Digital access to arts and culture: final report

The final report summarises an 18-month research project into the role of digital arts and culture in the UK during the pandemic, focusing on its accessibility implications. The report pays particular attention to the ‘pivot’ to online programming undertaken by many arts and culture organisations following the onset of COVID-19. It also explores how online and live programmes have interacted with each other, how digital accessibility tools are finding their way back into in-person activities, and what the wider accessibility implications of the on-going hybridisation of arts and culture may be

Infrastructures for Virtual Volunteering at Online Music Festivals

Volunteering benefits recipients, volunteers, communities, and society, while digital technologies establish new opportunities for virtual volunteering. We describe how volunteers transitioned the UK's long-established Oxjam grassroots music festival online in response to the COVID pandemic, delivering a local pilot before scaling up nationwide. We adopt an infrastructural perspective to reveal how two teams of volunteers defined a flexible festival format, knitted together diverse technologies into a technical platform, and operated this to deliver the festival. We highlight the need for teams of volunteers to orchestrate both audience and performer trajectories through festivals. We argue for deliberately designing in volunteer labour rather than automating it out by translating traditional roles online while defining new digital ones. We propose to make these roles rewarding through a more social volunteer experience, including privileged backstage access. We highlight the challenges of using social media for such events, including complying with algorithmic policing of rights

Digitaalinen asiakaskokemus sirkusalan toimijalle. Tapaus Circus Uusi Maailma.

Tämä opinnäytetyö on tapaustutkimus, jonka tavoitteena on selvittää miten nykysirkusryhmän digitaalista asiakaskokemusta voidaan kehittää niin, että sillä olisi suora merkitys kansainvälistymisen edistämiseen. Toisin sanoen, miten digitaalisesta asiakaskokemuksesta saadaan houkuttelevampi kansainvälisille ostajille, tässä tapauksessa ulkomaisille promoottoreille ja agenteille. Työn tilaajana toimi jyväskyläläinen, vuonna 2006 perustettu Circus Uusi Maailma, joka koostuu eri alojen ammattitaiteilijoista. Sirkuksen tiedotuskeskuksen kansainvälisessä strategiassa Circus Uusi Maailma kuuluu niin kutsuttujen nousevien ryhmien joukkoon – heti kolmen kärkivientiryhmän vanavedessä. Teoreettisessa viitekehyksessä tarkastellaan lähdekirjallisuuden pohjalta digitaalista markkinointiviestintää, digitaalisia palveluita ja niiden yhdessä muodostamaa digitaalista asiakaskokemusta, erityisesti kulttuurikentän vapaan toimijan näkökulmasta. Teorialukuun on valittu myös aihealueita liittyen nykysirkusryhmän kansainväliseen verkostoitumiseen ja suhdetoimintaan. Aineistonkeruumenetelminä käytettiin puolistrukturoituja henkilöhaastatteluja, aivoriihiä sekä benchmarkingia. Henkilöhaastattelujen avulla kartoitettiin Circus Uusi Maailman digitaalisen asiakaskokemuksen nykytilaa sekä ryhmän jäsenten, että ulkopuolisen digitaalisen palvelumuotoilun asiantuntijan toimesta. Kartoituksen avulla löydettiin digitaalisen asiakaskokemuksen kehitysalueet. Aivoriihissä kulttuurituotannon sekä digitaalisen viestinnän opiskelijoille ideoitiin keinoja digitaalisen asiakaskokemuksen parantamiseen, joiden pohjalta laadittiin ajatuskartta varsinaista kehitysehdotusta, digitaalisen asiakaskokemuksen työkalupakkia varten. Benchmarkingin avulla kartoitettiin nykysirkuskentän parhaat toimintatavat digitaalisen markkinoinnin ja viestinnän suhteen. Benchmarkingin vertailukohteita olivat hyvin kansainvälisesti menestyneet suomalaiset ja ulkomaiset nykysirkusryhmät. Tulosten pohjalta rakennettiin Circus Uusi Maailmalle digitaalisen asiakaskokemuksen työkalupakki. Digitaalisen asiakaskokemuksen työkalupakin osa-alueiksi muodostuivat: kotisivun kehittäminen käytettävyyden, visuaalisuuden ja löydettävyyden osalta, digitaalisten markkinointimateriaalien laadun kohentaminen, panostaminen sisältömarkkinointiin, sosiaalisen median monipuolisempi ja interaktiivisempi hyödyntäminen sekä digitaalinen verkostoituminen kansainvälisesti.This Bachelor’s Thesis is a case study that aims at defining how to improve the digital customer experience of a contemporary circus company in a way that directly promotes the company’s internationalization. In other words, the research question reads: how to improve the digital customer experience and make it more attracting to international buyers, in this case circus promoters and agents. The commissioner of the thesis is Circus Uusi Maailma, a contemporary circus company founded in 2006 and based in Jyväskylä, Finland. The company is composed of professional artists from various fields of arts. The Finnish Circus Information Centre describes Circus Uusi Mailma as “a rising company” in the international strategy and it is positioned directly after the three main export companies. Digital marketing communications and digital services together form a digital customer experience. Their theories and models are dealt with in detail in the theoretical framework of the thesis, especially from the point of view of an actor of the so-called free cultural field. In the theoretical chapter, there are also chosen topics concerning international networking and public relations of a contemporary circus company. Semi-structured personal interviews, brainstorming sessions, and benchmarking were used as data collection methods. Personal interviews were used to map the current state of Circus Uusi Maailma’s digital customer experience. The persons interviewed consisted of the members of the company as well as an external expert of digital service design. The mapping served to highlight development areas in the company’s digital customer experience. The students of cultural management and digital communications participated in the brainstorming sessions. The sessions had a goal to find ideas to improve Circus Uusi Maailma’s digital customer experience. The results of the brainstorming sessions were used to draw a mind map for the actual development proposal: a toolbox of digital customer experience. Benchmarking served to determine the best practices of the digital marketing and communications in the field of contemporary circus. The companies benchmarked included Finnish and foreign contemporary circus companies, which all had been internationally successful. Based on the results, the toolbox of digital customer experience was built for Circus Uusi Maailma. The sections of the toolbox of a digital customer experience read as follows: usability development; the visual appearance and visibility of the homepage; improving the quality of digital marketing materials; investing in content marketing; making use of the social media in more diverse and interactive ways; and finally digital networking at an international level

