Entrepreneurship Class Final Business Plan: Immersive Art Exhibition

Executive Summary 

The Concept

In a world where all our attention is locked on our screens and digital feeds, real art and human connection are being pushed to the side. Traditional art galleries expect people to quietly observe art on a white wall, but today’s audiences crave experiences they can feel, enter, and interact with. Drew’s Studio is a next-generation immersive art space that blends handcrafted physical artwork with cutting-edge digital technologies such as projection mapping, LED screens, interactive sensors, spatial audio, and responsive environments. Instead of simply looking at art, visitors step inside living art installations that allow them to be fully immersed and enveloped within it, allowing for better connections to art that has a stronger influence. 

This concept addresses a major shift in cultural behavior: people want meaningful, sensory-rich environments that provide escape, emotional release, self-expression, and community. Drew’s Studio bridges the gap between traditional creativity and modern experiential design, offering a hybrid space that leverages technology to bring art to life. It is not just a venue but a creative ecosystem that inspires visitors to explore, reflect, and create.

The Opportunity

The global immersive entertainment market exceeded $114 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow to an estimated $442 billion by 2030 as consumers seek interactive, storytelling-driven experiences (Grand View Research, 2025). At the same time, there is increasing dissatisfaction with passive screen-based entertainment and a rising demand for activities that promote mental well-being, emotional expression, and community connection. Drew’s Studio sits at the intersection of these trends, providing an experience that is part art, part wellness, part entertainment, and entirely unique.

Cities across the U.S. are actively investing in experiential attractions to increase tourism, diversify downtown economies, and appeal to younger demographics. The strategy for Drew’s Studio is to launch in a mid-sized cultural hub that supports strong tourism, strong local arts communities, and demonstrated demand for immersive experiences (such as Austin, Nashville, Denver, or Asheville). The studio will begin with one flagship immersive room that is high-impact, technologically advanced, visually stunning, and then expand into additional rooms, rotating exhibits, and workshop spaces as visitor volume grows.

The Plan

The venture will also build partnerships with local artists, schools, wellness practitioners, and event organizers to generate recurring traffic, expand its influence, and build a loyal community audience.

By leveraging technologies once limited to filmmaking and video game production, such as the omniverse, digital twins, volumetric lighting, and projection mapping. Drew’s Studio can design environments that feel limitless in scale and creativity. These tools make it possible to transport visitors into entirely new universes, far beyond what traditional art installations can achieve. This approach dramatically expands what art can be: larger in scale, richer in detail, and more emotionally influential. It allows the artwork to guide, shape, and immerse the viewer in ways that are impossible with static pieces, opening the door to deeper storytelling, more powerful emotional responses, and an experience that stays with visitors long after they leave. 

The convergence of cultural demand, generational change, and emerging creative technologies reveals a ready market, hungry for a new category of art experience. Our traditional institutions are failing to capture younger audiences, while immersive entertainment continues to scale globally. Drew’s Studio sits at the center of this shift by offering a model that is scalable, adaptable, and built on proven experiential trends. By combining handcrafted artistry with advanced digital worldbuilding, the studio delivers a differentiated product with high margins, strong repeat-visitor potential, and multiple revenue streams. With the right investment, Drew’s Studio can establish itself as a category leader in experiential art, eventually expand into new markets, and capture a growing share of an industry undergoing rapid transformation. The following sections will detail the opportunity, operational strategy, and markets that support this vision.

The Art Industry

The art industry is highly fragmented, spanning fine art, craft art, digital art, experiential art, performance art, and community-based creative experiences. Consumers can engage with art through galleries, museums, fairs, online platforms, immersive exhibitions, creator marketplaces, and social media. While this fragmentation creates intense competition, it also reflects a vibrant ecosystem filled with collaboration, cultural diversity, and a deep appreciation for creativity.

A unique challenge within the industry is the mismatch between creation and consumption. More people want to create art than simply view it, and more people want to sell or share their work than purchase art outright. This has led to an oversupply of artists and content and an undersupply of meaningful, accessible, emotionally resonant experiences for the public. Traditional art institutions struggle to maintain relevance in this environment, especially among younger demographics who prioritize interactivity and personal expression over passive viewing.

