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Creative Lenses

Small piles of the Models to Manifestos publication with a bright yellow graphic design on a table

Creative Lenses was a 4-year (2015-2019) cross-European action research project which aimed to make arts and cultural organisations more resilient and sustainable by improving their business models and developing their long-term strategic and innovation capacities.

The project set out to ask difficult questions about the relationship between financial sustainability and social, artistic or cultural objectives. The assumption in the EU’s cultural policies appeared to be that the answer to the issue of financial sustainability would come through a transformation in business models.

Partners

Funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, the project brought together some of Europe’s leading cultural organisations, networks, universities, incubators for ‘creative business’ and consultants with experience of the sector. Some were seeking to make change and support the process of change; others were interested in understanding the causes and consequences of the type of change occurring in the cultural sector, and others were interested in reflecting on the role of policy interventions in shaping the nature of change.

For more information about the project and details of all the partners, visit the Creative Lenses website.

As a specialist creative university, UAL’s role in the consortium was to lead the research and evaluation. This resulted in a series of working papers, case studies, a report, the final project evaluation and contributions to all of the events organised by the project

Current UAL staff involved in the project were:

  • Lucy Kimbell, Research Lead, Professor of Contemporary Design Practices, Central Saint Martins
  • Patrycja Kaszynska, Senior Research Fellow
  • Maureen Salmon, Researcher and Senior Lecturer, London College of Communication
  • Jerneja Rebernak Project and Partnerships Manager: Transforming Collections: Reimagining Art, Nation and Heritage

Former staff in the team were:

Project findings

To find out about the project journey, research design and findings, you can read a summary here or download the final report in full: Business Models for Arts and Cultural Organisations: Research Findings from Creative Lenses [PDF, 3.9mb].

The key takeaways can be summarised as follows:

  • The idea of the ‘business model’ is valuable to arts and cultural organisations as an imperfect tool to guide organisational development. However, business models need to adapt to a changing external environment, and business modelling should be a collaborative process involving funding bodies, government departments, arts and cultural organisations and audiences.
  • Business modelling demonstrates the interdependence of cultural organisations on the wider financial and political context for their sustainability and survival. For business models to become more sustainable (financially and otherwise), more systemic change is necessary.
  • Business modelling is an underdeveloped practice within arts and cultural organisations.  Applying some creativity to the task of designing business models from the bottom-up would grant practitioners more agency to design business models that respond to different contexts and values, not just financial sustainability.

Outputs

Central Saint Martins

Contact

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