This year’s Digital Innovation in Arts & Culture Award (DIAC) semi-finalists represent the cutting edge of creativity across continents—from Brussels to Barcelona, San Francisco to Kyiv. Selected by a jury of leaders from the arts, culture, and technology, these 14 projects demonstrate how innovation is reshaping every aspect of human expression.
“Today, innovation is inseparable from culture. From AI to identity standards, the tools of our time are changing not just how art is made, but how it’s owned, taught, preserved, and experienced. With DIAC, we’re celebrating builders who turn technological progress into cultural progress.” — Ulvi Kasimov, Founder of .ART Registry
Artcrush is transforming public space into cultural space. By turning city billboards into curated digital galleries, they bring art to millions of people outside traditional institutions. Their global partnerships with out-of-home networks allow emerging and established artists alike to connect with audiences during daily commutes—redefining “public art” for the digital age.
🔗 artcrush.gallery
With Art Smiles, Art Games is reinventing art education for children. Their award-winning physical card game comes alive through AR and AI, teaching K–8 students about movements from Impressionism to Pop Art while encouraging them to create their own masterpieces. Already used in schools, libraries, and museums, Art Smiles proves that play is a powerful gateway into culture.
🔗 artgames.ai
AIS is building the ISBN of the art world: a universal, decentralised identifier (AIS DID) for artworks and cultural objects. With 70+ institutional members, including museums and insurers, AIS offers the infrastructure to track provenance, exhibition history, and conservation data across both physical and digital spheres. Their work lays the groundwork for a more transparent, ethical cultural economy.
🔗 artidstandard.org
Ìtàn is the world’s largest onchain exhibition platform for West African art, with over 200 artists represented across Nigeria and its diaspora. Through blockchain-based provenance, curated digital shows, and artist grants, Ìtàn ensures that African creativity gains the visibility and fair compensation it deserves—turning heritage into a digitally preserved, globally accessible legacy.
🔗 itanart.myshopify.com
IMX3 is designing the cultural districts of the future. Their immersive, curator-led environments use spatial computing and narrative design to help museums, artists, and cultural organisations reach audiences worldwide. By building digital spaces rooted in storytelling and inclusion, IMX3 ensures heritage and art are preserved in ways that are both emotional and accessible.
🔗 imx3.art
Loupe is the “Spotify of visual art.” As a streaming platform, it transforms TVs, web browsers, and public screens into curated galleries. Following its acquisition by Stingray, Loupe has scaled its reach into homes, hospitals, hotels, and retail spaces worldwide. For artists, it offers new revenue and exposure; for audiences, it makes living with art a daily ritual.
🔗 loupe.art
MBD brings cultural memory to life through collaborative VR. Their co-location experiences, such as Steel Town Talesand The Infinite Museum, allow groups of people to step into immersive worlds where history and storytelling unfold together. By placing communities at the centre, MBD redefines how heritage is shared, remembered, and emotionally experienced.
🔗 mbd.limited
This digital platform and marketplace celebrates neurodivergent creativity by turning sensory needs into design strengths. From calming art environments to inclusive e-commerce, Neurodivergent Synergy collaborates with artists, educators, and mental health organisations to deliver products and installations that champion inclusion—not just as accessibility, but as a driver of cultural innovation.
🔗 neurodivergentsynergy.com
Peggy is democratising art collecting. By combining AI authentication with built-in resale royalties, they ensure transparency for buyers and recurring income for artists. Their mobile-first marketplace is already working with 30+ galleries worldwide, bridging fintech and culture to create a more equitable and liquid art economy.
🔗 peggy.art
Part global media platform, part creative ecosystem, SHE IS AI elevates women and underrepresented voices at the intersection of AI and art. With a widely read digital magazine, global creator network, masterclasses, and challenges like the AI Fashion Challenge, it’s both a cultural platform and a movement for more equitable digital futures.
🔗 sheisai.ai
An ETH Zürich spin-off, SmartStamp turns any smartphone into a biometric scanner capable of reading the micro-surface of artworks. Each scan generates a tamper-proof digital passport anchored on blockchain, ensuring authenticity and provenance. With over 2,000 works already scanned, SmartStamp is leading the way in compliance with upcoming EU digital product passport standards.
🔗 smartstamp.com
SVD Denim is pushing boundaries in adaptive fashion and cultural representation. As Ukraine’s first prosthetic-inclusive denim brand, and the world’s first to launch avatars with visible limb differences, SVD merges physical garments and phygital skins. Co-designed with veterans, their work challenges visual norms, proving that inclusion is style, identity, and cultural resilience.
🔗 svddenim.com
Based in Barcelona, TGAM is the first museum dedicated to generative art. Through hybrid programs like the Responsive Dreams festival, it brings algorithmic and AI-driven art into both public spaces and the metaverse. Their work shows how creative coding is not just an artistic medium, but a cultural language for our time.
🔗 tgam.xyz
WHATCLASS is rewriting the rules of education through music. Backed by ABRSM and streaming partners, the platform turns artists into educators and fans into learners. With over 100 artists and 400 classes already live, WHATCLASS combines AI-personalised learning with fan-powered IP models—building an ecosystem where cultural education is participatory, scalable, and sustainable.
🔗 whatclass.com
These semi-finalists remind us that the future of culture is digital, inclusive, and global. They are not just innovating in technology—they are reinventing how art and culture are shared, preserved, and experienced.
Stay tuned: the finalists will be announced later in September, with the winners revealed at the Allstars gala in London on October 16, 2025.
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