What are these economic initiatives? What lessons can be learned from these studies? We take a closer look with one of the Digital Inter/Section project managers, Fabien Fabre.
Note : This article is based on a partnership with HACNUM, the French network for hybrid arts and digital cultures, which brings together over 400 players in this sector. Read it in French here.
Digital Inter/Section, a multi-year project supported by the European Commission’s Creative Europe programme, has just published four case studies highlighting innovative financial strategies used by digital arts institutions and festivals in Europe. The Signal Festival in Prague, Kikk in Namur, Kontejner in Zagreb and Chroniques in Aix-Marseille took part in a survey that emphasised their economic resilience and diversified funding sources. What are these economic initiatives? What lessons can be learned from these studies? We take a closer look with one of the Digital Inter/Section project managers, Fabien Fabre.
Public funding for the cultural sector is stagnating or even falling (examples in France include the “Local authority cultural budgets and choices: the national picture in 2024” barometer, and the budget cuts seen in the Pays de la Loire region), and institutions and festivals dedicated to the digital arts are no exception. However, some organisations are refusing to give in to the status quo – they are diversifying their business models and adopting strategies that are still relatively uncommon in this field. This is the dynamic highlighted by a study carried out by Digital Inter/Section, which begins with an in-depth economic analysis of the sector. “The first stage of the study was entrusted to The Catalysts, an agency specialising in cultural business models. We conducted an international survey of dozens of organisations in order to identify metamodels and inspiring initiatives, and to map our value chains. The work resulted in an initial publication,”explains Fabien. Building on these preliminary lessons, key players such as the Signal Festival (Prague), the Kikk Festival (Namur), Kontejner (Zagreb) and Chroniques (Aix-Marseille) were then invited to describe their approaches in detail. Through an in-depth survey, they shared information about their projects, target audiences and resources, as well as the key factors in their success. The study illustrates a collective desire to reinvent the business models of the digital arts, while drawing on solutions tailored to today’s challenges.
In Aix-Marseille, the Chroniques biennial has chosen an original approach to diversifying its revenues. To open the 2025 edition, it launched the Marché des Imaginaires Numériques (MIN, “digital imagination market”), an event dedicated to the cultural and creative industries. Taking place last November, the market combined conference sessions, workshops and a trade fair where start-ups and companies in the cultural and creative industries presented their projects. “The exhibitors made a financial contribution. Everyone got something out of it. It was a way of highlighting the area’s attractiveness and underlining the positioning of Chroniques as an economic driving force alongside its artistic and cultural activity,” Fabien explains. This event strategy echoes Kontejner’s approach in Zagreb, though Kontejner has more of a hybrid model. The Croatian organisation has created a social enterprise, retaining a shareholding, to market a fully-equipped arts space and offer additional services, such as talks and creative workshops. “The goal is to build a real community around this facility. Ultimately, Kontejner could operate like a social club, bringing artists, partners, businesses and the public together,” emphasises Fabien.
Meanwhile, Kikk in Namur and Signal in Prague have opted for different commercial strategies. Kikk opened a new site in 2022, Le Pavilion, which presents temporary exhibitions designed primarily for the public, both local and national, and for schools. “The originality of this initiative is the way it is building a community of individual and professional sponsors focused on the project’s values,” comments Fabien, referring directly to the Klub Pavillon. Creating a sponsors’ club, an initiative that has already proved effective in other artistic fields (opera, dance, etc.), is an avenue that has not yet been fully explored in the digital arts. Finally, Signal in Prague is developing new revenue streams through paid premium experiences such as the Gallery Zone, offering exclusive access to digital art installations. While the festival currently attracts over 200,000 visitors a year to its free events, “the aim of the project is to capitalise on the public’s strong attachment to the festival by refining audience segmentation, improving the value proposition of the paid areas and increasing the conversion of free visitors into paying customers,” Fabien explains. All these initiatives demonstrate a common desire to explore new ways of financing and sustaining cultural organisations while promoting local synergies.
As they were only launched a year ago, the business initiatives of the four cultural institutions will take time to reveal their full financial potential. “In another year, we will have gained enough perspective to evaluate these approaches, but several lessons are already emerging,” emphasises Fabien. Among these lessons, the crucial importance of fully understanding the ecosystem, both local and international, stands out as essential. This approach begins with a detailed study of the target audiences. Martin Pošta, director of the Signal Festival, sums up the advice: “Invest in understanding your audience. Analysing visitor behaviour and expectations provides the information you need to create real value.”These analyses are widely used in sectors such as music, allowing for fine-grained customer segmentation and a detailed understanding of their behaviours, expectations and needs. “If you want to implement a fair ticketing policy, appropriate for both the public and the organisations involved, this marketing step is essential,” Fabien adds. Music festivals have been able to incorporate this methodology, and the digital arts would benefit from doing the same. Yet this approach remains marginal in the cultural sector, partly due to a shortage of specific skills. “One of the keys to success lies in collaborating with qualified experts. Working with professionals, such as the research agency that supported us, was essential to ensure our data was accurate,” explains Martin. For fast-changing organisations, investing in data and the relevant expertise appears to be the strategic lever needed to ensure the long-term sustainability of their hybrid models.
While marketing is now recognised as a strategic area in the development of business models for the digital arts, communication as a lever still receives too little investment, despite being essential to support these transformations. It starts internally, as the Kikk Festival study shows: “The first year is demanding in terms of team dynamics and resource allocation, but it allows for better preparation of internal communication.” Fabien shares this analysis, highlighting the importance of this dimension for reaching audiences, partners and customers. “For example, one of the areas where the MIN (the ‘digital imagination market’) could be improved would be to communicate more intensively to widen its reach,”he explains. Paradoxically, this failure to invest quickly enough in communication contrasts with the practices of the new private-sector players that have made a splash with immersive creations for the general public. These organisations, often remote from the longer-established institutions, are not afraid to spend significant sums on marketing and communication to promote their immersive exhibitions. “The problem is that these new arrivals are draining the value generated by digital creation, even though what they are offering artistically is not always at the level of what established practitioners can achieve,” Fabien comments. This competition raises a crucial question for traditional players in the digital arts: how can they regain ground against private operators that use these resources more aggressively?
Digital Inter/Section is preparing to close this phase of the study in February 2025, but is still focusing on an ambitious objective: strengthening the links between digital arts establishments and festivals across Europe. “There are too few networking initiatives on a European scale,” Fabien laments. In response to this observation, the team is considering launching a touring series of conferences to create a shared space for thinking about the diversity of existing business models. “The idea is to encourage these initiatives, share experiences and, ultimately, contribute to the economic resilience of players in the sector,” he adds. By pooling knowledge and opening up transnational dialogue, Digital Inter/Section hopes to help build a stronger and more sustainable European ecosystem for the digital arts. In other words, a necessity for the years to come.
By Adrien Cornelissen
Picture ©Gregoire Edouard – Chroniques