Market trends 2009 - summer/ autumn edition

Arts & Business says ...

"In the last year, the economic crisis has radically altered the commercial and cultural landscape in the UK and our sector has responded dynamically by doing things differently.

Private Investment in culture has more than kept pace with public spending over the past two years. But with 70% of cultural organisations within London now seeing a decrease in private sector investment, we must redouble our collective efforts to ensure that the private sector, which will recover from the recession long before the public sector, maintains and increases its contribution to the arts.

The public and private realm must work more closely together to ensure all our cultural futures. The prosperity of London, and the whole of the UK, relies significantly on the health of our cultural landscape.

The latest figures from our sector on private investment are worse than we feared. 70% of arts organisations within London have suffered a drop in business investment. The arts continue to work innovatively and are offering more, for less.  Business in turn is still committed to engaging with the arts ahead of other good causes, even though investment levels are lower.

We need to work collectively and develop new ways to lever more private money into the system. Legacies, matched funding schemes and board giving will all potentially become more and more significant streams of private funding for the arts. It is still difficult to predict the coming years, though our analysis suggests it is unlikely we will surpass the £686m figure of 2007/08 until after 2013."

Colin Tweedy, Chief Executive, Arts & Business