In addition, the global art market has shown signs of flattening. According to Art Basel and the UBS Art Market Report, total sales declined 12% in the most recent period, falling to approximately $57.7 billion (Art Basel, 2025). Over the past 20 years, despite volatility, there has been no consistent upward trend in total market value (Art Basel, 2025). This stagnation suggests that traditional art formats are failing to capture emerging consumer preferences and economic shifts.

Trends

Yet even within these challenges, several transformative trends are creating new opportunities, especially for ventures like Drew’s Studio. One of the most significant shifts is generational. As wealth transfers to younger generations, including Millennials and Gen Z, and especially females, their influence on the art industry is rapidly expanding. These audiences value experiences, creativity, community, mental wellness, and digital expression far more than conventional art collecting. They favor immersive spaces, interactive storytelling, and hands-on engagement forms of art that allow them to participate rather than observe.

Sculptures, digital art, photography, film, video art, and installations are taking over, as seen in the figure below (Art Basel, 2025).

Figure A: Activity Levels of Fine Art Buyers by Medium 2022, 2023, 2024/2025 (Art Basel, 2025).

Drew’s Studio is positioned precisely at the intersection of these trends. By focusing on experiential art, emotional immersion, and personal creativity, the studio aligns with how younger generations want to connect with art today. For the U.S. specifically, the market size for immersive entertainment was about US $40.15 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach around US $281.05 billion by 2033 (Grand View Research, 2025). Instead of competing in the saturated world of high art collecting, Drew’s Studio taps into the growing demand for meaningful, interactive, and accessible creative experiences, offering a solution to the very stagnation the traditional art market is facing.

Success in the modern art industry depends on a business’s ability to adapt to shifting consumer behaviors, embrace emerging creative technologies, and stay culturally relevant. Companies must balance artistic quality with accessibility, offering experiences that resonate with younger, experience-driven audiences while still appealing to traditional art consumers. Strong community relationships, active engagement across digital channels, and the ability to refresh or rotate content regularly are critical for staying visible in a crowded market. Finally, organizations that understand generational preferences, particularly the growing demand for interactive, emotionally engaging, and socially shareable art, are best positioned to thrive as the industry continues to evolve

The Company Concept

The mission is to bridge the gap between artists and audiences through technology, reviving the soul of art that has been drowned out by the noise of the modern world. In a world where we have to fight for people's attention, it's difficult to take the time to appreciate art. Part of the mission is bringing people back into the present moment and helping them experience the now more deeply through art.

The Vision

I envision a space where all the arts and technology combine into one shared experience. Leveraging AI and new technology, we can create immersive art that people can live in and experience. Art can now play into all the senses: sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste, making the whole experience even more powerful. And through hands-on creativity, we can have people get involved in making art themselves. 

How I Arrived at the Concept

I am an artist and have gone to many art exhibits. I have felt a disconnect in the art world. Art was once part of rituals, communities, belief systems, and rebellion; it meant something beyond aesthetics. Today, I feel it’s a financial instrument or a backdrop for selfies or something that people buy at HomeGoods. Artists still make beautiful, powerful things, but there’s no ecosystem of understanding around them.

When going to an art exhibit called Meow Wolf, I saw something: the future of art. By leveraging new technology, this group of people crafted a fully immersive art exhibition that you can walk through and experience for hours. This concept is hard to explain until you experience it yourself or Google it.

When doing work for my father, I started to learn about new technologies like the omniverse and AI. I started to make connections and understand the new potential of what we can create. Over time, I have been impressed by other artists like Banksy and Basquiat. I have felt inspired and driven knowing that I have the power to create change too.

The Business Concept

The concept of the business is still being birthed, but the purpose is clear: to create a living bridge between technology and human emotion through art. This venture will serve as both a creative studio and a movement: a space where artists, technologists, and audiences collaborate to craft new forms of expression.