Exploring digital business models in performing arts through a dynamic capabilities lens

This PhD research is situated at the intersection of arts, business, and the digital realm. With a particular focus on the crisis-time practices during the Covid-19 pandemic, the thesis investigates how performing arts enterprises (PAEs) can deploy business models in the digital economy. The Covid-19 pandemic acted as a catalyst of digital transformation in many traditionally live activities-based industries, such as the performing arts sector. As live performance-based business models were made temporarily obsolete, the global health crisis marked a drastic drop in income for the sector, but also accelerated organisational decision-making, the adoption of novel digital technologies, and the development of dynamic capabilities (DCs) (Teece, 2007; Teece et al., 1997) in PAEs, which enabled the experimentation with innovative digital business models. Set within this context, this thesis explores the activities of UK-based PAEs to share insights into their recent digital business model innovations, and to discuss the implications of arts and cultural sectors’ pandemic-time ‘digital pivot’ for the post-pandemic performing arts landscape. Although the ‘platformization’ (Nieborg and Poell, 2018) of work and leisure activities has created a prolific ecosystem for digital entrepreneurship, publicly funded, non-profit PAEs commonly lack the financial, time and human resources to engage in business model innovation (BMI) or embed digital technologies in their business models. This situation is further complicated by the mission of arts and cultural enterprises to create different types of value (e.g., cultural, social, and economic), which requires the complex task of balancing competing value creation logics. This research therefore sets out to explore how PAEs can better embrace the opportunities of the digital economy and build strong DCs required to engage in digital BMI. Through addressing the following research questions: “How can performing arts enterprises deploy business models in the digital economy?” and “How do the dynamic capabilities of performing arts enterprises change in order to enable digital business model innovation?”, the thesis investigates innovative business models deployed by PAEs in the digital economy and the dynamic capabilities that enable PAEs to engage in digital BMI. To facilitate the identification of digital business models deployed by PAEs, a novel theoretical framework is developed that draws upon Rex et al.’s (2019) categorisation of common (live activities-based) business models in performing arts, extending it to the context of the digital economy. Drawing on extant literature on business model research, arts entrepreneurship and dynamic capabilities research, the thesis adopts a qualitative, multi-stage and multimethod research design. By combining semi-structured interviews, netnographic research and multi-method case study research, data is collected on existing and emerging digital business models in performing arts to determine their key characteristics and potential for sustainability and viability. The research contributes to both theory and practice. First, with a focus on the Covid-19 crisis-time practices in PAEs, the thesis situates the concept of digital business model in the context of performing arts, advancing the work of Rex et al. (2019) and furthering understanding of the type of digital business models that PAEs are likely to deploy post-pandemic. Second, the thesis presents a novel conceptual model highlighting the dynamic capabilities that contribute to the digital BMI within PAEs and enable them to develop new business models for the digital economy. The research also offers a range of implications for policy, as it provides policymakers with evidence of how the prevailing cultural policy supports the digital BMI process and development of critical dynamic capabilities in PAEs. Additionally, it pinpoints key issues and loopholes with the current arts funding infrastructure with regard to creative digital R&D and innovation in performing arts. These insights are particularly valuable to SMEs, as when seeking to engage in digital BMI they face considerably more challenges than larger, better-resourced peers. From a practitioner perspective, the research is valuable as it highlights potential digital entrepreneurial opportunities available for performing arts and provides guidelines for PAEs when designing business models for the digital economy

