What is Tenacious Little Monkey?

Tenacious Little Monkey combines founder Jason Ankeny’s lifelong passion for the creative arts and deep personal understanding of the collector psyche with storytelling skills and creative expertise honed across more than three decades as an award-winning business journalist, pop culture historian and content marketing executive. (Click here to access examples of Jason’s work for publications like Juxtapoz, Entrepreneur and Rolling Stone.)

Tenacious Little Monkey produces handcrafted custom content including:

• Search engine-optimized website features emphasizing the curatorial vision and programming philosophy that make your gallery unique

• Artist pages and profiles 

• Exhibition press releases and related media outreach 

• Headline stories for newsletters

• Snackable content for social media and art marketplaces

• Collecting guides and market insights

• Project case studies 

• In-gallery artist talks and online events

• Much more

Why is storytelling essential for galleries and artists? 

Storytelling brings artists and audiences closer together. The more collectors know about a piece of art — e.g., the inspirations and motivations behind its creation — the more they appreciate it. Research from the National Center for Biotechnology Information demonstrates that contextual insight dramatically enhances aesthetic appreciation and understanding.

Significant Objects, a literary and anthropological experiment devised by two New York Times journalists, vividly demonstrates storytelling’s effect on buyer behavior. The project gathered 100 random items from thrift stores and flea markets, priced at an average of $1.28, then recruited 100 writers (famed novelists, screenwriters and playwrights among them) to deliver a brief fictional account that “attributed significance” to the object assigned them. Significant Objects included these stories in the product description when it listed each item for auction on eBay, and when the experiment concluded, merchandise valued at $128 sold for more than $3,600.  

Tenacious Little Monkey supplies the content and context that spark collectors’ curiosity and ignite their imaginations, weaving clear, concise narratives that:  

• Communicate complex ideas, emotions and messages 

• Increase relatability, authenticity and accessibility 

• Stimulate interaction, introspection and interpretation

What are fractional marketing services, and how do clients benefit?

Fractional marketing services, a.k.a. fractional CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) services, provide enterprise-level strategic guidance on a part-time or contract basis — a flexible engagement model tailor-made for the art community's needs and budgets.

Tenacious Little Monkey is Chicago’s first and only fractional marketing agency dedicated to the contemporary art community, serving the city’s leading galleries and artists for close to a decade. Clients enjoy benefits including: 

• Skills and expertise. A fractional CMO brings diverse experience from across industries, applying proven strategies and fresh perspectives. 

• Efficiency. A fractional CMO shoulders the burden of content marketing and does the job more effectively, allowing you more time and energy to focus on overall business growth. 

• Flexibility. A fractional CMO’s responsibilities scale up or down based on current business needs.

Where does one find examples of Tenacious Little Monkey’s work?

Our custom content marketing efforts are best appreciated in situ, on clients’ websites. View artist profiles, press releases and much more via Vertical Gallery’s News page, or explore the complexities and intricacies of fine art screenprinting by visiting POP!NK Editions’ Case Studies page. 

Tenacious Little Monkey has also written introductory essays for print publications from artists like Hebru Brantley, Collin van der Sluijs, Pipsqueak was here!!!, Flog, Laura Catherwood and Sergio Farfán. You can read selected excerpts here.

What is Tenacious Little Monkey’s pricing structure?

We structure engagements based on project scope and client goals, and operate within budgets of all shapes and sizes.

Does Tenacious Little Monkey partner with clients outside of the art community, too? 

Absolutely! We collaborate with all kinds of makers and doers, from all across the planet. 

What are clients saying about Tenacious Little Monkey?

“In a world of regurgitated AI material, standing apart with quality unique content is more important than ever. Tenacious Little Monkey helps Vertical Gallery do this in many ways: writing press releases; social media, email and website content; and client and artist interviews, to name a few. All Jason’s contributions are critical to our overall marketing and sales strategy. He is proactive with looking at our business as a customer and making relevant recommendations to help us with business growth. Jason is a true extension of our team, and I highly recommend his skills for any business looking to stand out in the crowd.” — Patrick Hull, Vertical Gallery owner and curator

“Jason is immensely talented, and I always find with his interviews that I understand my own work better after answering his thought-provoking questions. His writing takes all the thoughts and feelings and information that get spewed out and weaves it into a beautiful big picture that really helps others understand and connect with the art.” — Laura Catherwood, painter and illustrator