This article analyzes Ireland’s emerging position as a global cultural policy case study, focusing on the Basic Income for the Arts (BIA) program and its place within the national framework Culture 2025. While Ireland’s consensus-driven political system, strong arts advocacy networks, and history of support for artist income have enabled an ambitious, research-oriented basic income pilot, the article highlights deeper tensions within cultural policymaking. Drawing on Stephen Hadley’s concept of “cultural policy realism,” it argues that Ireland’s policies—despite their novelty—remain rooted in traditional, instrumentalist views of culture as an economic engine and national branding tool. By contrasting democratization of culture with cultural democracy, the piece situates Ireland’s model between innovation and reversion, emphasizing the need for sustained experimentation, critical evaluation, and more genuinely democratic approaches to cultural support.
This study advances Part II by translating Scopely’s strategy into an execution plan across three tracks - NPC innovation, intelligent monetization, and ethical LiveOps - supported by new evidence from a 1,159-response consumer survey, nine expert interviews (developers, influencers, and experiential professionals), and secondary industry research. Part I established the market context for AI’s disruptive potential and identified three priorities: live operations evolution, commerce optimization, and advanced player analytics. The goal of this phase is to pinpoint the highest-leverage AI applications that deepen gameplay engagement, convert payment resistance through demonstrated value, and safeguard community trust. Accordingly, Part II outlines actionable playbooks (context-aware NPCs and adaptive narratives), platform tactics (purchase-aligned mobile personalization and cross-play integration), and operational models (behavior-based matchmaking and transparency protocols) designed to drive scalable, technology-led growth while preserving the integrity of shared human play.
This study provides a comprehensive analysis for Scopely to enhance its position as a leader in interactive and mobile gaming, focusing on AI integration in live operations, in-game commerce, and player analytics. The research reveals the urgent need for gaming companies to navigate accelerated AI adoption and evolving player expectations for personalized experiences. The goal is to identify the most impactful AI applications over the next three years and strategies that maximize engagement and monetization while maintaining player trust. Significant to this goal is balancing innovation with ethical considerations, including data privacy and transparency, while recognizing AI's potential to enhance storytelling and create immersive experiences. Employing a mixed-methods approach with industry interviews, a survey of over 1,000 U.S. gamers, and secondary research, Part I establishes the foundation for understanding AI's transformative impact - setting the stage for Part II's empirical findings and strategic recommendations.
A daylight robbery at the Musée du Louvre in mid-October resulted in the theft of eight priceless pieces from the French Crown Jewels housed in the Galerie d’Apollon. The incident now serves as an in-depth analysis for arts leaders globally to confront not only external threats, like highly organized professional thieves, but also the complex, internal risk of compromised staff and the urgent need to re-evaluate their security posture, technological investment, and institutional accountability.
As immersive technologies redefine the live concert experience, artists and virtual idols alike are transforming how audiences engage with music. From Hatsune Miku’s “holographic” performances powered by projection and LED technologies to VR concerts by creators like BlackGryph0n and Gorillaz, extended reality (XR) is blurring the lines between physical and digital performance. This article explores the evolution of Vocaloid software, the artistry behind digital concerts, and the growing influence of augmented and virtual reality in live music. As AR and VR become more accessible, musicians and fans alike are discovering new ways to connect—reshaping what it means to perform, attend, and experience music in the digital age.
This is a two-part series exploring how the benefits of incorporating livestreaming technology into theatres. Part 1 of the report documents a history of livestreaming theatre (involving a timeline and the lifespan of the industry’s biggest players) and a brief analysis of what it means to perform “Live!” and its programming potential.
CGI and motion-capture technology have disrupted filmmaking in the past two decades, and there are no signs that this trend is in decline. In part one, the history of and technology behind CGI and motion-capture is explained in detail. That framework and information will be applied to this second part of the series, which examines how similar technology is leveraged in the “holograms” that have become more prevalent in live performances and museum spaces in the past few years.
Over the past twenty years, computer-generated imagery has become nearly ubiquitous in film and television productions. This ubiquity is due to enhanced computing power and higher resolutions coupled with increasingly lower costs. To understand how these technological advancements and their artistic applications in recent years are disrupting the industry, there are three key technologies that must be understood and disambiguated: computer-generated imagery (CGI), motion capture, and holograms. Of these three, CGI is the most foundational technology for the current state of production.
Deepfake is a merge between 2 terms which are Deep Learning and Fake. It is a technology that includes teaching software to memorize faces, expressions, movements and even voices of a person so that the machine can later project that information onto another person. Despite its common inappropriate use, Deepfake technology can surely benefit the entertainment industry, specifically film production. This comes with further consequences to be considered by various parties.
Since its first iteration, Augmented Reality (AR) has been disrupting education, health, entertainment, and many other fields. By enhancing the senses and abilities it has delighted but also aided in solving difficult problems. In arts and culture, AR has transformed static museum displays and provided special effects for stage productions. But the use of AR hasn’t gone much beyond support in storytelling, and the adoption of such a versatile technology as a tool in the production processes has been tentatively explored.