Exploring digital business models in performing arts through a dynamic capabilities lens

This PhD research is situated at the intersection of arts, business, and the digital realm. With a particular focus on the crisis-time practices during the Covid-19 pandemic, the thesis investigates how performing arts enterprises (PAEs) can deploy business models in the digital economy. The Covid-19 pandemic acted as a catalyst of digital transformation in many traditionally live activities-based industries, such as the performing arts sector. As live performance-based business models were made temporarily obsolete, the global health crisis marked a drastic drop in income for the sector, but also accelerated organisational decision-making, the adoption of novel digital technologies, and the development of dynamic capabilities (DCs) (Teece, 2007; Teece et al., 1997) in PAEs, which enabled the experimentation with innovative digital business models. Set within this context, this thesis explores the activities of UK-based PAEs to share insights into their recent digital business model innovations, and to discuss the implications of arts and cultural sectors’ pandemic-time ‘digital pivot’ for the post-pandemic performing arts landscape. Although the ‘platformization’ (Nieborg and Poell, 2018) of work and leisure activities has created a prolific ecosystem for digital entrepreneurship, publicly funded, non-profit PAEs commonly lack the financial, time and human resources to engage in business model innovation (BMI) or embed digital technologies in their business models. This situation is further complicated by the mission of arts and cultural enterprises to create different types of value (e.g., cultural, social, and economic), which requires the complex task of balancing competing value creation logics. This research therefore sets out to explore how PAEs can better embrace the opportunities of the digital economy and build strong DCs required to engage in digital BMI. Through addressing the following research questions: “How can performing arts enterprises deploy business models in the digital economy?” and “How do the dynamic capabilities of performing arts enterprises change in order to enable digital business model innovation?”, the thesis investigates innovative business models deployed by PAEs in the digital economy and the dynamic capabilities that enable PAEs to engage in digital BMI. To facilitate the identification of digital business models deployed by PAEs, a novel theoretical framework is developed that draws upon Rex et al.’s (2019) categorisation of common (live activities-based) business models in performing arts, extending it to the context of the digital economy. Drawing on extant literature on business model research, arts entrepreneurship and dynamic capabilities research, the thesis adopts a qualitative, multi-stage and multimethod research design. By combining semi-structured interviews, netnographic research and multi-method case study research, data is collected on existing and emerging digital business models in performing arts to determine their key characteristics and potential for sustainability and viability. The research contributes to both theory and practice. First, with a focus on the Covid-19 crisis-time practices in PAEs, the thesis situates the concept of digital business model in the context of performing arts, advancing the work of Rex et al. (2019) and furthering understanding of the type of digital business models that PAEs are likely to deploy post-pandemic. Second, the thesis presents a novel conceptual model highlighting the dynamic capabilities that contribute to the digital BMI within PAEs and enable them to develop new business models for the digital economy. The research also offers a range of implications for policy, as it provides policymakers with evidence of how the prevailing cultural policy supports the digital BMI process and development of critical dynamic capabilities in PAEs. Additionally, it pinpoints key issues and loopholes with the current arts funding infrastructure with regard to creative digital R&D and innovation in performing arts. These insights are particularly valuable to SMEs, as when seeking to engage in digital BMI they face considerably more challenges than larger, better-resourced peers. From a practitioner perspective, the research is valuable as it highlights potential digital entrepreneurial opportunities available for performing arts and provides guidelines for PAEs when designing business models for the digital economy

