Arts & Business brought together representatives from some of the UK’s leading Business Schools and Universities to explore the role and value of the arts and culture to businesses. The session at Covent Garden Hotel on 29 October 2009 began with a presentation of some pioneering new thinking and research commissioned by Arts & Business and produced by Professor Giovanni Schiuma, a leading academic in organisational behaviour, performance management and intellectual capital management. The research explores the multiple ways in which art initiatives can deliver on a business’ organisational and personnel development.
Some of the leading cultural supporters from the business world are recognising a shift in their relationships with the arts to a more rounded partnership where there is wider organisational involvement and consequently greater impact on the business. The research explores the value and impact the arts can have through this holistic partnership.
Nick Wright, Managing Director of Corporate Responsibility & Corporate Affairs at UBS, also presented how UBS cultural partnerships, especially with Circus Space, has had an impact on organisational culture, their performance management, supported competitive advantage as well as delivered on corporate social responsibility, regenerative and marketing objectives.
The discussion, chaired by Colin Tweedy, with the academic institutions and Universities focused on the language barriers between culture and commerce (despite them actually talking about the same objectives and goals), how the arts deliver competitive advantage and the value spectrum of the arts for businesses.