This paper summarises what we've learned so far about supporting arts organisations in Wales to make more effective use of digital technology.

Key findings

Based on the feedback we've received from fund participants during phase two, and our own observations, we have identified the following factors as being important in supporting the arts sector in Wales to make more effective use of digital technology:

• reach and influence – generating insights that are relevant to organisations across the arts sector in Wales
• building capacity – achieving the right balance between being challenging and being practical within time and resource constraints
• arts-technology networks – building stronger links between arts and technology professionals.

The Digital Innovation Fund for the Arts in Wales, our joint programme with Arts Council of Wales, is supporting arts organisations to experiment using digital technology to enhance audience reach and to develop their business models.

This paper provides an interim report from the second phase of the fund: Build teams and generate ideas. In this phase, we provided financial and practical support to a diverse group of nine arts organisations. Feedback from arts organisations engaged by the fund during this phase emphasises both the challenges and the rewards they've experienced, for example:

“The process of turning our identified challenge into a digital solution required a steep (but rewarding) learning curve.”

“The focused and detailed research, evaluation and interpretation required has forced us to better examine and understand our organisational strength and weaknesses.”

The feedback has helped us to identify areas for improvement, and for further study and development. We will be sharing the results of all research carried out as part of this fund at our showcase event on 14 March 2017, and via our website: innovation.arts.wales.

Authors

Rob Ashelford, Dan Butler, Ian Danby