Arts & Business: Developping New Relationships

Transcription

1 Arts & Business: Developping New Relationships FACE Conversations at Theater op de Markt October 2015 in Neerpelt Yohann Floch President [FACE, Fresh Arts Coalition Europe] Overview Friday afternoon: n Beyond prejudices, relationships between arts and businesses, Yohann Floch n CSR, Corporate Social Responsibility opening the door to a new dialogue? with Laurent Beduneau-Wang n Examples: q Socially-engaged sponsorship for Plus Petit Cirque du Monde, with Eleftérios Kéchagioglou q A Desire for conversation, study by Access to Culture / Judith Staines q Connecting Arts & Business, cooperation project q Competences sponsoring by SNCF (French train company) Saturday morning: n Arts & businesses: what potential international collaboration? n Examples: q Partnership between Air France and Montréal Complètement Cirque q Partnerships developped by Circo Circolo festival q Participants sharing ideas

2 What is FACE? n Fresh Arts Coalition Europe (FACE) is an international network of arts organisations that supports contemporary cross-disciplinary art forms and facilitates international collaboration: q Live art, immersive or participatory projects, site-specific arts, contemporary circus, and physical and visual theatre, object manipulation and puppetry, new media n Principles: q Regional approach q International approach (outside of Europe) q Trans-sectorial approach (HLCG) q Proposing to test live prototype projects n 47 members from 21 countries Arts in Business n Lotte Darsø was the first to map the interplay between arts and business in Europe and North America in her 2004 book Artful Creation: Learning-Tales of Arts-in-Business. The key questions asked in her research were: In what ways can business learn from artists, What can be learned? and What kind of learning takes place? Darsø identifies four options: n Business uses the arts for decoration. n Business uses the arts for entertainment, either by giving the employees benefits such as tickets for selected shows, performances and arts exhibitions in their leisure time, or they invite artists into the company for performances at annual meetings, customer events or special occasions. n Business applies the arts as instruments for teambuilding, communication training, leadership development, problem solving and innovation processes. n Business integrates the arts in a strategic process of transformation, involving personal development and leadership, culture and identity, creativity and innovation, as well as customer relations and marketing.

3 From Karolina Windell The Swedish Agency for Cultural Policy Analysis n Management ideas have gained foothold within the cultural policy. n Economical arguments are gaining influence in the field of arts. n Societal level: Arts is expressed as important for economic growth and development. n Organizational level: arts organizations are hiring administrative personnel with business degrees and economical goals are more dominant. n Individual level: entrepreneurship is integrated as part of the higher education in the artistic field. Trend 1: Quest for visibility n Corporate reputation an important resource for companies. n As the media channels increase, it is even more difficult to be heard and seen. n Corporations can use arts to improve and strengthen their reputation.

4 Trend 2: Sponsoring is increasing n Growth of 100 per cent between n Average increase of 6 per cent per year. n Social sponsoring is advancing. Arts 13% Social 14% Sports 73% Source: IRM, Sponsring 2012 Trend 3: Increasing willingness to make donations n From membership towards voluntary engagement in organizations. n Increasing willingness for donations. n Philanthropy is organized in formal organizations. n Lack of tradition to make donations.

5 Trend 4: Corporate Social Responsibility on the Agenda a desire for a conversation n motivations and strategies of artists engaged in projects in business, science and technology workplaces n Study commissioned to Judith Staines (May 2010) n Although many studies on creative industries recognise culture as an important tool in urban and regional policy, the distinctive perspective of this study is to take the point of view of the artist. n The aim has been to identify and articulate motivations, strategies and issues central to artists who work in these types of environments, notably in relation to creativity and creation. n The study reports a varied picture of activity in this sector across Europe. The most visible face of artist-business collaborations is the programmes managed by agencies. These agencies seek partners and funding, recruit artists and host businesses and provide a valuable support structure, methodology and evaluation service. However, they exist in only a few cities, regions and countries in Europe at present so the opportunities for artists to undertake managed artist-business placements are rather limited.

6 a desire for a conversation n In addition, in some countries earlier national programmes have now ended with only evaluation reports to document the activity. However, there is also evidence of a growth in artist-led initiatives. For many artists, the creative process naturally involves sourcing expertise and collaboration, which leads them to identify partners in scientific, technological and business environments and co-create artistic works. n In conclusion, the study identifies themes important to the artists interviewed. These include a search for dialogue and collaboration outside the artistic environment; a strong focus on values and integrity; the need for process-driven research and development opportunities; flexibility and openness as essential strategies in developing arts-science/business collaborations; the benefits in terms of learning and professional development; the long-term value of artist-business placements through networking, new materials and creative processes.