(Tämä on luettavissa suomeksi LinkedInissä)
The culture political proposal, requested by the Finnish government and currently on the comments round, states that the Finnish event industry – which includes culture and arts in general, with corporate events, among others – had a turnover of approximately 2,6 billion Euro in 2022. Although this is less than a quarter of the total turnover of the Finnish creative industries, and while sporting events and music take the lion’s share of that, being in the same segment as arts and culture, it isn’t an exaggeration to say that culture is a significant factor in Finland, even moneywise. Why then is it so difficult to explain to businesses how they could profit from this – even so difficult that research teams have been established to achieve it?
The collaboration between businesses and culture creators is often thought of as a one way movement of money, without anything back, a gratuitous sponsorship. There are exceptions, of course, but those need to be searched for. Maybe in the Northern European context arts and culture are wanted to be seen as publicly funded, allowing the artist freedom from all commercial ties, therefore guaranteeing creative freedom and an independent agenda – assuming, of course, that the supporting structure won’t falter or fall; this is when subsidies for arts and culture are one of the first to see a pair of scissors. And at least then, companies should wake up and strive for collaborative partnerships with artists. Why, you ask?
Simply because arts and culture are good for business. They inspire, create superior corporate culture, and expand horizons. If businesses won’t collaborate with culture creators and artists, they are willingly missing out on a major opportunity for long-term development of their brand, their workers and their own way of making business. Especially technology and ICT companies could easily create collaborative projects not only with visual, sound or media artists, also performance and conceptual artists by simply offering their own knowledge of the tech for their use, regardless of the size of the company.
Working with culture creators opens the employees’ perspective further and offers new starting points for products or services.It enables using the company’s technology for art, utilising the company assets. In a digital society, communality is often an important keyword in creating the customer bond, and art has been a very good adhesive. And it goes without saying that performances, exhibitions, concerts and other cultural activities that collect your workforce under the same roof in a setting not related to work creates a positive business culture in itself, adding to creativity and cohesion of your employees.
So how, exactly, should business react when culture comes a-knocking?
- Try to find a common language. Creators and artists tend to talk about exhibitions, works, and performances, and want to present a goal on an emotional scale, referring to individual or communal experiences.
- Think of the collaboration as an investment and networking, not so much as sponsoring – unless that is specifically what is being suggested. Ask for something in return (the culture people know very well that visibility does not pay the rent). Be prepared to invest company resources and work together – use your personnel, your premises or your technology.
- Think of the long term effect. Is this a one-off thing, or is there a hint of more collaboration to come?
- Commit to the collaboration and treat it with determination.
- Ask the important questions: what do you want, what can you give, are there other parties involved? Then ask the important what-ifs: What if the schedule fails? What if the budget fails? What if your business needs something else by the time the work is done?
We challenge both businesses and artists/culture creators to tell us why they want or don’t want to collaborate. What are the hurdles, what are the success stories, what have been the losses and gains? If you have had bad experiences, what happened and what caused them (most importantly, what did you learn)?
We are happy to hear from your experiences, good or bad, at mail@taikabox.com.