Programme for the day Lift, London International Festival of Theatre Three types of relationship:

1. Fundraising for the Arts:Changing the Performance Julia Rowntreewww.jrowntree.co.ukBudapestApril 2008

2. Programme for the day • Lift, London International Festival of Theatre • Three types of relationship: 1 Commercial 2 Civic • Practical exercise: Will we sponsor you? • Another type of relationship 3 Co-Learning

3. How do you feel about fundraising?

4. • Arts’ relations with business are determined by wider    cultural, political and economic context; • • A different focus and style in each country; • • Boundaries between arts and business blurring; • • But a need to leave space for neutral ground between    commerce and culture; • • Engagement with business a route to learning about    the role of the arts in facilitating this neutral ground. •   Adapt adapt adapt.

5. 1981-2001LIFT biennial summer festivals 4500 artists, 62 countriesLIFT Education 1993Transition: 2001-2006LIFT Enquiry into the role of theatre for our times worldwide2007-2008Change of leadership andThe Lift - a civic performance spaceone example from The Place Theatre

6. Lift’s relations with business evolve Commercial sponsorship begins 1986Civic role asserted 1991Lift Business Arts Forum begins 1995Lecture series 2004The Lift - a civic performance space 2008

7. 1993 Meaning of “international” changing London thought to be probably the most culturally diverse city in the world Intercultural engagement at home Lift Learning begins

8. Preparation for transition in response to globalisation, new technologies, climate change. THE LIFT ENQUIRY 2001 - 2005 What is theatre? Who can be involved? Where can it take place? Year-round programme

9. The Lift : 2008 A portable public meeting and performance space, programmed internationally, in response to conversations we need to have locally, nationally and globally.

10. www.liftfest.org.uk

11. Lift sponsorship Why engage with business? 1986 Expense of international visits Public subsidy at standstill Only way to diversify income Accessible ticket prices

12. What are the motivations of sponsors? Programmes from London What sponsorships can you find? What benefits do you think the sponsors see in the sponsorship?

13. Rise of free market politics - relations with business based on commercial values Reaching new markets - logo on publicity Senior level networking - receptions Image - press and broadcast media coverage Entertainment - Tickets to performances Client/employee entertainment Corporate Social Responsibility Product sampling by influential people

14. How much? Costs of sponsorship: £5,000 - £50,000 No real market, more like dating!

15. First step was to engage allies and Lift champions to walk with us, be our advocates, help us make connections, develop a language. Board members and development council. (Lift’s legal status - a charity limited by guarantee) Commercial sponsorship in 2001 approx 13% of overall budget at £2.3million.

16. Opening up access to and understanding of other worlds. Board: Legal status, practical expertise, figurehead chair with passion for arts and sense of public life. Development council: no legal status, meets occasionally as council, way to call on one-to-one advice.

17. Process of engaging with businesses Research: • Who are they? Precise information about individuals and companies. • Building your allies and champions • Building internal solidarity and entrepreneurial outlook. Contact • Getting past the switchboard • Engaging individuals

18. Making and keeping friends •   Research, research, research •   Walk in other worlds •   Enlist champions •   Get invited to the meetings of others

19. An almost impossible job! • Competing with other demands for funding. • Fitting with corporate plans - too short, too long • Uncertainties of Lift programme

20. Schemes at one remove from the programme but within the spirit and values of Lift. International Dinner Series 1988 Légrádi Testvérek Katona József visit 1999

21. Remove the risk - sponsor the choice of the audience! The Place Portfolio - London’s centre for contemporary dance. Four choreographers. A party to show their work. Project champion, Tony Elliot, Time Out director. Guests asked to donate £50 in future work of choreographers. 100 donations at £50 = £5000. Framlington, Financial company, matches that investment with £5000. Public Arts fund matches that with £5,000. New work performed in autumn. Guests invited to return.

22. Be a Brick, buy a BlockReal concrete blocks with different designs stencilled in red, dark blue and royal blue £10 for peasants£100 for bourgeoisie£1000 for Aristocrats Project champions: Melvyn Bragg, television - peasant Stuart Lipton - bourgeoisie Richard Rogers - bourgeoisie Lord Palumbo - Aristocrat Stuart Lipton’s address book Architects, builders, individuals etc £8000

23. Arts business relations exist in a wider context Civic questions come to the fore

24. CRISIS! Early 90s Civic fragmentation London’s local government abolished by Margaret Thatcher In 1986

25. Lift’s motivations for lateral thinking Low morale Need for a new conversation Need to build different forms of support Need for celebration rather than complaint

26. Taking a ‘helicopter view’, we had: An ability to bring people together across levels of power, working role and experience in a spirit of curiosity and celebration.

27. Our idea was to raise morale in the capital. To celebrate London and engage others in an understanding of exceptional projects happening in different walks of life.

