The Happenstance project is a collaboration between Caper, Site Gallery, Lighthouse, Spike Island and University of Warwick. The Centre for Cultural Policy Studies research team comprises Chris Bilton, Ruth Leary and Katherine Jewkes, all of whom have worked together on the MA in Creative and Media Enterprises. Chris and Ruth are full time members of the Centre, Katherine is a graduate of the MA in Creative and Media Enterprises and since graduating has set up her own consultancy specializing in theatre, digital technology and its application in the arts, the Arts Collective. The Centre’s researchers will examine the connection between one-off digital innovation and longer term organizational transformation and will be working with the arts and technology partners to identify how organizational creativity and disruptive innovation feed off each other.

Happenstance is one of eight projects supported by NESTA, Arts Council England and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The relationship between ad hoc 'glanceable' innovation and organisational change is a theme which cuts across the entire programme. Further details of all eight projects can be found on the NESTA website. A report on the Warwick Happenstance research is due to be published in September 2012. In the meantime, updates on the project will be posted on the Happenstance website and on the NESTA blog.