WAY S O F L O O K I N G AT THE SPONSORS CLUB
Mark Robinson
At age 21 in the UK you can adopt a child, supervise a learner driver, drive lorries, buses and road rollers and fly planes, helicopters and airships.
By the time The Sponsors Club reached 21 we’d adopted numerous partners across the business and cultural communities, supervised hundreds, even a few thousand, learner fundraisers and sponsors, driven projects and ideas, campaigns and calls to action. We haven’t driven a road roller or flown an airship…but there’s still time. Adam Lopardo Director, The Sponsors Club May 2012
I wanted to reflect the myriad of experiences of The Sponsors Club in something which rejects single definitions and dry analysis in favour of variety and celebration. The title is adapted from Wallace Stevens’ poem, ‘13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird’. Poetry was too narrow a river, however, to contain all the stories and images, so you will find here a different way of looking at The Sponsors Club for each of its 21 years. There could have been many others. It attempts to show more than to tell, and to evoke more than to sum up the spirit and achievements of the many people involved in the work of The Sponsors Club during that time.
This piece is informed by conversations with many of those people, to whom I am hugely grateful. I hope they, and others, will see some of their thoughts reflected here. One word I heard a lot was fun, and I have also tried to have fun in approaching the serious business of art. Mark Robinson
Makers of pastry and shapers of pies, builders of houses and mortgage providers, bankers, crafters, tanker-drivers, shops, counters of beans and makers of scenes, conjurers of light and houses from hats, creators of mats, offices, homes, scaffolders, miners, benders, combiners, those who run trains and boats and planes – and cars, vans, bikes, trucks and lorries, frothers up of headlines and local stories, potash, iron, marshmallows, paninis, cakes, country houses, open mines and mucky works, people who pluck pictures from the air to make photos, blueprints, fresh-baked pizzas, songs, the people who give you ice creams, toffees, tarmac, sleep-filled nights, insurance, sharpeners of pencils, bakers of bread, the ports, the malls, and the roads up to them, the fillers of airways, airwaves and glasses, pullers of pints and molten steel, lager and bitter and mild mannered curries, mixers of spices, pickers of pickles and peppers, proud paper-peddlers, fryers of fish and chips, trainers of the fat, blenders of soup and fine tailors of suits, mixers of cement to fill high heels and boots, lickers of stamps and blowers of glass, builders of containers, cisterns and fountains, breakers of brown-fields, diggers of the dirt, kickers of footballs, halo-headed chefs, binders and sellers and printers of books, plain cooks, cutters of concrete and layers of turf, geniuses who argue the elements into medicine and art, lines of melody, memory and meaning, words, pixels, frames, oils, water, light, muscles, shape, music, movement, laughter, bite.
1
As a cornucopia
2
3
As a ten line timeline
As a shadow of the Northern economy
1990
First ‘official’ meeting, Tyne Tees Television
1991
First grants given through matching scheme
1993
First employee Chris Moseley, seconded from Marks & Spencer
1994
RSC season retained via support package put together by group of sponsors
1996
Ron Parsons becomes Manager
2000
Sponsors Club merges with ABSA office in the North David Faulkner becomes Director
2004
Adam Lopardo becomes Director
2008
Set up Business Collectors Network
2011
End of regular Arts Council funding
The early members of the Sponsors Club were amongst the largest regional businesses, including a number of recently or about to be privatised utilities. The two community foundations involved were still fairly new innovations rather than the established leaders they are today. All were regular sponsors of the arts in the region, with most supporting the Royal Shakespeare Company’s annual residencies in Newcastle and other touring into the region. The individuals involved tend to attribute the idea to each other, rather than themselves – credit mainly passing between Tony Pender and Ron Parsons of English Estates, David Faulkner of Northern Electric, George Hepburn of the Tyne & Wear Foundation and Peter Moth of Tyne Tees Television. The idea was a simple one: the biggest sponsors could build on their own activity by putting into a pot, with some additional funding from Northern Arts and from the Association for Business Sponsorship of the Arts (ABSA, which later became Arts & Business) and encourage other businesses to support the arts. Initially this was through a
matching scheme which soon became a well-used way to multiply the benefits of bringing a new sponsor into the arts. This did indeed encourage new, often smaller businesses to support the arts, and many became members of the Club itself over the years. There is a shift from the larger businesses, however, towards more small-to-medium sized businesses, and from major manufacturing and utilities (many of which had previously been nationalised industries) to service and knowledge intensive industries, property development and the creative industries. The Sponsors Club reflects changes in the region over the last 21 years, but also the continuities of collectivity and collaboration.
