Arts Company KMA is chasing further success thanks to £29k funding from the Yorkshire Innovation Fund (YIF), a project part-financed by the European Regional Development Fund.
Through the YIF programme, the company will undertake its latest challenge: a research development project with York St John University, which aims to re-develop their business model to capitalise on the company’s reputation within the public arts market. The audience enhancement research will be conducted by Dr. Eirini Nedelkopoulou (YSJ), whose expertise focuses on participatory approaches to interactive and digital practices in art and performance.
The funding follows a joint smaller innovation project between KMA and York St John University one year ago also led by Dr. Nedelkopoulou, which helped the company to examine how audiences react and engage with a particular work. The public and interactive nature of KMA’s work brought about the necessity to expand on audience building mechanisms and experiment with the making and ‘breaking’ of communities within the public sphere. This knowledge helped to inform the company how to design work that reaches more heterogeneous audiences and different markets.
KMA develops cutting-edge technical pieces of film, music, theatre and public art installations which have been shown around the globe, from Shanghai to Trafalgar Square. Their work has included live visuals and interactive projections for the likes of Paolo Nutini and Prince, and they are currently working on a feature-length film adaptation of Macbeth. KMA public works are large scale hybrid digital-performance works of art that are designed to engage the general public with public spaces in new and innovative ways.