Why Should The ICT Industry Care About The Arts?

Meeting Date: 24 November 2009

Report

Written by John Gallop

On November the 24th, the Real Time Club met at its normal venue, The National Liberal Club. The theme of the evening was "Why Should the ICT Industry Care About the Arts". Some 35 Members and Guests were in attendance.

Michael Mainelli, Chairman, opened the evening, welcomed new members and guests and introduced the speaker, Vernon Ellis.

After dinner Michael asked immediate past chairman Mark Holford, who had arranged the evening, to take over the proceedings. Mark introduced Vernon as past chairman of Accenture EMEA which gave him his roots firmly in technology. His current position, amongst many others, is Chairman of the English National Opera.

Vernon opened by noting that he had been told to be provocative, and so postulated why should ICT companies support the arts - especially when Opera is at the extreme risk end of the performing arts. After showing some material from recent ENO productions, he posed four questions:

• What is the point of opera?
• Why should it obtain public subsidy?
• Why should corporations support the arts?
• Why should ICT companies support the arts?

On the first he stated that the point of all great art is to entertain, but also to challenge and illuminate. Opera is the best at doing that, combining many different art forms.

He claimed that opera has always had public subsidy. Even in the days of private subsidy by rulers of states in Europe, the money fundamentally came from the public purse. It was not until the post war period that support by government was seen as a "good thing" and led to the establishment of the Arts Council. A mark of a civilised society is that opera can survive - but it has to be subsidised. The UK is one of the leading countries in the world for performing arts, and the associated skills.

Funding of arts in the UK follows a mixed economy: 45% from government; 45% from tickets; and 10% from private trusts or corporations. The Arts Council distributes some œ350M per year, or 0.009% of all government expenditure. The level of public subsidy in other major European countries is higher, whereas it is much lower in the US, which is therefore suffering in the economic downturn.

Turning to the third question, Vernon noted that of the 10% funding from trusts etc., 17% of that is corporate sponsorship. Why should they do it? There were many reasons including corporate entertaining, mutual support, CSR and HR. An environment where arts can flourish is a measure of a "civilised society".

And on the final question, Vernon stated that technology companies are 12th in the list of industries supporting the arts. But creativity and usage of skills should be key as they are common across ICT and the arts. All performing arts are looking to the Web as a way of contacting new potential audiences, and in new ways of distribution. It was also used to involve larger audiences, and he cited the recent BBC "Sing Hallelujah" initiative as an example.

Mark Holford thanked Vernon for his provocative presentation, and invited questions and comments from the floor. The following contributions were made:

• Can ICT learn from the arts? Genius is a characteristic of a very small number of people - but sparks can ignite huge fires. So to encourage the genius, there is a need to fan the flames - and that takes money. Corporations are afraid of causing offence - so they mostly ignore those concerns, and put their money where their emotion points them
• Business cases are not for direct financial benefit - the benefits include employee morale.
• ICT will not learn from the technology employed by the arts, as computer games are far more advanced.
• The arts' role is to stretch the limits of human knowledge and understanding.
• It is difficult or impossible to build a financial case to support the arts, and the value they bring to the community.
• Opera is inaccessible and elitist so why give so much money - it should be made more open.
• New media helps the geographical spread, reducing the London centric perception.
• What is the role of The Classical Opera Company? They get little public support, but they have an essential role in developing new talent; for exploring the opportunity of collaboration; and for putting on operas rarely performed.
• Should the arts be in conflict with sport for funding? The Olympics clearly are absorbing more lottery funding. The big open question is what happens after the election!
• Great art should be subsidised by large corporations, but there is a need to get the hearts and minds of individuals who make the decisions.
• The Angel system works for theatre - so why not for opera?
• Arts are about creativity, and ICT has its roots in creativity, and the combination is what will make the world advance. Is there a correlation between education and the spread of the arts. Targeting arts to schools in depressed areas would help, as the children there would not normally be exposed to them at home.
• Is there a problem in that some foundations, nervous of religious discrimination, will not support what they see as Christian music?

Finally, Mark thanked Vernon for provoking much discussion, and for his exposition of the relationship between the arts and society, and the role of the arts in promoting creativity.