17 May 2012

Supported by Arts Council England and developed by FACT's in-house team, the stand-alone website for the platform artplayer.tv launches today (22 May).

A new platform dedicated to supporting, showcasing and promoting the UK's arts organisations, artplayer forms part of FACT's remit as digital lead in Arts Council England's national portfolio of arts organisations.

For viewers, artplayer.tv offers a video site specifically dedicated to the UK arts scene, with high-quality content, exclusive arts news and editorial that brings instant access to major artists and arts organisations. Current channel owners include Rambert Dance Company, Opera North and Nottingham Contemporary. Current video highlights includes coverage of Childs Play, a school play written by Kinks frontman Ray Davies, an exclusive interview with Turner Prize nominee Elizabeth Price for her exhibition at The Baltic and David Shrigley's tattoo event at Abandon Normal Devices festival.

Roger McKinley, artplayer Project Manager said:
"The research we did showed us that the whole sector both wanted and would benefit from a centralised, tailored platform that could help promote the arts industry and support digital development across the sector. artplayer offers a place where the great work being done in the UK arts can really be consolidated and get seen. Crucially organisations can also manage their activity on artplayer themselves and tailor their "channel" on artplayer.tv to reach this targeted arts audience.

Alongside the website, the platform includes mobile apps, and offers support services for organisations including training, production and editing suite hire. The website also includes an editorialised strand including a monthly round-up programme of the UK arts called InFocus.

Branding for the website has been developed by Liverpool's Error Creative Studio and apps are being developed by award-winning Liverpool developers Apposing.

Organisations that sign up on or before Tuesday 19 June will be entered into a prize draw for £5000 worth of artplayer services.