Fusion of culture and commerce

Sep 26 2007 by Alistair Houghton, Liverpool Daily Post

Embracing art and business is vital to a culturally vibrant city like Liverpool. Alistair Houghton reports

ART may be about beauty, aesthetics, creativity and the furthest flights of the imagination, but sometimes it needs a dollop of cold, hard cash.

Running an orchestra or creating a blockbuster exhibition is an expensive business – and that’s where sponsors come in.

It’s rare today for a major exhibition or event to be without a sponsor’s name attached.

When Rodin’s giant sculpture The Kiss was moved into Tate Liverpool for the gallery’s major twentieth-century art retrospective to mark Capital of Culture year, it was watched not just by gallery staff but also by law firm DLA Piper’s Liverpool managing partner Philip Rooney.

That’s because even the exhibition is branded – DLA Piper Series: The Twentieth Century: How It Looked And How It Felt.

Liverpool Culture Company proudly trumpets its sponsors, including law firm Hill Dickinson, on many of its banners and hoardings.

Meanwhile, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra proudly lists investment management company Rensburg Sheppards and the Peel Holding-owned Mersey Docks and Harbour Company as its principal partners.

But, while this kind of sponsor- ship may be a relatively recent development, business philanthropy towards the arts is nothing new.

And, in fact, both Tate and Rensburgs have historic links to Victorian philanthropy in Liverpool that have continued to the present day.

Arts & Business, a national network hoping to bring together the worlds of creativity and commerce, says Liverpool has seen great success in recent years in attracting corporate sponsorship for the arts.

In July, it released the new Business Investment in Culture Index, which ranked Liverpool as Britain’s second-most “culturally vibrant” city, behind only Inner London.

The list ranks cities according to the level of financial investment from businesses in the city's cultural organisations.

Its report said: “Liverpool experienced a six-fold increase in business investment from 2004/05. In 2005/06, Liverpool received close to £3m in preparation for the 2008 Capital of Culture events.”

So what drives businesses to forge these links?

For Mr Rooney, it’s about giving something back to the community. DLA Piper had been involved with the Tate since 2000 and once Liverpool was named Capital of Culture it decided to strengthen links with the gallery Mr Rooney calls a “hidden jewel of Liverpool”.

He said: “You can’t say ‘I’m in business and making a lot of money, blow the future’.

“We’re going to invest in the city and the place that’s supported us, Liverpool.”

Great world cities, says Mr Rooney, need to have both successful businesses and successful arts organisations – and that sponsorship deals allow them to work together.

“When you determine what the best global cities are, it’s not just about business but what else they have to offer,” he said.

“Who is going to base their people in a city that’s a cultural wasteland?

“Liverpool is certainly not a cultural wasteland, and we have to keep in the top echelons of world cities by continuing to develop our cultural offer.”

Of course, the sponsor also benefits from the deal.

Mr Rooney said: “As a commercial lawyer, I can tell you there’s no point having a contract unless there’s a benefit to it for both parties. It’s aligning our name with Tate and vice-versa.

“We do get a very good image, and I’m pleased with that.”

At first, the money-driven world of commerce and the rarefied world of art may seem like strange bedfellows.

But Andrea Nixon, Tate Liverpool’s executive director, has no qualms about teaming up with businesses. After all, the whole Tate empire can trace its origins back to sugar magnate and former leading Liverpool merchant Sir Henry Tate.

“The Tate wouldn’t be here without commerce,” said Ms Nixon. “The Government had been dithering for years on whether to establish a gallery of British contemporary art. Henry Tate came in and funded it.”

The Tate has a large centrally-stored collection and the support from companies such as DLA means more great works of art can be sent around the country than would otherwise be possible.

Ms Nixon said: “Our mission is to increase understanding, appreciation and knowledge of art. That appreciation often starts with people looking at works like The Kiss. We say that it doesn’t matter if you don’t like it, but we’d like you to engage with it.”

Ms Nixon said it would have been “very difficult” for Tate Liverpool to have put on an exhibition of such a scale without private sector sponsorship.

That’s something she should know all about. She moved to Liverpool in 2006 after doing a similar job at Tate’s two London galleries, recruiting blue-chip sponsors such as Unilever, BT, UBS and BP.

Tate as a whole earns more of its own income than any other large museum or gallery in the UK, with about 55% of its revenues being earned through admission fees, memberships, merchandise and, of course, sponsorship.

Ms Nixon said: “Our costs don’t stay static. Just moving the collection around and looking after it is extremely expensive.

“To bring in The Kiss we had to prepare the floor and take windows out. Just that one work is difficult to bring and keep here. I’m not saying we’d have no display without DLA’s sponsorship, but we certainly wouldn’t have one of this design or quality.”

But sponsorship does not give a business any say over an exhibition’s content, and Ms Nixon says curatorial independence is unaffected.

“In our case, DLA aren’t working out what goes on the walls, or the colour of the poster,” she said.

“If it’s the right kind of partnership, it shouldn’t ever feel uncomfortable.”

Both Tate and DLA agree that business support will help Liverpool continue to reap the benefits of Capital of Culture year once the grants and funding associated with it have stopped. Ms Nixon, in particular, highlights the fact that arts funding is likely to suffer as the Government looks to fund the Olympics.

The link between Rensburg and the RLPO may have historic roots, but has developed in recent years and remains hugely important to both parties.

Henry Rensburg, who founded his stockbroking firm in 1873, joined the RLPO’s committee in 1880 and served on and off until his death in 1927. He was chairman of the Phil during the First World War and through the Phil met composers including Liszt and Wagner.

Many of the musicians and composers who visited Liverpool, including pianist and composer Camille Saint-Saens, stayed at Mr Rensburg’s house in Sefton Park and played music with him.

Martin Cooke, Rensburgs’ retired research director and still a consultant at the firm, has been researching Mr Rensburg’s correspondence at the British Library.

Mr Cooke, himself a music lover, secured the principal partnership deal with the RLPO in 2005.

Before then the company had sponsored individual concerts, but the orchestra was keen to secure a longer-term relationship.

Mr Cooke said: “From their point of view, it wasn’t a certainty we’d come back every year. They said it would help enormously if they knew we’d be there in the five years up to 2008 and we thought it was a really good idea.

“We are really pleased with how it’s gone and we are just going through the process of considering how we can help them after 2008.”

Announcing the Rensburg deal in 2005, RLPO chief executive Michael Elliott said: “Our partnership is another excellent example of the mutually beneficial relationship that can exist between culture and commerce.”

David Owen, senior investment director at Rensburg Sheppards, says he and other company staff are proud that connection has continued and reinforced the historic bonds between the firm and the orchestra.

“When the RLPO is playing at, for example, the Albert Hall, being principal private sponsor enables us to entertain clients there,” he said.

“But the key for us is that we’re giving something back to the cultural side of Liverpool.

“There are several cultural icons of Liverpool that are world-famous. The RLPO is one.”

alistairhoughton@dailypost.co.uk