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1/1www.artsprofessional.co.uk ArtsProfessional 24 August 2009 11

As the funding environment of the cultural industries in the UK continues to evolve, a greater focus is being placedon the connection between the cultural and commercial value of the tangible and intangible outputs of creativity.Sarah Thelwall explores the value of practice-led research through long-term research-based relationships withhigher education Institutions.

Aim higher

More arts organisations arestarting to think about thecommercial value of their

work, partly as a short-term responseto a need to diversify their incomestreams (but perhaps also due to asense that the grass is financiallygreener on the commercial side of the

fence). Sometimes this exploration ofthe fiscal value of the arts is throughthe instrumentalisation of creativity asopposed to its intrinsic value; at othertimes it is through the directcommercialisation of creative outputs.But whilst it is possible for thecommercial leveraging of theintellectual assets of an artsorganisation to be embedded at itscore, rather than on the periphery, thiscan be unpalatable, particularly forthose arts organisations run as vehicles

for the creative endeavours of theirfounders1.An alternative model, involving

support through higher educationinstitution (HEI) partnerships andresearch council funding for thedevelopment of intangible assets fororganisations whose processes areresearch-based2, holds more promisefor some. Here are three case studiesof arts organisations that have activelynurtured research relationships withHEIs and other research units (such asthe research arms of various

corporations) over a five- to ten-yearperiod, which reveal the benefits ofsuch collaboration: Proboscis has built its artisticpractice around a research approachthrough collaborations with a numberof HEIs including the Royal College ofArt, London School of Economics,Birkbeck College, Queen Mary(University of London) and theInstitute of Child Health. Blast Theory has developed a long-term collaboration with the Mixed

Reality Lab at University ofNottingham. Scan has worked with a number ofHEIs and recently relocated toBournemouth University to forgedeeper connections across a number ofdepartments.

Personal touchAn analysis of conversations with keypeople in each organisation reveals anumber of recurring themes relating tothe reasons why these relationshipshave been so successful and long-lasting. They are all built on personalrelationships between one member ofan arts organisation and one member ofstaff in the HEI. Whilst over time thisextends into a much wider network ofrelationships between theorganisations, it is this trusted personal

connection which grounds theprofessional relationships, which seesboth sides through the rough and thesmooth of any project, and whichtranscends the differences of opinionwhich will occur in any project. Thistrust forms the basis upon which allparties in a project build a trans-disciplinary research approach. Theprocess by which such approaches arenegotiated is often built into the projecttimeline and milestones, and is iterative.This allows researchers from very

different backgrounds such asengineering and fine art to sortthrough the layers of understanding andmeaning which they bring to the workand come to not only a commonunderstanding but also an exchange ofideas, which builds a richness and depthinto the project. This would be hard toachieve in a project which only enabledan activity to be undertaken once, andnot learnt from and refined.

Whilst the relationships betweenthe arts organisations and HEIs are long-term and may span several three- to

four-year programmes of activity, thereare nonetheless lulls in activity. An artsorganisation must therefore either belarge enough to be running severalmulti-year projects or small enough toscale back its overhead base betweenmajor projects. In reality, only theformer is genuinely sustainable, thoughthe latter is a reasonable approach inthe mid-term whilst an organisationbuilds its research reputation. Theability to achieve Independent ResearchOrganisation (IRO) status represents a

significant opportunity for artsorganisations. IRO status is recognitionby the research community for thequality of work undertaken by theorganisation. It takes several years andmultiple projects to demonstrate thatan organisation merits IRO status.

Problems to solveAs interest in this way ofworking increases, a seriesof other questions need tobe answered: By what means do theArts Councils of England,Scotland and Walesrecognise the value of thispractice-led research? How could theTechnology Strategy Board3

and Knowledge Transfer Networks4

work more closely with IROs? Can this area of arts and researchcollaboration be grown and if so whatsthe potential for growth? What steps do we need to take in thenext couple of years to increase thevisibility of arts organisations working inthis way so that a cluster can berecognised, learning can be shared andvalue can be articulated? How many arts organisations mightreasonably be expected to achieve IROstatus and how can they be supported

through this process?Organisations such as Proboscis,Scan and Blast Theory are very adept atworking as peers with partners whowield larger budgets, more staff andgreater geographic coverage. This says agreat deal about the quality of theirwork, their communications skills andtheir ability to negotiate complexrelationships. In April this year, GilesLane, Tim Jones and I ran a one-dayevent with a cluster of small artsorganisations to look at where to takethis work next. It became apparent that

there are a number of organisationswho would like to develop either their

existing or new research relationships. A

few organisations aim to achieve IROstatus in the next two to five years. Therelationship between theseorganisations and the Arts andHumanities Research Council (AHRC)will be critical to the successfulachievement of IRO status.I

Sarah Thelwall is Managing

Director of www.mycake.org, an

online toolkit for managing the

financial side of business.

e: sarah@sarahthelwall.co.uk

tim@solarassociates.netgiles@proboscis.org.uk

1 See CULTURAL SNAPSHOT 14, Capitalising

Creativity: Developing earned income streams in

Cultural Industries organisations at

http://proboscis.org.uk/publications/SNAPSHO

TS_capitalcreativity.pdf

2 See CULTURAL SNAPSHOT 16, Cultivating

Research: articulating value in arts and academic

collaborations at

http://proboscis.org.uk/publications/SNAPSHO

TS_cultivatingresearch.pdf

3 http://www.innovateuk.org/

4 http://ktn.globalwatchonline.com/epicentric_portal/site/KTN/?mode=0

Campus Call

Sarah Thelwall

Research: at the heart of creativity

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