Culture Business is an annual gathering of professionals in the arts and cultural industries. Bringing together a worldwide network of leading voices from different sectors to share ideas and explore best practices around fundraising strategies and income generation.
Janine Collins, this year’s conference curator of Culture Business Sydney, explains her choices in shaping an international programme for fundraisers:
“Cultural organisations worldwide share the same external pressures to some degree or another. Government funding cuts in response to budget pressures, changes in audience behaviour post-pandemic, climate change, and cost of living pressures are challenging the arts. How every organisation responds to this situation differs.”
Culture Business will provide a forum for speakers from around the globe. They will represent established major institutions, small to medium companies from the visual and performing arts sectors, venues including opera houses, museums, and galleries, as well as governments and individuals, to share their responses to these issues.
Exploring alternative funding models
“Even though it feels like turbulent times, that is not new for the cultural sector, which is responsive, resilient and most importantly, creative in its responses,” continues Collins. “A sector that collaborates although each faces its own financial challenges. This conference provides an opportunity to share ideas and look to the future – how to diversify and fund the arts.
“The cultural sector is traditionally a non-profit model, but I’d like to challenge that position. I view the cultural sector as a social profit model with for-purpose organisations. The arts and creative industries add value and increase social and economic impact. The creative economy is growing in most countries.
“It is the traditional business model, but that does not mean that should be the aspiration. The arts need funds beyond government funding to be sustainable. They need financial reserves. Ticket income rarely covers an organisation’s costs, philanthropy is challenging for smaller organisations, and multi-year sponsorships are increasingly difficult to secure.
“We will use the conference to explore funding models that provide an alternative to government support. These include impact investing, debt financing, giving days, and social enterprises to create sustainable revenue streams. We will support these by sharing knowledge on the continually increasing importance of data collection and analysis to inform impact reporting for funders and investors.”
An expert panel will also explore how to future-proof the arts, focusing on the issue of a skills shortage in fundraisers and marketing expertise. In response to in-depth surveys, the results will be presented along with solutions. Speakers will advise on attracting and incentivising the talent that organisations need to build income in the arts based on their relevant experience.
Shared values and diversity will be a strong theme throughout the conference. It will be explored from a business, First Nations, disability and cross-cultural perspective.
Janine Collins is managing director of J9, a strategy consultancy in Sydney that provides full services to the cultural sector and creative industries. She works in partnership with government, business, and philanthropists and develops innovative new models and revenue plans that increase the economic and social impact of culture across the country.
Now celebrating its 10th anniversary, Culture Business is the leading conference dedicated to enhancing global arts and culture funding and development strategies. Each edition brings together 200 senior arts professionals and fundraisers for two days of intensive learning in a significant international cultural city. This year’s event takes place on 19 and 20 November at Luna Park in Sydney, Australia.
