About

The Umbrella Group is a group of artists and producers from the UK working with digital and new technologies.

We’re a loose group of individuals banded together for the purposes of this trip to SXSW – to check out the competition, learn more and make contacts.  The group straddles the very artistic end of digital to the very commercial, and we’re interested in how artistic creation provides the ideas and stimulus for more commercial applications, as well as in and of itself.

Collectively we work in games, music, theatre, poetry, live events, broadcasting and film.

The UK is a star performer in the global cultural and creative industries.  We have the largest creative sector in the EU and, relative to our size as a country, our creative sector is probably the biggest in the world.  According to UNESCO, the UK is the biggest exporter of cultural goods, surpassing the US.

The UK’s creative and cultural industries are burgeoning.  It contributes nearly £60bn a year – 7.3% of the UK economy and contributes to nearly 10% of all UK earnings.

There is a symbiotic relationship between artists and commercial producers.  The expressive value at the heart of an artist feeds through a chain to commercial work via the cultural industries.  It’s because of this link that we’ve come here together – artists from different backgrounds with producers who can make that work happen and translate it into business.

There is huge demand for art and culture within the UK, and internationally for the products we make and the ideas we have.  The people on this trip are at the forefront of making, promoting and developing the interactive art on the frontiers of digital that makes Britain great.  We thought we’d introduce them to you – seems only fair.

Come talk to us and say hello to Tweeture.

The Umbrella Group trip to SXSW is funded by the Arts Council of England