Beyond the ‘substitution effect’: The impact of digital experience quality on future cultural participation

The ‘digital pivot’, experienced by many arts and culture organisations during the Covid-19 pandemic, revealed a complex nexus of effects that includes significant accessibility improvements, for example, for D/deaf and disabled audiences, but also a replication of many pre-existing exclusions. We argue that understanding the experiences of online audiences can help inform arts and culture organisations’ decisions when adapting to the current period of uncertainty, particularly with the cost-of-living crisis reducing leisure spending. Drawing on data from the Digital Experience survey carried out in the UK by Indigo Ltd. (2020-21), this article explores how diverse online audiences evaluated online theatre experiences, and how these experiences can impact their future behaviour. By analysing the respondents’ quality of experience in parallel with data on participants’ demographics and chosen access devices, we provide evidence demonstrating that online participation, particularly if the experience is of high quality, has the potential to increase future in-person participation

Digital access to arts and culture

The final report summarises an 18-month research project into the role of digital arts and culture in the UK during the pandemic, focusing on its accessibility implications. The report pays particular attention to the ‘pivot’ to online programming undertaken by many arts and culture organisations following the onset of COVID-19. It also explores how online and live programmes have interacted with each other, how digital accessibility tools are finding their way back into in-person activities, and what the wider accessibility implications of the on-going hybridisation of arts and culture may be. Summary: The increased availability of online arts and culture during the pandemic led to accessibility benefits for many people – in particular d/Deaf and disabled, clinically vulnerable, older, and geographically remote participants. Many participants with accessibility needs now see the provision of online arts and culture as an essential accessibility feature. However, various factors have recently caused performing arts organisations in particular to pull back from providing regular streaming content. These include low revenue potential, no sector-wider digital rights framework, a hierarchisation of in-person over online content, and a funding environment that favours one-off digital projects. As a result, many people with accessibility needs now risk returning to pre-pandemic levels of exclusion from arts and culture. The report’s authors conclude by arguing that hybrid (in-person and online) programming must form a key factor in future accessibility improvements: the more routes that exist for engaging with arts and culture, the easier it is to engage with, and the more inclusive it can become.</p

Beyond the “substitution effect”: the impact of digital experience quality on future cultural participation

The “pivot” to digital that many arts and culture organisations faced during the Covid-19 pandemic, revealed a complex nexus of effects that includes significant accessibility improvements (for example, for D/deaf and disabled audiences) but also a replication of many pre-existing exclusions. We argue that understanding the experiences of online audiences can help inform arts and culture organisations’ next steps in adapting to the current period of uncertainty, particularly with a cost-of-living crisis reducing leisure spending. Drawing on data from the Digital Experience survey carried out in the UK by Indigo Ltd. (2020–21), this article explores how diverse online audiences judged online theatre experiences and their potential impact on future behaviour. By analysing respondents’ quality of experience in tandem with demographic information and how participants accessed the online experience, we provide evidence showing that online participation, particularly if the experience is high quality, has the potential to increase future in-person participation.</p