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.”
Well done! Sounds like an awesome project!
Thanks Bev! it promises to be potent given the calibre of people involved.
Hi there
Thought I would give you a heads-up on who will be kicking the programme off. This really is an awesome opportunity and I genuinely hope that if you are in needs of these kinds of skills that you register. If you are passionate about doing this and are really strugglin to find the money, e mail me and we might be able to make a plan. Elaine erumboll@gsb.uct.ac.za
Robert Poynton – First session on Improvisational Leadership
For Rob ‘career’ is more a verb than a noun. Having studied Psychology and Philosophy at New College, Oxford he joined a small creative advertising agency only to find it was promptly bought and merged into Saatchi & Saatchi. From Saatchi he moved to GGT, then across Soho to BBH before leaving London to travel the world. His trip ended in Spain, where he found a wife and a job as account planning director of the agency J. Walter Thompson.
From Spain he moved to Argentina. Whilst there he helped found a brand and communications consultancy called Red Spider, working on projects for clients like Nike, Lucas Film (Star Wars), Wired Magazine, Saturn/GM and VW. This kept him busy until March 1997 when he never quite made it back from paternity leave.
Then, following a serendipitous meeting in Portland Oregon, he found a way to make work into play (and play into work). The result was On Your Feet. On Your Feet is a collaboration between business and the arts which uses methods and tools derived from improvisational theatre to help people work together better. Major themes of our work are communication and relationship skills, creativity and collaboration. On Your Feet devises programmes and workshops for clients such as GE, Intel, Nike, JWT, Wieden and Kennedy. It is a networked organisation with people in the U.S. (Portland, Oregon), U.K. (London), Spain (Gredos) and Ireland (Dublin).
Rob regularly teaches on the Strategic Leadership Programme at the Said Business School, Oxford University. He lives in central Spain in a solar powered house with his wife, three sons and Real Madrid season ticket.
Business & Arts South Africa was established 10 years ago, as a joint initiative of government and the corporate sector, with the mandate to promote and encourage mutually beneficial and sustainable business arts partnerships that will, over the long term, benefit the broader community. It was – and remains – an exciting challenge, but through the ongoing BASA Supporting Grant Scheme, the Mentoring programme, our media partnerships and other special projects, we have both introduced the arts to business and vice versa, and built skills within the arts sector. Experience and example show that these business-arts partnerships do bring real benefit to both parties, and indeed that the arts and culture have a valuable role to play in the socio-economic development of our country. As actor and playwright Dr. John Kani said at the 2005 Business Day-BASA Awards: “You (business) give us your money, and we (the artists) give you back your humanity”.
Initiatives such as Business Acumen for Artists are key to developing business skills within the arts sector and, when seeking sponsorship or corporate sector support, to moving the artist from a ‘handout’ mentality to a ‘handshake’. Congratulations to Elaine Rumboll and her colleagues for introducing this programme.