Digital Democracies Commissions
Northampton-based Threshold Studios has been awarded £195,000 from Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grants to lead Digital Democracies, the first commissioning consortium of its kind in the UK.
Connecting three of the UK’s leading art and digital culture commissioning festivals, Frequency Festival in Lincoln (Produced by Threshold Studios), Hull’s award-winning Freedom Festival (Produced by Freedom Festival Arts Trust) and Brighton Digital Festival (Produced by Lighthouse and Brandwatch), Digital Democracies will pioneer the development of democratic and innovative digital work to welcome audiences back to our shared civic spaces following the coronavirus pandemic.
Donna Close, Associate Director of Threshold Studios, explained:
“Digital Democracies will ensure that audiences across the UK can benefit from innovative digital art in the public realm – working with artists to explore and share their own sense of place, identify and society.”
More information about commissioning opportunities and events coming soon. Look out for #DigitalDemocracies on social media or join our Mailing List for announcements.
Supported using public funding by Arts Council England and by Threshold Studios, Freedom Festival Arts Trust and Brighton Digital Festival through their partners and funders.
Current Commissions
A Portrait Without Borders – presented by Kaleider – will be showing at Freedom Festival, 4-6 September 2020. Co-commissioned by Digital Democracies.
About the Festivals
Frequency Festival of Digital Culture, Lincoln
Frequency Festival is a biennial international digital culture festival in Lincoln, UK.
Produced by Threshold Studios, in partnership with the University of Lincoln and supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. The event is driven by a dynamic city-wide collaboration of public sector organisations along with support from the business community.
The festival embodies the pioneering spirit of digital innovation; sparking debates on digital culture, nurturing talent within the creative industries, and inspiring the digital creative in us all.
Since launching in 2011 Frequency has hosted over 500 local, national and international artists, exhibiting their work to over 75,000 visitors.
Next festival edition is coming up in October 2021.
Freedom Festival, Hull
Freedom Festival celebrates, through artistic and cultural expression, Hull’s independent spirit and historic contribution to the cause of freedom. The festival, together with its related year-round programme, is Hull’s premier festival event, growing out of the 2007 William Wilberforce commemorations to become the highlight of the city’s artistic and cultural programme.
The programme – featuring street theatre, visual arts, theatre, circus, talks and debates, music, spoken word, dance and more – in which the concept of ‘freedom’ is consistently articulated, is aimed at a wide audience, bringing renowned national and international artists to Hull while providing significant opportunities for local and regional artists.
For 2020, in response to the current climate, the Festival is presenting an online programme that can be enjoyed from Home, and broadcast via the BBC, over what would have been the festival weekend (4-6 September). Featuring international talent alongside local acts, expect robot selfies, timely debates which tackle issues of our time and bedtime stories the kids will remember for years.
To view the full programme, download the app from the App store or visit www.freedomfestival.co.uk.
Brighton Digital Festival
Since 2011 Brighton Digital Festival has produced an annual programme of events, taking place over four weeks across the city. The festival celebrates the richness of the creative and cultural industries in our city and explores the ways in which digital technology continues to shape our lives and our thinking. It supports the community to produce an open programme of independent events augmented by high-quality commissioned arts and education programming.
In 2015 Brighton Digital Festival incorporated as an independent Community Interest Company run by the community for the community. Funding from Arts Council England and sponsorship from local companies and institutions ensures the festival remains free for grassroots organisers to deliver great events.