Calling all CAPACOA members! Applications are now open for the 5th and FINAL edition of the Digital Discoverability Program.
Between Summer 2025 and Winter 2026, 20 performing arts organizations will have the opportunity to work one-on-one with the Artsdata team. Together, we will find solutions to boost your digital discoverability, by focusing on your:
- Event pages (i.e. stand-alone webpages that describe only one upcoming live performance or one series of performances of the same show)
- Artist pages (i.e. stand-alone webpages that outline the biography of only one performer or performing group)
- Wikidata/Artsdata items (i.e. open data entries that describe your organization, your venues(s), your festival(s), and/or the artists you represent).
As a result, local arts goers and tourists alike can more easily find your contents via search engines (ex: Google, Bing), AI chatbots (ex: ChatGPT), recommendation systems (ex: Siri, Alexa) and cultural calendars using the Artsdata knowledge graph!
Requirements
In order to participate in the 2025-2026 Digital Discoverability program, you must:
- Be a current CAPACOA member (having paid your membership dues on or after April 1, 2025).
- Manage your own website where you publish single event and/or artist pages.
- (Preferably) have access to a web developer.
- Have a basic level of digital maturity.
- Appoint a dedicated staff member as your “Discoverability Lead”. Although anyone at your organization is welcome to take part in meetings, your Discoverability Lead will act as the primary cohort participant and contact person for the entire duration of the program.
Costs
The value of this kind of work from a consultancy or other for-profit company is estimated at $2,500. Fortunately, the Digital Discoverability program is free for CAPACOA members.
If you are a non-member and are still interested in paying for discoverability services, don’t worry. We are in the process of launching a new Digital Discoverability On Demand service that will be open to anyone! Check back with us in Fall 2025 for more information.
How this will work
If you are accepted to the program, you should anticipate a time commitment of somewhere between 4 and 40 hours over the July 2025 – March 2026 period. This exact number of hours will depend on multiple factors, including how many event and/or artist pages are on your website, how those pages are structured, whether or not you have a web developer, and what discoverability solutions you choose.
To start, you will receive an email from Dessa Hayes (Digital Transformation Agent, CAPACOA) and/or Morgan Pannunzio (Data and Media Project Manager, CAPACOA) inviting you to schedule an initial one-hour virtual meeting. After discussing the current discoverability level of your events and/or artists (with a focus on structured data, SEO and open data records), you will receive a preliminary diagnostic document with suggestions for improvement.
You will also have the opportunity to schedule additional meetings to:
- Further discuss any of the topics covered in the initial meeting;
- Participate in any additional training sessions (depending on your chosen discoverability solutions);
- Troubleshoot any technical difficulties; and/or
- Follow up on any changes made to your webpages.
Why structured data?
Structured data helps machines understand the contents of a webpage by telling them what kind of “thing” (ex: an event, person, or organization) is being described. It also identifies key information about that “thing”: in the case of an event, its date, time and location; in the case of a person, their first and last name, occupation, work location, etc.
Without structured data, event pages will not show up in search results when audiences ask “what’s on near me tonight”. Furthermore, they cannot be added to the Artsdata knowledge graph. For more information about how Artsdata can help event organizers exceed Google’s discoverability requirements, check out this blog post about Google’s event guidelines.
From an artist standpoint, structured data also plays an important role in disambiguation. In other words, it helps machines understand which specific person or organization is described on a webpage––especially when they share their name with another person or organization. For more information about disambiguation, read this blog post about provenance metadata.
Selection criteria
Cohort participants will be onboarded one at a time and selected on a first come, first served basis. If selected, participants may choose to begin their initial training session before the application deadline.
How to apply
Interested organizations must fill out this application form before Thursday July 31, 2025.
Please note that the form may close at an earlier date if the cohort is already complete.
About Artsdata
Artsdata is a knowledge graph designed by and for a community of users from the Canadian arts sector. We follow a decentralized approach, delegating autonomy and responsibility to stakeholders, and fostering a dynamic ecosystem of tools and open data that is continually evolving.
The Artsdata project is funded by the Government of Canada and by the Canada Council for the Arts.
