For quite a lot of people involved in making, shaping, curating and presenting art in the uk right now then the imminent announcements around public funding of the arts sit like a grey raincloud over our heads – everyone knows it’s going to rain, a lot, but right now we don’t know how much or how long for. It’s a funny time.
So as a welcome counterpoint to that, some of the most exciting and illuminating presentations from the Media Festival Arts for me were those that pointed quite clearly to a new era of collaboration between brands and culture where a mutual excitement about ideas formed the heart of the partnership, not a contract that sets out how many programmes a brand logo is going to be printed on and how big the logo placement can be on the posters.
We’ve been saying at Cultural Branding for a while now that arts and culture should sit right at the heart of a brands strategy for consumer engagement, and that culture offers a plethora of authentic experiences to engage, amaze and delight those consumers – and crucially, give them cultural currency – experiences and moments that they feel compelled to share with those around them. It goes without saying that the impact of digital on this has been fundamental; because experiences that might only have touched an audience of 250 or so in the past can now travel significantly further and faster than ever before. Small arts organisations and creative individuals with big ideas have the potential to reach a sizeable audience if they can connect what they do to brands looking to share creative ideas and experiences with their consumers.
But with that excitement and opportunity comes challenge, because arts organisations on the whole are not geared up to collaborate in the ways that these new opportunities demand – and the danger is that as the cuts deepen and challenge our institutions then the appetite and opportunities to experiment with collaboration and new kinds of partnerships lessen. Cultural institutions too often remain stuck in silos where the conversation with business is purely about a transaction – I have a product, you need to give me money to be a part of that product. Don’t get me wrong – there are some brilliant development people across the sector thinking outside of the box to initiate all kinds of new partnerships to lead their organisations into new territories. But savvy organisations will need to think less about having fundraising teams and more about having producers who can play a vital role in the production of cultural experiences by bringing together money, talent and resources to make things happen.
Lorenzo Wood from Lost Boys International in his presentation pointed provocatively to a new kind of commercial/creative collaboration. He suggested that brands now have so much authority and control in the public realm through their digital reach that they need to take that responsibility very seriously and think about how they can create public value as part of their proposition. The arts therefore not only become part of a brands content provision, but help them take on a role as challenger, provocateur and agent for social change.
How do we encourage what is fundamentally a different kind of model of engagement, and a different structure for institutions? Well, for me, shining a big light on those that do lead the way and encouraging them to share their experiences of thinking different is a start. Ished, an initiative developed through Watershed in Bristol are often mentioned in this respect , with a fantastic body of collaborations and engaging that explore the links between arts, media and technologies. Over the last 18 months Arts & Business have been building on our long history of supporting collaboration between commerce and culture by exploring how technology can extend and inform new partnerships – the second, we have been amassing the expertise and experiences of a variety of innovative partnerships through research conducted over the last 12 months with more to come – follow me @natmelt if you want to know when further research is published.
But crucially, its’ about rolling up our sleeves and jumping in, making things happen and bringing new ideas to life. And, in these economically constrained times, its about making the connections fast, the ideas flow, and the projects and new ideas speak for themselves. On October 19th we will be hosting an event at Tech Hub where we will be looking to our networks and collaborators to get collaborating. Bringing together a panel of speakers well versed in collaboration and creative ideas in technology, we want to use the inspiration of their experiences to encourage others. Looking for a smart and creative way to make your brand stand out from the crowd? Join us. Want to test the limits of your technology and push it in new directions? Join us. Got a brilliant cultural project or idea that needs a catalyst and partners to get it going? Come on down.