4 As an alphabetically ordered table plan for all members and funders since 1991, including the ones that no longer exist
Table 1 Accenture Admast Advertising Allied Domecq Arts Council England Arup Benfield Motors Berghaus bhp Law Blue River Browne Smith Baker
Table 2 British Telecom City & Northern Cleveland Community Foundation Community Foundation serving Tyne & Wear and Northumberland, Copthorne Hotel Crutes Cumbria County Council Deloitte Dickinson Dees EDF Energy English Estates Eversheds
Table 3 Founded ITV Tyne Tees Live Nation (Sunderland Empire) Marks & Spencer ncj Media Newcastle Building Society Newcastle College NewcastleGateshead Initiative Nigel Wright Consultancy North East Museums & Libraries Council
Table 6 Sumo Teesside Community Foundation Telewest Tesco The Banks Group The Express Group The Gate The Sage Group PLC The UK Postcode Lottery Tyne Tees Television UBS Wealth Management Table 4 North East Museums Service North East Times North West Museums Service Northern Arts Northern Electric and Gas Northern Rock Northumbria University Northumbria Water Group One North East Orange Table 7 UK Land Estates Universal Building Society University of Durham University of Newcastle Urban Events Vermont Hotel Ward Hadaway xSite Architects Yorkshire Bank Table 5 Parabola Estates Polar Productions Potts Print UK Procter and Gamble Python Properties Muckle LLP Ryder Architecture Samuel Phillips & Co Sanderson Young Silverlink
5 As a top 10 of pun-tastic (and genuine) newspaper headlines inspired by business sponsorship
Art and soul of business Making a real song and dance over Firth Moor the merrier Film sponsor reels in award Much ado could mean all’s well, in the end
Drumming up company morale
Drawing on local talent Grant is sweet music P&G staff in their own write Arts supported to the tune of ÂŁ10M
Brush with the arts is a stroke of kindness
6
7
As part of the team
As an improving destroyer of tradition at Morden Tower
It is something of a truism, at least amongst men and women in suits, that the cultural renaissance of the North East was achieved through Partnership. Another way of looking at this is as Teamwork. Those involved in The Sponsors Club do not claim to have been in the foreground of the major private sector fundraising necessary to deliver the large capital projects in North East England in the last 15 years. They are however regularly described as part of the larger regional team which responded to need and opportunity, strategized its way to successful institutions and venues and has made the connections richer since. (The boat bobbing on the Ouseburn outside Seven Stories might serve as a symbol of this, arising from a three year Sponsors Club-supported project with Universal Building Society.)
This comes, at least in part, from a fierce commitment to the region, and to regional identity. Businesses in the North East know in what kind of ground their feet are planted. The work in the region (at its best) is more than Partnership, then, though it includes that. After all Partnership has been defined as ‘A relationship between individuals or groups that is characterized by mutual cooperation and responsibility, as for the achievement of a specified goal’ but a Team has been defined as ‘A group on the same side, as in a game.’ (You will have your own definition or declamation of the phrase ‘cultural renaissance’.)
Where poets have passed more than time steps worn shiny by syncopated feet d where beat bohemians grew old and Ginsberg may indee have peed scissors through a ribbon on a very first toilet years of freezing Morden Tower tradition cut - or is it only connected by Hanro plumbing to a new generation of people becoming
8
9
Through some numbers
As an example of regional identity and difference
60
The Sponsors Club is seen by many people as an example of the North East’s regional identity and difference. It began separately from ABSA’s regional operations, although working closely with the national body from the beginning, especially around the New Partners scheme.
members of the Sponsors Club 1991-2011
306
number of arts organisations supported
620
awards given 1991-2011
£1,402 average size of grant
£869,815 amount awarded 1991- 2011
£2,500,000 likely amount of funding generated by those awards (may be higher)
For a short while there was a Northern office of ABSA as well as the Sponsors Club, but the two ‘merged’ in 2000. Although this relationship was a mutually beneficial one, the Sponsors Club retained its own identity within the Community Foundation, and its own regional steering group. At various times this led to suggestions of full merger. These were rejected, in a tone to which this writer can attest from attending a key meeting whilst working for Arts Council: this is our club, with regional interests at its heart, and must remain so in order to do its job. The roots dictate the shape of the tree and the blossom thereon.
