Are we in business?

Ten years ago, you might as well have asked arts organisations to shake hands with the devil, as ask them to raise money from the corporate sector. With the exception of high profile festivals and events, arts organisations in the main considered the world of corporate sponsorship closed to them, focusing their attentions on increasing their Arts Council grants, while simultaneously leaning on hard-pressed local authorities to loosen up the rest.

But the times they are a-changing, not least because of the recommendations of the Indecon report, which suggests the need for arts organisations to diversify their sources of income. The specific recommendation in the Indecon report suggests to the Arts Council that "a radical programme to develop non-grant sources of income should be introduced" and goes on to say that facilitating such a programme should be an important theme within the next Arts Plan.

Judging by the recent round of Arts Council decisions in theatre, it looks like the Council are taking the recommendation seriously, most notably by issuing a number of "challenge grants" to selected theatre companies. These challenge grants allow for a pound for pound match of state funding to corporate funding, for sums between £37,500 and in some cases up to £320,000, raised by the arts sector. While the Arts Council are at pains to stress that challenge grants are nothing new, there is a clear sense within the theatre community that targeting the corporate sector for sponsorship is now seen not only to be desirable, but potentially necessary as a performance indicator of efficiency and productivity. Not all theatre companies were given the option of a challenge grant, a decision likely to provoke some lively debate. Phelim Donlon, Drama Officer of the Arts Council, when asked the criteria for offering the opportunity to some companies and not to others, replied that "challenge grants are not appropriate to all companies, since not all companies have the capacity or would welcome such a demand".

A surprising inclusion therefore, in this drive to increase funding from the corporate sector is Calypso Theatre Company and while Calypso have a strong background in raising funds from NGO's and the state sector, the type of work they do is hardly likely to endear them to the world of big business. Their productions since 1993 have focused on a range of issues, including asylum and immigration laws, social exclusion and racism (particularly in relation to the travelling community in Ireland), the international arms trade, tackling international debt, and the power and manipulation of the media, in particular, its effect on peoples lives. Not areas one would have thought the corporate sector would be rushing to embrace with a brand match.

At the point of writing, Calypso await clarification from the Arts Council as to the exact nature of their challenge grant, while other companies are pondering the skills they need to meet the gauntlet thrown down by the Arts Council. John Keogh, Marketing Manager of Bulmers in Clonmel has considerable experience over the past 10 years of arts sponsorship, beginning from a small local base by funding Gallowglass Theatre Company and subsequently The Blue Raincoats Theatre Company in Sligo. Their push in the sector has culminated this year with a significant, and ongoing, sponsorship arrangement with the Cork Opera House.

What encouraged him to get involved? "We were interested in targeting opinion leaders and see the arts as a useful way to do that. There was a perception that the arts was elitist, but that's changing now. We want to follow a broadened interest among consumers, but we might not have developed like this if the arts had not come to us. The key to success is enthusiasm on the part of the arts organisation, and an understanding of the needs of the sponsor".

When pushed, he admits that his company would not be interested in innovation, preferring mainstream work with popular appeal. It is precisely this commercial reality which worries some practitioners in the arts, especially those companies whose work is innovative and contains an element of both critical and financial risk.

This experience has been taken into account by the Arts Council of Great Britain, which has recently taken over responsibility for a similar scheme, previously managed by ABSA, the association of business support for the arts. Known as "The Pairing Scheme" the fund matches exactly the amount raised by arts organisations with first time sponsors. However the scheme in the past year has been honed to encourage sponsorship with specific development targets in mind, primarily access and innovation. Toby Scott, head of Business Assessment and Planning in the Arts Council of England, is clear about the risks and potential of arts organisations targeting the corporate sector.

"Encouraging diversity of funding is a great idea, but it must be matched by a raft of other initiatives, not just pound for pound matching in itself. There must be national advocacy for corporate support of the arts, and people must be aware of the life cycle of sponsorship decisions". It is also his belief that, certainly in England, the engagement of the arts and the corporate sector is becoming more sophisticated, with packages involving more than just money changing hands, and he cites the Royal Shakespeare Company and Allied Domecq Brewery pairing as an example.

This relationship goes far beyond the realms of traditional sponsorship and includes skills transfers between the RSC and Allied Domecq personnel. The RSC train Allied Domecq staff on presentation skills, RSC lighting designers advise on lighting design for the brewery's chain of pubs, and RSC staff have worked with Directors of Allied Domecq on creative problem solving in the board room. Scott is clear however, that the decision by Allied Domecq to become involved with the RSC was based not on altruism, but on the importance of the RSC brand name. One suspects that Allied Domecq would not have been so keen to support a medium scale theatre company in Slough.

Which raises the question of the ability of small regional companies to draw money from a fairly limited local pool of corporate sponsors. Without doubt, professional expertise and skill enhancement will have to be provided to equip such companies with the requisite tools for putting together sponsorship packages to compete in this environment. Brigid Roden, the newly appointed Chief Executive of Cothu, The Business Council for the Arts in Ireland, is clear about the need for such training. In this regard, she has had several conversations with the Arts Council, which suggests that a focused approach on behalf of both agencies was in the pipeline prior to the announcement of the recent challenge grants in theatre.

While she is unwilling to unveil her plans at present, given her very recent appointment, she hopes to work with the Arts Council on developing sponsorship skills within the arts. She also hopes to continue to demonstrate to the corporate sector that "sponsorship of the arts can be part of the marketing mix". She stresses the need for arts organisations to be focused in their targets, not just firing off 500 letters to the top businesses in the country. Roden also points to the need for the media to become more responsible in their reportage "we have many good companies who sponsor arts events, but invariably their name is dropped when the event is covered by the media.

This has a negative impact for businesses, which we need to address". Finally, it is worth bearing the British experience in mind, which indicates that the maximum amount an arts organisation can expect to raise from sponsorship is approximately seven per cent of total turnover. However worthy or otherwise the ambition of the Arts Council is to elbow its clients into the world of big business, the finite possibilities of that must be recognised, as must the nature of the product being sold. Theatre is, after all, the art of the possible, not the dead cert that marketing managers and ad agencies usually like to hang their hat on.