Using AI, immersive design, and interactive storytelling, we will build environments where people can step into art rather than merely look at it. Each project will blend visual, sound, and sensory experiences to reconnect people with the present moment, reminding them what it feels like to truly be moved. Surround sound speakers and subwoofers, LED screens and panels, projectors, lighting systems, scent diffusers, temperature and wind systems could all play a part in creating the experience, all in addition to art.

The long-term ultimate vision is to build physical and digital spaces that evolve over time; galleries, installations, or virtual worlds that merge creation and participation. This space will include kitchens for creating new foods, bars for inventing new drinks. Coffee shops, daycares, and spaces for education. Painting studios, ceramic studios, sculpture studios, music studios, music venues, digital art studios, writing nooks, fashion design workshops…

In doing so, we’ll restore art’s original role: a shared experience that connects, heals, and transforms people’s relationship with the world around them.

Where We Fit in the Industry

The long-term dream is to fit into the middle of the industry like Art Basel or any other major player. To have installations that are riddled throughout cities that distract people from their phones. To have locations in the middle of cities, creating a hub for artists and locals. This will be a place people and elites will travel from all over the world to experience and spend their money on art. 

Our Value 

The art world needs to make a pivot. And it's waiting to. The value will be greater than I imagine. Local economies, artists, students, chefs, musicians, engineers, designers, employees, locals, and nearby hotels could all find value in a business like this. And we also hope to impact the way people interact with the world every day.

Other industries have been adopting technology, and it's keeping them relevant and valuable. Musicians and Spotify, films and entertainment with Netflix, games like Fortnite, sports and live events, books to audiobooks and podcasts. All of these innovations impact the way humans live every day. Art is going to catch up; it will be loud, alive, and understood like these other industries. 

The Technology + How We Use It

The center of the business will be around art installations. Paintings, sculptures, and textures we can touch. Music we can connect to. Foods and smells. Dances and games. Areas where people will make art and sell art.

Our technology is what will differentiate us…

• Projectors: For 360° wall and floor projection mapping

• LED Screens / Transparent Displays: Immersive visual environments

• AR/VR Headsets: Optional layers of fully virtual or augmented experiences

• Motion Sensors / Cameras (Kinect, LiDAR): Track body movement and trigger effects

• Haptic Devices (Gloves, Vests, Floors): Create tactile feedback and vibration

• Scent Diffusers / Environmental Controls: Introduce smell, temperature, or wind effects

• Spatial Audio Systems: Directional, responsive soundscapes

• GPT-based systems: Conversational and generative storytelling

• Computer Vision Models: Detect gestures, faces, or emotional reactions

• AI Voice + Emotion Recognition: Adjust experience tone or soundtrack dynamically

• Generative AI for Sound / Visuals: Adapt art in real time based on audience behavior

• Ableton Live / Logic Pro X: Music and sound design

• FMOD / Wwise: Interactive, game-style sound engines

• Binaural Audio Microphones: Record immersive 3D sound

• Spatial Audio Speakers / Subwoofers: Create depth and vibration in installations

To use these technologies, we will need creative and design tools to create the content and experience. Also, it will require a cloud infrastructure that can store and sync data. An online platform and website to promote events. Payment and access systems. And of course, a physical space.

The Key Factor: We will need a team of advanced full-stack developers/engineers and digital artists who know how to use these tools, create experiences. And a business ecosystem to configure and support them.

• Blender: 3D modeling, animation, and visual design

• Unreal Engine / Unity: Real-time rendering for interactive environments

• Adobe Creative Suite: Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere Pro (digital compositing, texture, design, motion graphics)

• NVIDIA Omniverse: Connects all tools into a unified 3D digital twin ecosystem

• TouchDesigner: Live, reactive visuals that respond to sound or motion

• Stable Diffusion / Midjourney / RunwayML: AI art generation and concept prototyping

Market Analysis

Ideal Customer

Our target customer is an individual who is open to a unique art experience. Someone looking for a socially interactive activity that gets them out of their comfort zone. This person is typically a Gen Z or Millennial who has an interest in technology, art, creativity, and music. They are trend-driven and want to take photos and post on social media to share with others. They are looking for uniqueness and aesthetics, something that they can bring their friends to and talk about afterward. This person prefers experiences over physical goods, and craves environments that feel immersive, surreal, or emotional. The experience must allow them to co-create and participate rather than just observe, so they feel they are part of the future of art. This person will probably first see the experience on a social media page. Upon hearing that other similar people with similar interests will find the experience engaging and inspiring, they will be interested in visiting too. 