10
11
As a haiku: The Way the Managing Director put it after the Meeting
With you and your way of seeing it at the centre of what it could be in the future
Please draw or write your own image of the Sponsors Club in the box:
RSC Season Most expensive cup of coffee I’ve ever had
12
13
Through the arts it supports
As a series of shifts
The list of grant recipients is too long to reproduce here. There are few corners of the arts in the region in the last 21 years which have not been touched by support. It is noticeable, though, that the list is not exactly what many people might suspect. Business likes to play safe, some might say, is likely to give money to the bigger organisations. Whilst many businesses do support the major institutions in the region, to all our benefit, The Sponsors Club has made a significant contribution to the diversity of the arts offer in the North East by giving grants and match funding to many smaller organisations. This has been especially important to voluntary organisations who bring professional standards to the amateur arts, such as Castle Players, and to organisations such as Pakistani Cultural Society and African Arts Association promoting work from minority ethnic communities. To suggest these organisations are the grassroots whilst the bigger venues are somehow not is mistaken. The grassroots in North East England must include all shapes and sizes. But one can certainly see the results of Sponsors Club investment in those roots.
‘Big beasts’ Manufacturing and utilities Mainly Newcastle Men (mainly) Wine Sponsorship Intimacy Bottom of table of givers per capita
services and creativity Men and Women Skills Cappucino Top bar London Reach Place to be SMEs
Contacts
Philanthropy
Backwater
Region-wide
14
15
Through a coincidence of dates and a resolve
As a catalyst
We eat, drink and plan Do we sense some things We are determined the days More beautiful, more bountiful
our proud places forward. may never be quite the same? that derive from this will be brighter, and bounteous. Our mutual aim.
As arts organisations became more savvy in their fundraising, and as more fundraising posts were created in the region, and more freelancers became based here, the needs shifted. The Sponsors Club became more involved in making connections between businesses and their people, and artists and arts organisations. These connections were about needs rather wider than money, although that remained important. The national Year of the Artist in 2000-2001 saw a greater intensity of artists based in business in the Northern region than elsewhere, and this developed in the following decade. Many businesses had artists in residence or commissioned new works for their new offices. From this grew an understanding of the impact artists could have in business environments, bringing out and shaping the creativity of employees, helping express the culture of businesses—and what business could bring to artists —new perspectives, specific expertise, access to spaces and equipment, profile.
Two examples show The Sponsors Club acting as a catalyst. The Business Collectors Network was created in 2008 to encourage regional business to collect works by the emerging generation of visual arts, many represented by a burgeoning set of more commercially-minded galleries. Supported by a curator, the Network collectively purchased new work by regional artists, which was then circulated around their offices. This stoked the market for art, gave artists income and profile and experience of working with collectors. The Network has now stopped operating and has passed the collection on to Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums.
The Sponsors Club Annual Dinner 2008 took place on 29 September 2008, the day the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 777.68 points, the largest single-day point loss in its history.
A second example borrowed the format of TV’s Dragons’ Den to put arts organisations with an idea in front of a panel of investors from Sponsors Club members. This enabled businesses to provide financial investment to Tees Valley Dance, Globe Gallery and Northern Print, but also to pass on tips and expertise —including to those unsuccessful in their pitches. The very process of pitching was also found to be beneficial.
16
17
As a justified series of clichĂŠs
As a succession of people leading it, each summarised in 4 words, one of which must contain a hyphen
A club in all senses of the word a way of putting something back the North East as village the rich helping out the poor artists artists helping out the poorer uncreative businesses money matching money sorting it over dinner where business men who don’t play golf do deals not just for big businesses not just there for the RSC at the Theatre Royal a
club
that
you
wanted
to
be
part
of
and
could
be
creating opportunity connecting both art and business to the grassroots a close-knit community swapping skills bringing new people into the game buttering up sheep in wolves’ clothing a network to mobilise a sense of belonging evolution
fun
needed
then
and
needed
now
friendship
George Hepburn nurturing Community Foundation foster-parent Chris Moseley M&S loan-signing negotiator Ron Parsons progenitor sponsor turned player-manager David Faulkner well-connected director of connections Adam Lopardo exotic young blow-in reformer
18 As two lists of founder and current members List B: 30 March 2012
List A: 30 April 1991 British Telecom Cleveland Community Foundation English Estates Northern Electric Proctor & Gamble Tyne & Wear Foundation
