A new year and the start of a new venture! As of today Interact Digital Arts Ltd is officially open for business. We have been using the name for a few of months now, but 1st January 2016 marks the formal launch of the project.

The idea behind Interact Digital Arts - or simply Interact - is to take the many digital arts initiatives that Cuttlefish Multimedia Ltd and Sean Clark get involved in and give them a single, coherent, identity. That means that things like Interact Labs, Computer Arts Society Leicester, our live events and exhibitions, workshops and commissions will now become "Interact projects" and future projects will be now be run under the Interact name. Many of our digital arts projects are collaborations, and that will remain the same, albeit with Interact as the partner, not Cuttlefish or simply Sean Clark.

What are the advantages of doing this? Well, firstly it provides us with better opportunities to seek funding. Much of our past work has been self-funded by Sean Clark, or underwritten by Cuttlefish, but the new company will be able to apply for public and private funding. Our first success with this was the recent Computer Drawing: DP Henry and Beyond exhibition, which was supported by the Arts Council and Computer Arts Society. The next advantage is branding and recognition. By using a single organisation name for all of our activities we hope to raise the profile of our work and present a more unified programme or work. Finally, with Interact as a recognisable and legally defined entity, we hope to broaden our formal collaborations and connections with other arts organisations.

We already have a number of Interact exhibitions planned for 2016 and these will be announced soon. We're also working on a workshop programme and some live events. Plus there is Interact Labs - our ongoing collaboration with Phoenix in Leicester. We look forward to continuing to work with the bursary winners and the Code Club group here.

If you want to be kept informed of Interact's plans and activities then you should follow us on Facebook or Twitter, or join our spam-free email list. To find out more about our past and current work have a look at the What we do section of the new Interact website. If you're interested in knowing more about the plans for Interact - or have a project you would like us to get involved in - then you can also contact us direct. Visit the Interact website's Contacts page for details.