Thursday
Jul262007
Business Acumen for Artists
Thursday, July 26, 2007 at 3:48PM 
The art world is fascinating to me. It is filled with passionate, educated and talented people, most of who make hardly any money from it! Quite obviously there is a need for business education in this community.So UCT Business School is running a 13 week programme to "assist artists in developing the business acumen needed to step into their rightful commercial space - without compromising their artistic integrity". Wow.
Interestingly, alot of the "soft-skills" necessary in producing excellent art, are increasingly desirable in business today. Creativity, intuition, collaboration, remix, commentary, cultural sensitivity... The same type of values we see in new-marketing.
It's being offered at a highly subsidized rate of R2500 for the entire 13week process - the money goes to the Obz Community Centre.
It's going to be highly practical. I'm honoured to be involved. Please help spread the word.
More info HERE.
Reader Comments (24)
Damn right Dave.. it is going to be a life altering opportunity for anyone working as a writer, photographer, filmmaker, fine artist, actor, designer.. freelance creative to GRAB WITH BOTH HANDS!
This will help both set you up and set you apart in your creative career. No more struggling artist nonsense.
We'd be honoured to have you join us on the 13 week journey.. click through & book now!
Thanks MK. Yes, I think we need to support stuff like this. For too long, Art has been at the bottom of the education hierarchy, but initiatives like this will hopefully help develop the industry.
If anyone making an effective living around any of the creative disciplines is interested in acting as a mentor for one of the delegates on the programme (must be willing to meet in Ct monthly for a six month period), please give me a shout (erumboll@gsb.uct.ac.za). All of us involved are doing this on a voluntary basis, but it could be an amazing experience to give something back and be a guiding mechanism for an emergent artists. As the recent oversubscribed MBA elective on 'How to be happy' at Harvard Business School showed, doing something for someone else carries with it a far more sustainable sense of wellbeing than just doing it for yourself. And who knows, their work might pique your own curiosity and put you on an even more interesting journey.
This is great. It's a wonderful program to support the art loving people. Some of them needs all the help they can get to be a better person.
LOL! Thanks Helen. I think we might all need help to be better people:)
I'm glad that they've considered on giving priority to the art loving people. It's sad that some talented people were not given the opportunity because of their lack of resources.
Hi Gina, the R2500 price for the 13week course can be paid off in increments to support the people who can't afford it. Thanks pointing that out:)
Hi Dave
Not so fast!! We are trying to arrange for people who can't afford the 2.5K upfront to pay it off in installlments with 1k upfront and then R500 per month for the remainder of the course. Due to the introduction of the National Credit Act, there is some homework that is needed beforehand. We have given the Observatory Community Centre the NCA so that they can decide whether they are legally able to make that call and am awaiting their response. As all the monies go to renovating the centre, this has to be their call. I have also approached Nicola CEO of Business and Arts South Africa (BASA) for potential sponsorship of delegates and am awaiting her reponse. She seemed very keen on the initiative and stated that there may be potential sponsorhip available.
Elaine
[...] stop for Tamsin Relly? UCT GSB’s Business Acumen for Atrists maybe? *poke* Max & Dave [...]
Business & Arts South Africa was established 10 years ago, as a joint initiative of government and the corporate sector, with the mandate to promote and encourage mutually beneficial and sustainable business arts partnerships that will, over the long term, benefit the broader community. It was - and remains - an exciting challenge, but through the ongoing BASA Supporting Grant Scheme, the Mentoring programme, our media partnerships and other special projects, we have both introduced the arts to business and vice versa, and built skills within the arts sector. Experience and example show that these business-arts partnerships do bring real benefit to both parties, and indeed that the arts and culture have a valuable role to play in the socio-economic development of our country. As actor and playwright Dr. John Kani said at the 2005 Business Day-BASA Awards: “You (business) give us your money, and we (the artists) give you back your humanity�.
Initiatives such as Business Acumen for Artists are key to developing business skills within the arts sector and, when seeking sponsorship or corporate sector support, to moving the artist from a ‘handout’ mentality to a ‘handshake’. Congratulations to Elaine Rumboll and her colleagues for introducing this programme.
Thanks for your support Nicola. Great distinction on the "handshake" rather than "handout" mentality.
The work that BASA does is so important. Obviously Elaine's vision for this programme compliments it well. I hope that a synergy arises between the GSB and BASA.
This sounds like a fabulous initiative that many art administrators/artists in the art scene have been longing for. The artists at Greatmore Studios and have only heard about it today and admittedly I am sulking that we can only make it to the next school.It is something special, to find the balance between the rigidity of business and the fluidity of the arts.I hope next time a greater diversity of artists will seize this unique opportunity and enroll in this programme.
We have creatives from fifteen different artistic disciplines doing the programme so feels pretty diverse to me...........Elaine (programme director for BAA)
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