since Mum died of motor neuron disease in 2018, had an open house event to showcase 200 of his favourite oil paintings and other art.

And the one-day event had a lot more impact, news coverage and interest than a typical open house because of its three unexpected twists:

TWIST 1 – Although Dad did not know it beforehand, as a family his children and grandchildren used B1G1 so that each of the 200 artworks he exhibited also provided 20 days of help for 20 other children in need…

… making a total that actually came out at 4,100 days of help

… with Dad and the people who came using the B1G1 Engagement in Figure 1 to choose how many of those days of help were in the form of medical care for children in Ukraine, shelter for homeless children in Vietnam, musical education for underprivileged children in the UK, necessities for babies in Kenya and access to a bathroom for children Tanzania.

Figure 1 – The B1G1 Engagement used at the exhibition‌‌

And we did that because Dad has always been there to help make our lives better, so it is lovely to be able to celebrate his beautiful art and personality in a way that also makes life better for people in need across the world.

TWIST 2 – The paintings were all Dad’s takes on the work of the old masters, as he explains in this extract from the autobiography he wrote for the family in 2022:

“I had always admired French impressionist paintings and always wished I could own one. But obviously they were too expensive so, as the next best thing, I decided to create my own versions of them. And now I have a huge collection my-style Cezannes, Sisleys, Gauguins and de Lempickas, along with many other old masters”.

Figure 2 – Examples of his work

TWIST 3 – As well as being empowered to change lives, the people who came were also able to vote for their favourite artwork. And all of that interactivity was explained on a little card you can see in Figure 3, that was handed to them on arrival.

Figure 3 – The card handed to guests as they arrived‌‌

None of Dad’s art was for sale. In fact he never sells it. He is true amateur, only ever painting for the pure pleasure it brings him and everyone who is lucky enough to see his art

You can see some of the local news coverage for the story here.

Figure 4 – Local news coverage

IDEAS FOR B1G1 MEMBERS

What we did with (and for) my Dad illustrates three key ideas for B1G1 members:

1 - We don't have to restrict ourselves to just using B1G1 in a business context. We can use it with our families too.

2 - As I have said many times before in this blog, the key is simply to ask the question “How can I best use the B1G1 principles and tools here?”

3 - Using B1G1 to create positive Global Impacts makes what you are doing much more newsworthy. So if getting media coverage would be useful or enjoyable, be sure to (A) fold B1G1 into what you are doing, and (B) send a simple press release about it to the media.

I use all three of those ideas, over and over, because they really work.

IMPACTFUL is a blog series by B1G1 member Steve Pipe. You can connect with him here, and see why we named him B1G1’s first Global Impact Envoy here.