Mutual benefits
Laura Brown’s article Do arts organisations REALLY need business to tell them how to do their job? struck me as simple polemic.
I am equally passionate about the arts and agree that there is a tremendous vitality in our arts scene, but I would strongly argue with Brown’s assertion that all arts organisations and artists are ‘braver, more innovative and….more creative in their approach to communication and interaction than any other industry in the country’ and that ‘in comparison, the private sector is struggling with a chronic lack of faith from the public’ as I do not think such a black and white view reflects the real world.
Through our work at Arts & Business Scotland, I know that exchange between the two worlds brings mutual benefits. For a theatre director appointed to run a large organisation, or a musician wishing to mount a project of significantly greater scale than before, a sympathetic business person with relevant expertise can assist such individuals to develop their skills in managing a large organisation or project management. The fact is that the large majority of those who work in the arts in Scotland are open to learning from other worlds and the experience of other people, and do not share Brown’s disregard for expertise from the business sectors.
So much so that soon we will be launching an expanded Skills Bank programme in Scotland that will offer free business expertise to both the arts and pre profit creative industries. And our Board Bank programme continues to be valued by arts organisations and it should be noted that businesses pay to have their employees placed on the boards of arts organisations while the arts organisation receives the business volunteer at no cost.
I also know that businesses can benefit greatly from having artists work within their company, and February 2011 sees an exhibition at the Fleming Collection Gallery in London of art works from nine years of the Glenfiddich International Artist Residencies programme at their Dufftown Distillery – an outstanding example of such an artist business collaboration.
Finally I would point out that the explosion in the UK’s cultural life that Brown rightly applauds, was assisted by increased Government funding for the arts that, in part, was available as a result of an increased tax take from the corporate sectors. As we see public funding for culture under increasing threat, of course it is all the more important to work to encourage business to assist the arts, but that is unlikely to happen if we simply bash business.
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