Culture24

What Culture24 does

Culture24 was an independent UK registered charity (charity number 1085847) that operated from Brighton between 2001 and 2023, helping arts and heritage organisations build digital capacity, resilience, and audience engagement. Its core offerings were the Let's Get Real (LGR) annual collaborative action research programme (delivered to 700+ organisations and 1,180+ participants across 11 projects from 2010-2024), the Digital Pathways online resource bank, and the Museum Crush collaborative storytelling platform with 15,000+ newsletter subscribers. The organisation also operated a Direct Data Entry (DDE) database feeding a WordPress-based publishing platform, covering 7,200+ UK cultural venues with openly licensed listings data shared with partners including Art UK and the BBC.

The business model was structured around grant and commissioned-service funding rather than commercial revenue. Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) funding between April 2018 and March 2023 served as the largest revenue anchor as a designated Sector Support Organisation; this was supplemented by self-generated income from LGR cohort participation fees (£350-£750 per organisation), international commissions (British Council in Myanmar/Greece/Croatia, Europeana Foundation, Canada Council for the Arts via DART), consultancy, and events including the annual Let's Get Real conference. A one-off £101,245 grant was received from the UK Government's Culture Recovery Fund in 2021.

In March 2023, Arts Council England dropped Culture24 from its portfolio, triggering redundancies. In December 2023, after 22 years as an independent charity, Culture24 merged with The Audience Agency; all ongoing clients and three remaining team members (CEO Jane Finnis, Content & Partnerships Director Anra Kennedy, Digital Skills Manager Alec Ward) transferred to the new home, with Let's Get Real continuing as the first joint offer, now in partnership with the Institute for Digital Culture at University of Leicester.

Name

Culture24

Legal name

Culture24

Website

https://culture24.org.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

2001

Operating status

Acquired

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Culture24 was a Brighton-based UK charity (2001-2023) that built digital capacity in museums and heritage organisations through the Let's Get Real action research programme, Digital Pathways resource bank, and Museum Crush storytelling platform, serving 700+ cultural sector organisations before merging with The Audience Agency in December 2023.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Cultural Sector Digital Capacity Building Services

NAICS

Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities (54172), Museums, Historical Sites, and Similar Institutions (712)

SIC

Miscellaneous Publishing (2741), Services-Miscellaneous Amusement & Recreation (7990)

akta.pro primary industry

Arts & Culture Service/Support Organizations (Networks, Advocacy, Capacity Building) (BPAGAHAL)

akta.pro secondary industries

Community Arts, Culture & Creative Placemaking Enterprises (BPAGALAO), Digital Development & ICT4D / GovTech Technical Assistance (BPADAEAL)

Keywords

• Cultural sector support
• Digital capacity building
• Museum digital skills
• Arts and heritage consultancy
• Action research programmes

Headquarters

HQ city

Brighton

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. NPO Funding: Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation funding between 2018-2023 to deliver sector support programme for museums. Lost NPO status in March 2023.
2. Project Commissions: Commissioned work including Europeana Foundation Digital Transformation Task Force, British Council digital capacity building in Myanmar, Greece, Croatia.
3. Consultancy: Digital skills consultancy and leadership support for cultural organisations.
4. Partnership Events: Events and conferences including the annual Let's Get Real conference.
5. Self-generated Income: Supplemented NPO funding with income from commissions, partnerships, events and consultancy for range of public, private and academic partners in UK and internationally.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Culture24 was an independent UK charity that delivered digital capacity building programmes, training, and online resources to arts and heritage organisations. Its core offering centred on the Let's Get Real (LGR) annual collaborative action research programme supported by the Digital Pathways online resource bank, the Museum Crush storytelling platform, and a Direct Data Entry (DDE) database feeding cultural event listings into a network of WordPress websites. Additional offerings included skill development programmes (Leading the Sector, Curatorial Digital Leadership), the Museums Support Alliance convening forum, and bespoke digital transformation consultancy for UK and international partners.