28. LIFTING LONDON CONFERENCE 1991 Setting the stage for stories of success: Housing Education Culture Business

29. Project champions, allies, participants and advocates from: • civic organisations • business (Financial Times), • public sector, • education • the arts • NGOs

30. What we learned • Interdependency between sectors but need for neutral     space: i.e. a space for public collaboration beyond the market and the state to imagine responses to issues of common concern. • A cultural commons made through a shared project. • Role of the arts - imagination, celebration, reflection, critique. • Starts with a personal and organisational change of performance and taking a lead without formal authority.

31. Group working • Which of your projects might be successful in    securing a sponsor or backing from other    organisations? • Put together a five-minute presentation. • Name the company/organisation to whom you are    presenting. • The rest of the group will take on the role of this    company or organisation. • We will decide whether to sponsor or partner with    you.

32. What have you learned?

33. Another crisis……. How we understood that business has a lot to learn from the arts Even that we might have something to learn together

34. 1994 CRISIS! Baring’s Bank crashesBT sponsorship of Lift’s Education Programme failsAscendancy of market values A new form of relationship with business?

35. Lift’s motivations for changing the game All-pervading commercial values undermining our sense of theatre’s sacred role Desire to critique commercial values Feelings of powerlessness Boredom with being a supplicant Need for celebration rather than complaint

36. Set out to discover what business might have to LEARN from the arts Aim to change a commercial relationship to one of co-learning First steps in what became The Lift Business Arts Forum

37. Important role of project champions: Brian Eno Global Business Network Heinzen, Fairtlough and de Geus Charles Handy Financial Times

38. Lift Business Arts Forum 1995 Introductory evening at Financial Times Business people, public sector, students and artists in small groups with facilitator Small groups attend together at least 4 events in Festival programme Organising question: What did you see? What would you do differently in your work as a result?

39. Motivations for business • participation in Lift Forum • Sensing strategic change via contemporary • performance • - Insight into creative and innovation management • - Personal and leadership development • Openness, challenging assumptions, cultural • sensitivity, the big questions • - Lack of job status • Connection to people you would otherwise never • meet

40. Learning outcomes from Lift Education: Creative responsibility Personal potential Potential of the group Aesthetic sense and judgment Relationships Effects Properties of materials Emotions - hope, joy, empathy, failure, success Risks, roles and responsibilities Purpose and meaning

41. Attitudinal changes sought in large organisations • vision and an ability to take responsibility • an ability to draw on a full range of skills and potential • an ability to overcome fear and prejudice • an awareness of different cultures and value systems • managing diversity, fostering skills and potential in others • an ability to grasp and articulate complex relationships • an ability to regard chaos and ambiguity as positive and creative • openness and trust • learning individuals in learning organisations • a continuous search for excellence

42. Evolved to become a year-round learning programme with: 40 participants of different culture, generation, power and expertise: Business people Artists People from public sector Young people from a London college or youth arts group

43. Lift Business Arts Forum what happens? 1 Organising question or theme negotiated between all parties 4 Stories of our own learning, action and change 2 Attend events 3 What did we see? What did we learn? Play, try, test, reflect

44. What did people learn? • ‘It made everyone step out of their comfort zone and led me to think differently about the process of change.’ • ‘We really explored the idea of a multicultural company, acknowledging that everyone sees things differently.’ • ‘We must hear a minority view, even if we don’t like it.’ • ‘All the financial regulations in the world are worth nothing if you don’t understand the cultural context in which they are set. Lift helps sensitise you to just how complicated culture is.’’ • An artist has a view of how to reflect and shape the world; it matters not at all where the material comes from.’ • ‘The idea that you can achieve something from nothing and it comes from chaos.’

45. How did the money work?A snapshot from 1999 40 participants in Forum from business, public sector, arts, studentsDevelopment funds up front £31,000generated from different size companies from 5,000-10,000Participants’ Fees from private and public sectorgrant from arts funders.Total : 54,000 Costs approx 24,000 Surplus to Lift 30,000

46. No logos requested, no outcomes demanded • Relationships of trust vital, civilities and actual     people who facilitate very important for     bringing strangers together. • No grandstanding. No experts. • Diversity of gender, age, culture and working    perspective. • Qualities of physical space and welcome    important: natural daylight and good food. • The more controversial the production the better    the conversation.

47. So what? The ‘helicopter’ view….. Intimacy with business forged in earlier era now has capacity to offer routes to reflection and critique …..

48. "Most of our institutions focus on the politics of delivery which provide us with the services we want. Lift is experimenting with the politics of invention and the skills of agreement needed to survive an unpredictable future."- Barbara Heinzen, geographer, Forum Adviser

49. How will we move beyond oil?

50. Rehearsing global learning connections at local level None of us has the complete picture Technology is not enough Process over generations Aesthetic exploration Relationship to cosmos and specifics of place