Landmark digital culture organisation FutureEverything closes, marking end of an era.

Founded by Drew Hemment in 1995 as Futuresonic, FutureEverything became one of Europe's most influential art-technology organisations. Named by The Guardian as one of the top 10 ideas festivals worldwide and cited by Prime Minister David Cameron in major policy speeches as a UK success story, it shaped fields that define contemporary digital culture – from locative media, which prefigured the smartphone era, to AI arts, open data, and smart cities. Its global reach extended from Manchester to Singapore, Moscow to San Jose.

Landmark projects included Mobile Connections 2004, the world's first major cultural event on mobile media; Open Data Manchester, one of Europe's first open data initiatives; and GROW Observatory, the world's first continental-scale citizens' observatory. These grew from FutureEverything's pioneering 'festival-as-lab' approach –  turning cultural events into laboratories that opened new territory and generated lasting change. Partners included the Singapore Government, European Commission and Intel 

The organisation was instrumental in Manchester's transformation into a vibrant international city with strong digital culture. FutureEverything preceded and contributed to Manchester International Festival, embodying the city's future-facing identity on the global stage. International partners approached Drew Hemment to forge strategic relationships with Manchester, recognising the city's avant-garde position in digital culture.

Recent years, under Creative Directors Irini Papadimitriou and Lucy Rose Sollitt, with Executive Director Chris Wright, saw FutureEverything at its most internationally ambitious. Standout commissions included Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's Atmospheric Memory, described by the New York Times as “the most ambitious art project of Manchester International Festival 2019”. Pioneering international exhibitions on art and artificial intelligence – one reaching 400,000 visitors in person and a television audience of 3.5 million – established FutureEverything as a leading cultural voice on AI. Nature Directed, its final and most radical initiative, reimagined FutureEverything as a vehicle for ecological resilience – a commitment it carried into its own governance by formally giving the natural world a seat on its Board.

FutureEverything was born when digital culture was a niche interest with a small international community of pioneering artists, technologists and institutions. Digital culture no longer exists as a discrete field – digital is now everywhere, embedded in everything. The debates FutureEverything championed, around AI, data, surveillance and climate, are now central to global discourse daily. Its closure marks the moment a pioneering generation passes the baton to the mainstream it helped to create. The departure of Sónar's founders in Barcelona after 30 years reflects the same generational shift.

The closure also reflects the structural precarity faced by small pioneering cultural organisations in a post-pandemic funding environment – influential far beyond their means.

Though the company closes on 4 April, FutureEverything's legacy continues. Drew Hemment will translate FutureEverything from a company into a method – distilling 31 years of sensing and shaping futures to seed and empower new initiatives, communities and ways of working. An archive project will document the organisation's legacy and impact, with the international community invited to contribute. Nature Directed will continue beyond the closure as an inspiration for wider transformation in the cultural sector.

Hemment's current work – including Doing AI Differently, a global initiative he leads at The Alan Turing Institute applying FutureEverything's world-building ethos – continues the mission on a global stage.

FutureEverything's team carried the organisation through its final chapter with dedication and care. Over three decades, it sparked major initiatives that continue to thrive, with people it nurtured going on to significant careers across the digital culture sector.

A summer celebration gathering the international community is envisioned, to mark thirty-one years of work, the lasting connections it forged and the futures it helped to open.

Drew Hemment, Founder, said: "FutureEverything has been the defining work of my life, and it belonged to everyone who shaped it. What we built together – the ideas, the community, the fields we helped open up – doesn't close with the company. It carries forward into the future it helped to imagine. 

Annette Mees, Chair of the Board, said: "FutureEverything has had an outsized influence on digital culture, on Manchester, and on countless artists, technologists and communities around the world. We are proud of everything the team has achieved, and certain its legacy will continue to shape technological futures."