Outside of this, the other main target market that is important to understand is traveling families that are looking for a memorable excursion. This exact person is the family decision-maker when on vacation. This person is looking for a rainy-day activity that everyone can enjoy together. But they want something that is beyond the traditional museum, something that is more engaging and interactive for the kids. They are seeking something that will be worth it, that will become a signature memory of the trip. Parents are looking for experiences that will be inspiring and educational for their children and themselves. These kinds of families generally have wealth and care about their social media presence, similar to the other target market.

The Purchase Process

These people would typically purchase their tickets or memberships beforehand online. The process would start when the experience is seen on social media pages, where people share what they enjoyed most or make recommendations for traveling. The decision maker will probably look at reviews and ticket prices and bring up the idea to their family or friend group. It is expected that most people will Google and learn about what it is, and hopefully, they will see cool photos that are each marketed towards that person. Hopefully, the person or group likes what they see and read online and will purchase tickets as an individual or group with a time slot. This process will typically take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours for a family or group of friends, or an individual to decide that they want to visit the experience. 

Competitors

 Upon first thought, our experience will compete with traditional art museums or galleries. Additionally, museums of nature and science, aquariums, zoos, and history museums. But, within the exact space of immersive art experiences, there are a few major key competitors. 

Meow Wolf is an immersive art exhibit that first started in 2008 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, as a small artist collective focused on creating alternative immersive art experiences (Meow Wolf, 2008). Now Meow Wolf is worth around 400 million dollars, and they have 5 permanent locations across America (Meow Wolf, 2008). They are now building major art exhibits in New York and Los Angeles that will likely bring immersive art experiences into the focus of mass media and likely the majority of the population. Meow Wolf attracts about 3 million visitors each year across their 5 different locations. They charge on average 40$-50$ per person for a 2-3 hour experience (Meow Wolf, 2008).

TeamLab is an international immersive art experience that was first founded in Tokyo, Japan, in 2001 (Johnson, 2025). TeamLab has set Guinness World Records in its two Tokyo locations as the most visited museum as a single art group, with 2.5 million visitors in a single year (Johnson, 2025). TeamLab today is worth around 300$ million and has three major 3 permanent locations across Japan and a few smaller ones (Johnson, 2025). Tickets cost around 20$ for a 2-3 hour experience. Compared to Meow Wolf, which doesn't have art that sells traditionally and is sold at auctions and galleries, TeamLab does (Johnson, 2025).

A third major competitor is less clear, as there are now a couple of smaller emerging exhibitions, but none of these have made it to quite the scale as TeamLab or Meow Wolf (Illuminarium, 2025). But a good example is Illuminarium Experiences. They have 3 permanent venues in Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Toronto (Illuminarium, 2025). They are valued at around $200 million (Illuminarium, 2025). Their locations are not quite on the scale of Meow Wolf and Teamlab; their experience lasts around 1 hour, and tickets cost $35 (Illuminarium, 2025).

Differentiation

How will we differentiate? Meow Wolf takes a more narrative chaos approach to their art with physical art pieces. TeamLab offers more digital art focused on beauty, using LED screens. Illuminarium offers cinematic immersion with projectors. We want to combine these elements. But what are their biggest weaknesses? They don’t let visitors make anything. And in addition to this, they don't bridge LED displays, physical art and sculptures, and projections. 

