China will now have access to The British Library’s unmatched collection of documents, thanks to a deal brokered by the cultural licensing agency ARTiSTORY.
The agency recently signed a multi-year agreement with The British Library to work on IP licensing in the Greater China market. The British Library is the UK’s national library and possesses the world’s most comprehensive research collection, providing information services to academic, business, research and scientific communities.
“It is a great pleasure to work with the British Library, home to human being’s intellectual treasures for thousands of years,” said ARTiSTORY CEO Yizan He. “It is also an exciting moment for ARTiSTORY, as we have successfully moved one step further in diversifying our IP portfolio. With ARTiSTORY’s core capability of ‘Artefacts to Merchandise’ and storytelling, we are looking forward to bringing the best of The British Library to consumers in China. ”
A specialist in art and cultural IP licensing, ARTiSTORY works with world’s top museums, galleries, science centres and libraries. The addition of the British Library sees ARTiSTORY expand its portfolio into the “library” category.
This partnership reflects ARTiSTORY’s vision to help extend The British Library’s reach to a much wider audience in the China market via innovative licensing programs, which would engage with retailers, manufacturers, direct to consumer brands, online retailers and eventually reaching millions of culture-lovers and consumers across generations.
“We have a long history of working with Chinese cultural institutions on research projects to advance knowledge and mutual understanding, and since The British Library in China project, we started to engage with wider audiences through cultural events such as exhibitions, talks and forums,” said British Library COO Phil Spence. “Now we are thrilled to be working with ARTiSTORY to share our intellectual heritage with Chinese audiences through creative IP projects and memorable cultural experiences.”
The British Library has a mind-boggling collection of over 170 million items, ranging from prints and electronic books to periodicals, films and rare manuscripts, as well as digital image and sound collections.
Priceless legacies such as Leonardo da Vinci’s notebook, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the works of Shakespeare, the story of Medusa and many more would become source of inspirations of ARTiSTORY’s annually refreshed themes of design assets, as well as multiple forms of content for storytelling purposes.
These designs, paired with the content, would be used on products spanning various categories such as fashion, home décor, and to create rich formats of experiences such as location-based entertainment (LBE).