Product overview

Culture24 was an independent charity (2001-2023) that operated as a platform of interconnected digital services, programmes, and platforms focused on building digital capacity in the arts and heritage sector. The core offering centred on Let's Get Real (LGR), a flagship collaborative action research programme, supported by Digital Pathways (an online resource bank) and Museum Crush (a collaborative storytelling platform). Additional products included Show Me (for children) and VanGoYourself (art recreation platform). The organisation also provided digital infrastructure through its Direct Data Entry database and listings data APIs serving UK cultural institutions. Culture24 delivered skills programmes including Leading the Sector, Curatorial Digital Leadership, and Digital Literacy for Leadership, and convened the Museums Support Alliance. After-hours programming included Museums at Night and Emerge Festival. The organisation merged with The Audience Agency in December 2023, with LGR and Digital Pathways continuing under the new home.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Let's Get Real (LGR) Flagship annual collaborative action research programme supporting a cohort of arts and heritage organisations each year to develop digital capabilities. Between 2010-2024, LGR engaged 700+ organisations with 1,180+ participants across 11 action research projects, producing research reports downloaded 36,000+ times.
• Digital Pathways Online resource bank providing resources to help museum people understand and use digital tools and channels. Offers case studies, how-to guides, toolkits, and explainers curated from Culture24's projects and partners.
• Museum Crush Collaborative storytelling platform that curated and packaged museums' collections to tell new stories reaching audiences online. Included a regular email digest to over 15,000 followers and directly supported 50 museums per year to explore innovative marketing using digital collection assets.
• Show Me Website offering a safe, age-appropriate gateway to arts and cultural collections content for students aged 7-12 and their teachers. Aggregated games, collections, stories, homework help and family information from museums, galleries and archives.
• VanGoYourself Platform allowing the public to recreate famous paintings and share them online, developed through Europeana Creative in 2015. Won Best of the Web award at Museums and the Web 2015.
• Direct Data Entry (DDE) Database Database available for UK cultural institutions to use free of charge to upload their event and exhibition listings. Fed into Culture24's family of WordPress websites, creating a flexible, robust publishing system.
• Listings Data API UK's most comprehensive database of arts & heritage venues, events and exhibition listings. A data set of 7,200+ cultural venues with listings available as APIs for data sharing partnerships, with all listings data openly licensed for re-use.
• Museums Support Alliance Forum of CEOs and senior leaders from 30+ non-profit organisations supporting the museum sector, meeting 2-3 times yearly to develop more relevant, tailored and coherent services through co-operation.
• Leading the Sector Professional development programme in digital leadership for leaders of medium-to-large heritage organisations, supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Part of the Digital Skills for Heritage initiative.
• Curatorial Digital Leadership Programme 10-month cohort programme for art museum curators to develop digital leadership skills, delivered in partnership with Association of Arts Museum Curators (AAMC) and funded by the Knight Foundation for 23 curators from 12 US organisations.
• Lates (Museums at Night & Emerge) After-hours events programme in museums and galleries running between 2009-2019 through Museums at Night (twice-yearly national showcase) and Emerge Festival (night-time events across London). Emerge 2019 reached audiences that were 75% aged 16-34 and 30% people of colour.
• Digital Action Research and Training (DART) Three-year project funded by Canada Council for the Arts, based on Culture24's collaborative action research methodology, working with different cohorts of Canadian arts & heritage people each year.

Quantifiable outcome

• 700+ organisations helped develop digital capacity
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers13 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration8 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core and minor.