So, in order to differentiate, we will need to blend their art styles, LED displays, physical art environments, and projectors. On top of this, we could have even more technology like surround sound, interactive AI, scent diffusers, and even play with temp/wind for a full sensory experience. But most importantly, we must capitalize on the opportunity of letting visitors make art, and this could come in many forms. So this could look like a painting studio, ceramics studio, music studio, kitchen, or digital art studio. Additionally, we must provide the opportunity for artists to make sales: Teamlab does this, but not Meow Wolf, which just has brand merchandise. This could look like physical art for sale, but also digital art for sale in the form of NFTs.

Additionally our competitors, their product is fixed and over time the exhibitions do not change. Once visited, customers don’t feel as pulled back to go experience the same thing over again. But our business model the art can be constantly updated. That way customers can return and see entirely new art and have an entirely different unique experience.

Market Size 

To be a successful startup, it is best to have the first physical location in a major city where there is a larger market size. A great city where the people would match our interests would be Austin, Texas, with over 2.3 million people in the metro area (Bureau, U. C., 2025). Austin’s audience is tech-savvy, open-minded, and actively seeking new forms of experimental entertainment (Visit Austin, 2024). Austin's demographic profile aligns with the core segments of Gen Z and Millennials, with a median age of just 33 (Visit Austin, 2024). The city also attracts 30 million visitors a year, which could appeal to our other target market of traveling families (Visit Austin, 2024). Plus, despite the city’s artistic reputation, the immersive experience market is underserved. Based on the numbers from our competitors and the population in Austin, and if we are successful, a fair estimated starting point of the number of visitors could be around 300,000 for the first year. This would mean there would be an average of 1,000 visitors every day for about 300 days for the year. 

A Starting Point

I am merely a student with a business plan and a big dream. A business vision of this nature will never be easy, and I could never do it alone. It is important to gauge a path that can take me to creating a business of this scale. 

The current starting point is to start building a network of people who can share the vision and help build it. This will require people in all types of industries with different skillsets. This will be very challenging. 

Personally, I need to keep making art. I need to start learning how to use these new technologies and tools to make an immersive experience. I also have an interest in land development, which would be essential for creating the business. And to keep learning and finding any opportunity that can help me grow my skills to build a business. 

A good first product might look like a small immersive room that will demonstrate the idea. Some good first ideas could be a room that makes you feel like you are underwater. A room that transports you to a different planet or a jungle. A room that takes away all your senses. A room that transports you to a Buddhist temple. A room that makes you feel like you are a part of a movie. The possibilities are endless. 

© 2026 Drew Hebbard. All work shown is my own unless otherwise noted.
Unauthorized use or reproduction is not permitted.

References

Art Basel. (2025, August 4). Global art market sales reached an estimated $57.5 billion in 2024. https://www.artbasel.com/stories/the-art-basel-and-ubs-global-art-market-report-2025 

Bureau, U. C. (2025, November 17). U.S. Census Bureau homepage. Census.gov. https://www.census.gov/ 

Grand View Research. (2025a). Global Immersive Entertainment Market Size & Outlook. https://www.grandviewresearch.com/horizon/outlook/immersive-entertainment-market-size/global 

Grand View Research. (2025b). Immersive entertainment market size | industry report, 2030. U.S. Immersive Entertainment Market (2025 - 2033). https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/immersive-entertainment-market-report 

Illuminarium. (2025). Next Generation in Immersive Entertainment. https://www.illuminarium.com/ 

Johnson, F. (2025, July 17). What is the most-visited museum in the world teamlab? unpacking the global phenomenon of immersive digital art and its record-breaking attendance. Wonderful Museums. https://www.wonderfulmuseums.com/museum/what-is-the-most-visited-museum-in-the-world-teamlab/ 

Meow Wolf. (2008). Meow Wolf: Immersive art experiences & interactive exhibits. Meow Wolf | Immersive Art Experiences & Interactive Exhibits. https://meowwolf.com/ 

Visit Austin. (2024). Why partner with visit Austin, TX?: Partnerships. Austin Convention & Visitors Bureau. https://www.austintexas.org/partnerships/