Admast Advertising Arup Blue River/Founded Crutes (now merged with DWF) Dickinson Dees Eversheds Founded ncj Media Newcastle Building Society NewcastleGateshead Initiative North East Times Northumbria Water Group Parabola Estates Potts Print UK Python Properties Silverlink Sumo The Banks Group The Express Group The Sage Group PLC UBS Wealth Management University of Newcastle Ward Hadaway Yorkshire Bank
19
20
As an orbit in which it and Community Foundation, arts and business are planets
As an example of adaptive resilience
r a sketch. ly eve n o s i Planets orbit the sun, we t hink rbit o now an g , n pi but p a wh M at i s
, tell one from an w do we oon other r m and ho ? et o Wh lan at ap
if t he s u n an d
g out the distance until tchin it yi e r t s eld hen t give s, d n su pi ga in ts h un ac ex
at wh nd
the su n, a
l. na io
est? ical har v y log l w e dn an An orbit mapped is on d e ly e t c ver pe pr ov is
The Sponsors Club has proved to be both adaptable and resilient over the last 21 years. Although it faces a future which will require change to its model as funding from Arts Council England and Arts & Business is withdrawn, it has outlasted many regional bodies. There have been three audience development/ arts marketing agencies in that time, for instance. The regional development agency and government office have come and gone. Northern Arts is a decadegone. Cumbria has moved to the North West, without shifting an inch. Leading thinkers in the field of organisational and sectoral development in the arts suggest that strong networks and collaboration, the habits of innovation and experimentation, and an ability to adapt are all common characteristics of resilient organisations. Central, though, is a culture of shared purpose and values that is passed on within an organisation, even through changes of personnel and programme. The Sponsors Club demonstrates this very clearly—scratch the surface now and the core culture of coming together to bring others in to support the arts through communal and fun work is still central. This is passed on from person to person, whether business member, artist or staff member. The things the Sponsors Club does have adapted over 21 years, from matchfunding and match-making to skills or knowledge transfer and providing specific expertise. Things have been tried, some worked brilliantly and became part of the offer for a period, others less so. The Club has proved surprisingly able to let go of favourite activities whilst retaining its identity. The membership has shifted—but the current members express their purpose and motivations in very similar terms to the founders. The relationships to Arts & Business nationally, and to Northern Arts/Arts Council England as funder, have continually adapted, and will do so again in the new non-core funded environment. Other changes in the future will be in reaction to the Coalition government’s emphasis on philanthropy in funding the arts, helping business work together within this new agenda. The Sponsors Club remain determined to continue to serve the needs of both arts and business in the North East.
les, ap ro like dancers exchangin g s sw l e a p net s an pla dc a nd t ch na es, oo m ap pr o
21 As a Sonnet of Bridges across North East England
T
yne, Transporter, Wearmouth, Chain, Millenium, Swing, Redheugh, Wark, Hikey, Carrick, Cricket Club, Hag, Deadwater, Sheepwash and Sweethope Lough. Featherstone, Eggleston, Beckstones, Wath, Infinity, Chantry, Ogle Dean, Chew Green, Mountain Ford, Preston Pipe, Barn Flatt Stepping Stones and Jubilee. Stobo, Fingland, Tweedshaw, Monk, Croxdale, Furnace, Gasworks, Skinnery Westfall, Daddry Shields, Duchess, Iron, High Level, Long Plantation and Penny Ferry. A place of bridges and connected spans. An aqueduct for art, made by many hands.
Mark Robinson
Mark Robinson was born in Preston, Lancashire and now lives in the parish of Preston-on-Tees in Eaglescliffe. He is a writer and director of Thinking Practice, a consultancy working internationally in culture and organisations. He was Executive Director, North East for Arts Council England, where he worked from 2000-2010. He is the author of ‘Making Adaptive Resilience Real’ and ‘The Role of Diversity in Building Adaptive Resilience’ (with Tony Nwachukwu). He is a widely anthologised poet whose collections include ‘Half A Mind’, ‘Gaps Between Hills’ and ‘The Horse Burning Park.’ Smokestack Books will publish ‘How I Learned to Sing: New and Selected Poems’ in 2013. www.thinkingpractice.co.uk
In keeping with the book I have 21 thank you’s 1 The North East Business Community for founding and supporting us 2 The North East Arts Community for working with us 3 Northern Arts/Arts Council England North East for founding and supporting us 4 The Community Foundation serving Tyne & Wear and Northumberland for hosting us 5 Chris Duffy for working for us 6 David Faulkner for working for us 7 Stuart Garratt for working for us 8 George Hepburn for working for us 9 Denise Heslop for working for us 10 Tahira Hussain for working for us 11 Chris Mosely for working for us 12 Ron Parsons for working for us 13 Ruth Raynor for working for us 14 Heidi Savoury for working for us 15 Kala Shuttleworth for working for us 16 Jane Tarr for working for us 17 Kevin Taylor for working for us 18 Ellie Turner for working for us 19 Kathryn Warwick for working for us And last but not least
20 Sumo for designing this book 21 Potts Print UK for printing it. Adam Lopardo Director, The Sponsors Club May 2012
The Sponsors Club is part of the Community Foundation serving Tyne & Wear and Northumberland registered charity number 700510
www.sponsorsclub.org.uk 0191 222 0945