Google Analytics is an indispensable tool for any business to better serve its customers, achieve business goals, and build successful marketing campaigns. Used by itself, analytics is a powerful tool that can help an organization optimize its website and customer pathways. However, integrating additional tools within the Google Suite of tools offers more nuanced and informative means of maximizing data integration and your understanding of your institution’s website connections and conversion. This research report gives a how to for 7 critical Google Suite tools to maximize Google Analytics impact.
With the emergence of digital fan engagement, fan codes and traits that were once hidden to content makers are now able to be studied on an individual and collective scale through scraping and network mapping. This paper explores how to access information in order to understand fan behavior and the best ways to cultivate fan/producer relationships. While this study focuses on film and television, this information can be used to map digital conversations and communities surrounding all artistic mediums.
How well do you know the history of your industry? Could you list every branch, every individual, that helped to develop your industry into the complex and beautiful thing it is today? If you asked someone who works in the arts to craft such an image or list, they’d probably be able to give you a significant list of names. Yet, the truth is, a single individual’s list can’t provide the entire picture, just their perception of what the tree looks like.
With the digitization of our world, data has proven to be incredibly useful for arts and entertainment organizations in terms of decision-making and strategy formation. However, organizations can often be at a loss with how to collect data, how to format data visually, or how to use the data to achieve their goals. What follows is a discussion/outline of two methods for gathering external data for internal use in arts and entertainment institutions: web scraping and data scraping.
Facial recognition technology is in a predicament, and has actually been there for quite a while. What did it experience to become the center of the controversy and how does such controversy influence the art industry? Controversial discussion never stops a new technology, and instead, it creates a buffer to help the aggressive technology to slow a bit. With this opportunity, arts managers and other stakeholders may be able to check if they are on the right track dealing with the technology and consider whether they need to reshape it to meet future challenges.
The National Comedy Center is the '“first non-profit institution and national-scale visitors experience dedicated to the art of comedy,” but it does the genre justice appealing to both fans and non-fans (Variety). The museum opened in 2018 and has already been praised as one of the best museum experiences in the country, holding a 5 star ranking on trip advisor.
The landscape of the unscripted video industry is changing. Part 1 of this series explores four case studies demonstrating the current landscape and what features are most appealing to audiences. In this section, the researchers look to experts in the video industry and fans to explore how the landscape is changing and what content providers should expect. This research is applicable to any content provider of unscripted videos. Furthermore, this research serves as an excellent study for understanding what audiences are seeking from the entertainment industry.
The Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) platform is changing the way viewers watch home entertainment and traditional studios. It is increasingly more difficult to understand an audience’s viewing habits in the over-saturated unscripted programming industry due to the lack of viewer data collection capabilities of SVOD platforms. Through the research and case studies presented in this study, one can better understand a potential audience and what compels them to this type of entertainment.
This white paper explores the importance of integrating social media data into an organization’s CRM to improve Customer Knowledge Management (CKM). By increasing the information collected CRMs can be more effective, leading to greater efficiency and productivity. Learn how arts organizations can gather more data to better understand their customers by integrating social media into a CRM system.
Artists are taking advantage of new technologies to enhance their artmaking. They are using AI as a tool in the same way that artists of yesteryear used pen and ink and paintbrushes. This opens a whole new realm of possibilities for arts managers in terms of the scope of multimedia exhibitions and performances. Artists who are using AI as a tool include visual artists, performers, and creators of popular media.
Technologically enhanced theatre experiences can extend beyond the use of cutting edge performance light and sound tech. Today’s technology allows theaters to reach audiences outside of their physical space through livestreaming performances in Virtual Reality (VR) with VR being defined as an artificial environment which is experienced through sensory stimuli (such as sights and sounds) provided by a computer and in which one's actions partially determine what happens in the environment. Furthermore, livestreaming, defined as when a person or organization “transmit[s] or receive live video and audio coverage of (an event) over the Internet” is becoming a routine part of standard social network experience. Livestreaming through VR, while still a relatively new concept, may allow the virtual audience watching the livestream to feel much more present at the performance than ever before and therefore a theater’s potential audience engagement opportunities.
In 2019 the Arts Management and Technology Lab researched a wide breadth of content, from product reviews of image editing software to industry analysis of music streaming. As the year draws to a close, looking back through Google analytics offers a perspective on what the arts management field was particularly keen to learn over the year. Read on to see if the top topics align with any of your particular interests or passions.
As time goes on, it’s clear that artificial intelligence will continue to find its place in the arts. Using AI to build connections with audiences, in particular, is an interesting and developing sector of arts and technology. The performing arts are primed for a technology jumpstart and a reassessment of audience engagement tactics. Now, more than ever, the opportunities for the integration of artificial intelligence and audience engagement in the performing arts are ripe for exploration.
