High Quality
Open the downloaded document, and select print from the file menu (PDF reader required).
1
Creative Community Companies - models for the 21
st
century?DRAFT of presentation to cultural policy makers at the CPPS seminar October 2009Introduction
Many of the discussions today are about public policies to support culture and creative industriesthrough the recession.As an independent advisor, developer and change agent in the sector, I want to suggest to yousome practical interventions which will make our local cultural organisations more effective. Inparticular, I want to hone in on local cultural governance.But first, a step back, to remind ourselves how we got here
–
and what has changed in the last 100years.
From orchids to allotments and apples
100 years ago during the last
fin de siècle
, we were experiencing cultural change. The opulence of La Belle Epoque clashed with the ominous undercurrents of dissent, exploding with World War 1.Alongside the cultural movements of art nouveau, expressionism and modernism and themodernity of Kafka and Joyce, some connoisseurs during this time developed a passion for theorchid
–
some even developed 'orchidelirium'
–
‘
beyond addiction, and beyond hope
’
.The exotic orchid was a fitting motif for the cultural institutions supported by the state at thattime - national galleries, museums and libraries. Look, learn, wonder -
and don’t touch.
Other arts were left to the traditional forces of the Patrons and Punters and Free
–
privateinvestment and support, sales of tickets and artefacts and the labours of love, blood sweat andtears of artists and volunteers. During the last century the nature of the artistic experiencechanged with social, economic and technological advances- with new platforms, new methods of distribution and consumption. The early 20
th
century optical, chemical, and thin-filmmanufacturing technologies converged with the practices of the visual arts and theatricalperformance to establish the then new fields of photography and cinema. During the centuryfurther advances led to television, music recordings and of course, towards the end of the century,to the tipping point for some fundamental cultural changes - the internet and digital technology.
2
At the beginning of the 20
th
century the role of the public sector was to support excellence andaccess in the cultural institutions of the time. Access to literature was enhanced byimprovements in education and through the widening of the public library system, expanded by aprivate philanthropist working with the state
–
Andrew Carnegie. The 21
st
century equivalent isbeing achieved through the often unconnected actions of content aggregators, internet serviceproviders, software developers and mobile device suppliers, private companies like Apple, Amazonand Google.Some of the historic roles of the public sector in creating access to culture are being replaced bynew, global
enterprises and by the actions of individuals through collaboration.We are in a topsy turvy world where the 4 ps of public sector, patronage, punters and free
–
theinputs of creative business -are being shaken into new positions. Take local news. As the 20
th
century models for the newspaper industry and local television collapse, the public is goingthrough a process of re-valuing local news and journalists may become more important as publiclysubsided workers than theatre artists or librarians.So whereas the 20
th
century was symbolised by the orchid, the 21
st
is symbolised both by theglobal Apple, a chic designed symbol of technology and communication and the hyperlocal, backto basics, dirty hands, communal and low carbon image of the allotment.So what are the cultural business models for Apple and the Allotment that will be resilient andsupport new growth?We are here to talk about public policy, and how the arts and culture can support regenerationand growth post the recession. But, while the business models may be different in the publicsector to the private sector, the arts, culture and creative industries is a sector which depends on abalanced ecology where talented people can succeed in engaging with audiences to make creativeexperiences, creative artefacts and creative products. Public policy interventions in skills, taxincentives impact etc upon the whole sector.
3
Creative businesses need to benefit from adapting to change - and being in the public sectorshould not prevent this.Lets take a snapshot of some of the major emergent disruptive business models
–
Freemium, OnDemand and Interactive. Freemium models, providing goods and services for free and then up-selling premium services, are rocketing. Spotify, the legal free, file sharing music service has in lessthan a year, made available 6 million tracks and an Iphone app (a premium service) so suddenly allmusic is available free anywhere.
Last week’s tie up between Channel 4 and U
tube has mademasses of content available free and on demand. Free, and premium, on demand access to booksis offered not only through Google books and the Kindle but also increasingly by public librariesAnd games companies are up-selling to the ever increasing numbers of people playing interactivegames.In the private sector, faced with the failure of the old business models, companies have merged,liquidated, shrunk. Disruptive business models are often those to thrive in recession.So how do we make sure that our talented creative people in the public sector respond to the newenvironment and create business models which will survive the recession? Models which, like theprivate sector, take risk, adapt to change and to the drivers of On Demand, Freemium andInteractive?Why
don’t
our local arts organisations merge for example?One of the keys is local cultural governance.During the 20
th
century we began to subsidise artists, arts organisations and venues and towardsthe end of it we built up a complex system of machinery to support publicly subsidised arts - amultilayered bureaucracy, controlled, organised based on linear communication. It has
‘
growedlike Topsy
’
to deal with new levels of compliance, like FOI, charity regulation, SORPS, dataprotection, disclosure and the like.Mimicking the structure of governments and local authorities, many arts organisations discardedtheir grass roots or artist led structures and instead became charities with a board of directors and
Add a Comment