• The Audience AgencyflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 December 2023Culture24 merged with The Audience Agency in December 2023 after 22 years as independent charity. Both organisations shared similar mission and values, combining complementary experience and expertise. All ongoing clients and three remaining team members moved to The Audience Agency. Let's Get Real programme continues as first joint offer under the merger.
• Chris Unitt / One FurthercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAnalytics and user research agency founded by Chris Unitt. Partnered with Culture24 on Let's Get Real 10 Years On programme, supporting content design, webinar programme and participants' self-directed learning with expertise in data and analytics for cultural sector.
• University of Leicester - Institute for Digital CulturecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerProgramme partner for Let's Get Real 2024. New institute at University of Leicester partnering with Culture24/Audience Agency for hybrid delivery of the action research programme.
• Birmingham Museums TrustcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-facilitated Let's Get Real Hybrid programme (2022-2023) focused on navigating challenges of hybrid working in cultural organisations. Partnership with co-CEO Zak Mensah who also served as Culture24 trustee.
• Carnegie UK TrustcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnered on Let's Get Real 7 exploring values-based digital design and human connection through digital channels. Ben Thurman from Carnegie UK Trust contributed reflective writing on the programme.
• Common Cause FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner on Let's Get Real 7 project exploring values-based digital design approaches. Contributed research on intrinsic vs extrinsic values to inform digital practice redesign.
• Wellcome CollectioncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner on Let's Get Real 7 project. Showcased values-based approach through editorial content promoting inclusion and diverse voices on their website.
• Europeana FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCommissioned Culture24 to set up and facilitate Europeana Initiative's Digital Transformation Task Force (Oct 2021-Apr 2022) and to research digital transformation agenda in GLAMs internationally. Created Digital Transformation Guide for Cultural Heritage across Europe.
• British CouncilminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCommissioned Culture24 to deliver digital capacity building work for museum professionals in Myanmar, Greece and Croatia.
• Museums Support Alliance MemberscoreOthersInformal group of 30+ non-profit organisations supporting museums, convened and chaired by Culture24 CEO Jane Finnis. Includes: Army Museums Ogilby Trust, Arts&Heritage, Arts Fundraising & Philanthropy, Arts Marketing Association, Association of Independent Museums, Collections Trust, Engage, Family Arts Campaign, GEM, ICOM UK, Julie's Bicycle, Kids in Museums, Museums Computer Group, Museums Association, and others.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Europeana Foundation: EU-funded digital cultural heritage platform and convening organisation. Directly comparable through the Europeana Digital Transformation Task Force that commissioned Culture24, operating at significantly larger EU-wide scale.

Direct peers

• Kids in Museums: UK charity supporting family-friendly museum experiences. Was a Museums Support Alliance member and participant in Culture24's Let's Get Real programme, reflecting similar beneficiary community of UK museum practitioners.
• Collections Trust: UK non-profit helping museums and galleries manage and share collections effectively. Overlaps with Culture24's mission of improving digital capacity and standards within the museum sector, and was a Museums Support Alliance member.
• Engage: UK membership organisation supporting gallery education and audience engagement. Was a member of the Museums Support Alliance convened by Culture24 and operates with a similar non-profit sector-support model.
• Julie's Bicycle: UK charity supporting arts and cultural organisations on environmental sustainability and creative climate action. Comparable as a mission-driven non-profit providing specialist sector support and convening services to UK arts organisations.
• The Audience Agency: UK-based charity providing audience intelligence, data, and development services to arts and cultural organisations. Acquired Culture24 in December 2023 and is its most direct comparable in mission, scale, and beneficiary base.
• Museums Association: The oldest and largest UK membership body for museum professionals, providing sector advocacy, training, publications, and events. Directly comparable as a UK-wide non-profit supporting museum sector capacity and professionalism.
• Museum Computer Group (MCG): UK group supporting the use of digital technology in museums through events, training, and networking. Highly comparable as a UK non-profit specifically focused on building digital capacity in the museum sector.
• Arts Marketing Association (AMA): UK membership body providing training, resources, and events for arts marketing and audience development professionals. Direct overlap with Culture24's digital marketing and audience engagement work for arts organisations.

Regional players

• American Alliance of Museums: US-based membership organisation providing advocacy, accreditation, and professional development for museums. Comparable non-profit sector-support role but serving North American rather than UK museum sector.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/Culture24
• Facebookfacebook.com/community
• Instagraminstagram.com/museum.crush
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/culture24

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Culture24