Arts and culture

Since 2020, institutions in the arts and culture space have gone through a transformative and reflective period where they have been driven to reckon with their identities, redesign the systems that support their businesses, and redefine their offerings outside their physical space. With fewer borders, more physical-digital opportunities, and more global digital access comes a more significant consideration set, and arts and cultural organizations worldwide must decide how they serve their communities near and far. Here are some thoughts:

With the rise of pop-up Instagram-worthy “museum” experiences, private galleries expanding into in-person experiences, Google Arts & Culture creating encyclopedic galleries online, advancements in AR, VR, and AI, as well as conversation around the social role of a museum as a collector of objects—arts and culture institutions have to get clearer on their unique value they bring and the unique point of view of their collections, scholarship, and educational programs impart and why it matters today.

"As arts and culture organizations look to transform to meet the moment digitally, there are two core areas that they can look to optimize—more robust infrastructure and less technical debt," shares AREA 17 Group Engineering Director Quentin Renard. Institutions can create a digital infrastructure that removes unintentional silos and creates clear collaboration across curation, preservation, membership, education, and communications through intelligent systems. They can also reduce technical debt through a more streamlined approach to CRM, DAM, CMS, and ticketing that can help save time and money and create more resiliency through times of change.

With a renewed focus on media formats and storytelling online and digital expanding outside of just the website—arts and culture websites are no longer only about getting people to visit and are becoming hubs to engage users anytime from any place and invite conversation, community, and access. Redefining the role of your website, app, and digital infrastructure can help drive more engagement globally.

AREA 17 has had the privilege of working with the most influential cultural institutions and is committed to co-creating a world where arts and culture not only remain but thrive. How can arts and cultural leaders become more borderless? We would love to discuss how you are approaching these considerations.