Edinburgh Festivals Innovation Lab Launch
July 13, 2010
Edinburgh Festivals to go global with digital boost
Festivals Edinburgh, the strategic umbrella organisation that represents and works on behalf of Edinburgh’s twelve major festivals, has been awarded £300,000 from Creative Scotland’s National Lottery Fund to set up the Edinburgh Festivals Innovation Lab, a two year initiative to lead the digital development of Edinburgh’s Festivals.
The Edinburgh Festivals Innovation Lab, believed to be the first of its kind in the UK, will enable Festivals to work with leading thinkers, technologists, artists, audiences and digital communities to develop and prototype ideas that improve and inspire the audience experience. It will tackle themes such as helping festival go-ers make the most of their experiences, new ways of distributing festival content and making the festivals greener.
Everything from special developer tech events and webtools that transparently “crowdsource” ideas from the public, to a brand-new “geek-in-residence” position working across the Edinburgh Festivals, will be developed. The Lab will also support improvements to core infrastructure, enable the digital distribution of content and support the exploration of digital programming.
The Edinburgh Festivals Innovation Lab will run alongside Creative Scotland’s Amb:IT:ion Scotland programme, which currently supports Scottish arts organisations to build their digital capacity and enhance their effectiveness using new technologies. In line with the aims of Amb:IT:ion Scotland, the Innovation Lab will provide organisational capacity, resources and access to expertise, to take advantage of opportunities in digital innovation, technology and culture in order to provide public benefit.
The Innovation Lab is a natural development for the Edinburgh Festivals, who in the past twelve months have supported, delivered or piloted a number of digital projects including: the Festivals’ first iPhone application; the creation of the Festivals’ first official online TV channel edinburghfestivals.tv; “Festbuzz”* and the crowd-sourcing via Twitter of the Fringe 2010 programme artwork.
Andrew Dixon, Chief Executive, Creative Scotland said:
“The Edinburgh Festivals already reach a live and TV audience in the millions. Creative Scotland’s investment will enable the festivals to interact with a global audience and to engage with the public through online digital programming.”
Faith Liddell, Director of Festivals Edinburgh said:
“Collaboration and innovation are at the heart of our plans to sustain and boost the ongoing success and development of Edinburgh’s Festivals. Over the next two years, our world-renowned Festivals will be a stage and a showcase, a playground and a platform for a number of innovative pilot projects and initiatives. And through our developer events programme, crowdsourcing initiatives and geek-in-residence programme, the way we invite, select and deliver the projects will be an innovation in itself too. We are delighted that Creative Scotland has chosen to invest in our ambition, as we focus on digital technology and innovative practice to maintain our global competitive edge.”
Ends.
Notes to Editors
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Creative Scotland is the new development agency for the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland.
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Festivals Edinburgh is the high-level organisation created and managed by the directors of Edinburgh’s 12 major Festivals to lead on their joint strategic development. Festivals Edinburgh enables, facilitates and delivers new, significant projects in a number of key areas: joint marketing, programming, sponsorship, innovation, environmental sustainability and professional development.Edinburgh’s 12 major festivals are: Edinburgh International Science Festival, Bank of Scotland Imaginate Festival,Edinburgh International Film Festival, Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival, Edinburgh Art Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, Edinburgh Mela Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh International Book Festival, Scottish International Storytelling Festival and Edinburgh’s Hogmanay.
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*Festbuzz is an independent website that “listened” to the buzz about Festival shows in social media and ranked Festival events in order of popularity.
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Amb:IT:ion Scotland launched in August 2009, following the recommendations set out by the ‘getting digital’ report (2008), which was commissioned by the Scottish Arts Council.
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Creative Scotland has also invested in Glasgow Grows Audiences and Rudman Consulting to project manage and deliver the Amb:IT:ion Scotland programme.
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The Innovation Lab is overseen by the Innovation Working Group, a Festivals Edinburgh collaborative group comprising representation from all of the other Festivals’ collaborative groups (Programming, Marketing, Professional Development, Sponsorship and the Environment) to ensure that Innovation is central to the Festivals’ joint-working. The group is chaired by Andrew Coulton, Administrative Director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
For more information on Amb:IT:ion Scotland and the Creative Scotland’s National Lottery Fund please contact:
Charlotte Rowland, Communications Officer, Creative Scotland
T:+44 (0) 131 240 2498
For information on the Edinburgh Festivals Innovation Lab and Festivals Edinburgh please contact:
Claudia Monteiro, Media Relations Officer, Festivals Edinburgh
T:+ 44 (0)131 529 7377
