The Will and the way

When the fourth Artes Mundi Prize for contemporary art was awarded to Yael Bartana in Cardiff, in the audience were our corporate sponsors, ranging from international brands to local businesses. Artes Mundi’s decision to concentrate on sponsorship, even though there are so few business HQs in Wales, comes out of design but also out of necessity. The contemporary art exhibition connected with the prize, and all the public and education activity we offer, is free and we have no venue through which we might earn revenue. Public funding contributes only 35% of what we need, so we must find 65% from discretionary sources such as business sponsors, individuals, and trusts and foundations. As some trusts are currently under more pressure than usual and our relative youth means we are still developing individual giving, we have continued to turn to business sponsors. Bank of America Merrill Lynch is the sponsor of the global selection and judging processes for the Artes Mundi Prize. The bank, in publicly aligning itself with the art that we show, expresses our view that the will for enlightened businesses to support the arts has not faltered. In fact, the desire may be strengthened as people seek antidotes in the arts to the dispiriting climate.
 

At Artes Mundi we have invested energy into finding ways to unlock this business will. We have committed time to making in-kind relationships that have served our communications strategy (Sky Arts and the Western Mail have been our consistent media sponsors), and we have found contacts that we hope to develop, aided by matching investments from Arts & Business. These include First Great Western, which provided complimentary train travel for journalists and a poster campaign at network stations, and Confused.com, which has helped us to take forward our digital communications and word-of-mouth marketing. Starbucks stores throughout Wales have also got behind the exhibition. Managers and staff visited and then became ‘ambassadors’, engaging with customers and giving away postcards with images from the exhibition to stimulate curiosity, interest and visits. Starbucks and St Davids Dewi Sant (the newly developed shopping centre in Cardiff that has provided cash and been displaying imagery from last year’s winner, NS Harsha) are now benefiting from artistic activity in their stores.
Particular aspects of Artes Mundi spark business interest and capture the buy-in of corporate sponsors. Our selectors bring together a group of artists from across the world whose work discusses the contemporary human experience. The result is an exhibition that stimulates reaction and engagement. Unwavering self-belief, empathetic research, light touch communications and respectful tenacity are all necessary to secure internal allies in business and keep conversations going. Development managers must also have a knowledge of their project and how it might develop that is as up-to-the minute as that of artistic leaders, so that they can work with maximum flexibility.