Arts & Business Team Blog

The next iconic partnerships?

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 12:14:00 +0100

By Jonathan Tuchner, Director of External Relations If you visit Tate Modern during the next few...

Business as usual...plus philanthropy and individual giving!

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:30:00 +0000

In response to “Goodbye Arts & Business, hello…what exactly?” by David Dixon By...

@PatrickRiot heads North... so bring your laptop and join him!

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:29:00 +0000

Our Digital Campaigns Manager Patrick Hussey will be speaking and presenting at two digital...

Samir Savant, Director of Development, Royal College of...

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:06:55 +0000

Samir Savant, Director of Development, Royal College of Music,speaking on arts fundraising in the current climate

Technology plus creativity equals innovation!

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:57:00 +0000

By Dipak MistrySenior Consultant, Arts & Business A new public arts programme for Anglia Ruskin...

Champions for the arts can stem from anywhere... including your business sponsors!

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:18:00 +0000

Ellen Bianchini, Jim Larkin, Tricia Kelly, MP Ed Vaizey and Kevin Moss at our Cultural Champions...

Why you need to know more about legacy fundraising…

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 15:49:00 +0000

• The population is getting old and research suggests that between now and 2050 up to $140trn...

Ruth Spaak - blog on The-Co operative Academy Project. No 2

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 11:38:29 +0100

Ruth Spaak - blog on The-Co operative Academy Project. No 2: Our colourful work with children from...

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 16:55:14 +0100

Press Release: Twelve graduates will be flying high

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 10:34:00 +0100

Graduate art to hang in the VIP Business Aviation Centre at Cambridge Airport Anglia Ruskin...

How putting Neil McGregor in a dress could save the arts...

Tue, 31 May 2011 14:01:00 +0100

Picture the kind of digital messiah the arts really needs. What would he or she look like? Are they...

Colin Tweedy Blogs For Americans for the Arts ‘Questioning...

Tue, 24 May 2011 10:01:00 +0100

Colin Tweedy Blogs For Americans for the Arts

‘Questioning Old Dogmas’

I sense a sea change in the way the arts are funded. There is no doubt that many countries in Europe are cutting their culture budgets. A recent leader in the Financial Times concluded:

“Cultural organisations also need to do more to help themselves. A new act is unfolding in the drama of arts funding – and artists must play their role to the full.”

Arts organisations are entrepreneurial by nature. Many of the largest arts organisations are becoming more commercially savvy.

In London, where the lion’s share of all private cultural investment is raised, major bodies have seen the light. The Royal Opera House joined forces with RealD, a film and production company to provide 3D movies of their productions worldwide; the National Theatre is producing films of its block buster productions to 380 cinemas across the globe. The public grant percentage of their income has been reducing annually.

However, I am aware that no arts organisation, large or small, has been heard to turn down public money. Nor am I advocating that they should, but to re-examine their legal structure and to see whether being a charity fits their long term ambitions.

Charitable status can, at times, seem like a dead hand squeezing the life blood out of many arts bodies, with risk adverse boards of directors, marginalising the paid management. The founding fathers of both United Kingdom and United States charitable law would never have envisaged thousands of arts organisations registering as charities. Of course, arts organisations want to receive philanthropic gifts and there are mechanisms by which this can be achieved. But do the financial benefits of reduced rates and tax outweigh having an employee owned business with the stimulus to generate real profits to reward colleagues and to plough back funds into the artistic endeavours?

Many of the worthy men and women who sit on boards of arts organisations have little if any of the skills necessary to help the organisation achieve its artistic goals or financial security. Surely governance is more than being an unpaid fundraiser? Also we have to break down the prejudices that so be-devil the charitable sector generally of “public sector good, private sector bad.” Profit-making should not compromise artistic creativity – they are not contradictions in terms.

As Nello McDaniel, director of Arts Action Research, observes: “The biggest flaw in the system and structure is that, by its nature it compromised and de-legitimatized professional arts leadership in essential areas of artistic and operating leadership and decision making within each organization and has resulted in the most overregulated, entrepreneurially restricted industry this country has likely known.”

Internationally we are seeing a generational change where arts practitioners are not interested in the “arts for arts sake” model and are looking for a more entrepreneurial approach. Nonprofits must stop being automatically translated into charity. An arts organisation that says it is “nonprofit,” does not mean it is not interested in profit.

The arts must no longer be hampered by its legal status as charities, to exploit its products in the market. It is time to question old dogmas and allow new models to perform centre stage. Let the debate continue.

Colin is on Twitter @ColinTweedy

Arts & Business European Year of Volunteering 2011A new...

Tue, 17 May 2011 14:43:00 +0100

Arts & Business European Year of Volunteering 2011

A new programme bringing you skilled professionals for free

Would you like help with things like IT, marketing, business plans, mentoring or front of house? Would you benefit from skilled professionals with experience in a wide range of business roles to help fulfil your organisation’s needs? Using a light touch approach, we can put you in touch with skilled business people for free.

Using our business network we can offer you volunteers who can advise and help on topics from marketing to business planning, IT to catering, as well as ‘on the night’ volunteering, helping front of house or wherever you might need extra support.

If you have volunteering opportunities that you’d like to build into your plans from September onwards then simply register your interest now and we can start putting it all together.

How will we be making it happen?

During the coming six months, we have plans to take the Arts & Business European Year of Volunteering to your area. What will we be doing?

• running a series of volunteering matching events in major cities across the country where you can meet and network with great business volunteers
• running a targeted campaign to increase interest in volunteering in the arts and culture
• celebrating and thanking your volunteers for their contributions at a number of high impact networking events
• keeping you up to date with networking and matching events through our website

Our programme will endorse the ethos and values of the European Year of Volunteering, the Year of Corporate Philanthropy. We aim to help connect the arts with skilled people who want to help.

About…

The European Year of Volunteering is both a celebration and a challenge to promote community heroes across the continent with an aim to recruit more volunteers. Arts & Business has been selected as an official partner of the Office for Civil Society as part of the national work programme for the European year of Volunteering. We will be leading the project for the arts and culture in England and bringing our business network along with us.

Response to the Budget, 23 March 2011

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 14:44:00 +0000

In his budget (23 March 2011), the Chancellor of Exchequer made eight important announcements, each...

Creating Gateways to Growth? A few thoughts on encouraging private investment in the regions...

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 16:13:00 +0000

The model is set. The major cultural bodies are based in the major towns. They attract the major...

Jon Treadway looks at what PICS means for #Artsfunding

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 14:54:00 +0000

Looking at the headline results of the Private Investment in Culture Survey 2009/10, many arts...

Why benchmark your organisation?

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 11:22:00 +0000

Simply put, without benchmarking you are operating in the dark. You don’t know what best in class...

James Taljaard on #Artsfunding in the #SouthWest

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 09:57:00 +0000

For the second year running the South West bucks the national trend with an increase in private...

Nadia Dooner on #Artsfunding in the #Midlands

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 09:55:00 +0000

Total private investment in the Midlands cultural sector in 2009/10 was £20.1m – an increase of 3%...

Gill Bloomfield on #Artsfunding in the #East

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 11:15:00 +0000

At first glance the 2009/10 figures paint a worrying picture of the health of private investment in...