Creative Lenses: Business Models for Culture

How to develop viable business models for cultural organisations without compromising their artistic integrity, mission and values? “Creative Lenses” can contribute to a solution.

Many cultural organisations and artists around Europe struggle to find new ways to survive and develop in times of changed and declining financing structures for culture. This is the reason why “Creative Lenses”, a unique cooperation project funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Commission, has been conceived. During 4 years, a unique partnership of 13 cultural centres, universities, city authorities, networks and cultural agencies will research and test new business models together with a wide range of cultural players throughout Europe.

The aim of the project is to strengthen and develop the business capacity and sustainability of European arts and cultural organisations. The key objective of Creative Lenses is to research, devise and test new business and management models for the sector that can be replicated and then used by a wide range of arts and cultural players throughout Europe.

Creative Lenses is a large scale cooperation project 2015–2019 lead by the cultural centre Kaapelitehdas in Helsinki, Finland. The partners are:

• Trans Europe Halles (TEH) network of cultural centres initiated by citizens and artists.
• IETM – International network for contemporary performing arts.
• Cultural centre Vyrsodepseio in Athens, Greece.
• Cultural centre Manifatture Knos in Lecce, Italy.
• Cultural centre Stanica in Zilina, Slovakia.
• Cultural centre P60 in Amstelveen, The Netherlands.
• Cultural centre Village Underground in London, UK.
• University of Arts London, UK.
• University of Basilicata in Matera, Italy.
• The City of Lund, Sweden.
• Olivearte, UK.
• Kosice2013 culture agency, Slovakia.

The grant is €1.964.950. Out of 127 applications submitted to the large scale cooperation strand of Creative Europe, only 16 were awarded.

The project’s activities include 21 workshops, 2 conferences, 8 Forums, a 10-month ‘Catalyst’ programme for seven of the partners to test new business models, the publication of a book, a business models development toolkit, a digital benchmarking tool and new research on the sector’s specific needs and how they could be supported.
The project is divided into the three phases:

Year 1-2. PLANNING & RESEARCH
Survey, mapping, research, focus groups and interviews with stakeholders. Outcomes presented at 8 interactive Forums around Europe.

Year 3. CATALYST PROGRAMME
Innovation of business models with 7 partners and their audiences followed by a Conference to disseminate and share the results.

Year 4. DISSEMINATION
Analyses of the results of the Catalyst programme, resulting in the production of publications, digital tools and training kits. 15 ‘training of the trainers’ workshops delivered in 15 European-wide cities to train cultural players to educate their peers. Dissemination of the project will also be delivered through online communication, a book, a media campaign and a closing, project conference.

It is hoped that the involvement of policy makers and stakeholders together with the dissemination of the project’s results, will have an impact on funding schemes and policy development at local, regional, national and European levels.

The legacy of the project will be the know-how, tools and support mechanisms required for the European arts and cultural sector to strengthen their business capacity and achieve financial sustainability, so that they are more able to successfully deliver their missions and create value.

In these times of challenge and uncertainty, Creative Lenses is a concentrated attempt to devise new ways of working, providing arts and cultural organisations with the possibility to move into the future with confidence.