Business and the Arts are most often viewed as two opposite and irreconcilable ideas, but now a new programme run by the UCT Graduate School of Business (GSB) in association with the Observatory Community Centre is about to bring them closer together.
Starting this August, the GSB will be running a radical programme to assist artists in developing the business acumen needed to step into their rightful commercial space – without compromising their artistic integrity.
According to Elaine Rumboll, Director of Executive Education at the GSB, the programme director and an artist in her own right, this kind of programme is long overdue.
“People in both business and the arts are fond of believing that they are poles apart and that they don’t really need each other to survive. In fact the opposite is true,” she said.
“From a business perspective, a country without deep sustainable creativity and innovation is a country of empty and shallow capacity. Business needs the Arts to keep it supplied with new ideas. And the Arts need business to ensure that what they do is properly recognised and sustainable.
“All too often one hears of artists doings things pro bono because they are uncomfortable or intimidated by pricing and negotiating a healthy return on their efforts. Inevitably many stop creating and making art. At the business school we have a national commitment to ensuring that the pool of local creative talent remains sustainable and one of the ways in which to do this is to ensure that artists know how to negotiate around money.”
To cement its commitment to making the programme work, the GSB has absorbed all the costs in developing the course. In addition, all lecturers will donate their time free of charge, helping to ensure that artists get access to the best learning at the lowest possible cost. Delegates on the course will be exposed to some of the best business minds teaching at the GSB including top international visiting lecturers who will be in Cape Town in August to teach on the School’s Executive Leadership Programme.
The course will teach artists everything they need to know about basic business from how to manage their finances to how to market themselves more effectively and critically – to negotiate decisively when pitching a product.
Rumboll said that the thirteen-week process will be a profoundly practical investment for artists who will emerge better equipped to continue working creatively but without being vulnerable to exploitation. To help ensure that learning is maximised, each delegate will also be given a mentor in the form of a successful artist in the particular discipline they come from.
Successful applicants will be charged a minimal R2 500, all of which will be donated to the Observatory Community Centre – which is where the course will also run.
Rumboll said that the choice of Observatory as the location for running the course was not accidental.
“Observatory is seen by many to be a stronghold for students from UCT, and a place where many South African artists were nurtured,” she said. “Pieter Dirk Uys went to the Observatory School that is now the Community Centre, and Freshly Ground also had their beginnings in Obs” she said.
By donating all the proceeds of the programme to the Observatory Community Centre Rumboll said that they hope to contribute to keeping a pillar of the artistic community up and running. The decision also links into the Council-backed initiative currently underway in Observatory to breathe new life into the “Grande Dame of Obs”.
Isla Haddow-Flood, chairperson of the Observatory Community Centre Executive Committee said that the GSB input comes at an apt time in the history of the Centre.
“We are committed to making the Centre the hub of activities that are representative of the people who live and work in Observatory,” said Haddow-Flood. “The primary intention of the Committee is to provide a wider spectrum of useful opportunities for residents to empower themselves and improve their lives.
“With creativity being a major focus of our vibrant community, the GSB course, especially after the recent Unicon global ranking for educational innovation, is an excellent example of the kind of opportunities we are keen to offer. We are delighted that the business school has seen fit to bring a world-class programme to our Centre and work with us in this way.”
