November 2008

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Arts organisations are increasingly relying on corporate sponsorship to finance their activity as they find it harder to win government funding. Earlier this year the UK’s Arts Council announced that more than 200 artistic organisations would lose some or all of their funding. Every major fair and exhibition is now plastered with the logos of a range of companies, often from the financial sector.

At the Miami Basel Design fair in June, Peter Braunwalder, chief executive of HSBC Private Bank, announced a three-year extension to the bank’s sponsorship of the event. The partnership between Miami Basel and HSBC Private Bank, like many such sponsorship deals, is attempting to develop the relationship beyond the purely financial. For example, Braunwalder has asked Ambra Medda, director of the fair, to come into the bank and give lectures on design to his relationship managers. This will allow them better to understand the value of the sponsorship, which in turn will make it more likely that they will invite clients to attend the fairs in Miami and Basel.

At the Miami fair the bank had 500 clients at the opening night party and roughly the same number at the vernissage in Basel. Braunwalder says: ‘When you have three bouncers to the entrance of the VIP lounge then you know you must be doing something right. The return has definitely been greater than what we paid. The deal differentiates us from other private banks and marks us out as being dynamic.’

According to figures released by Arts & Business, a not-for-profit consultancy, corporate sponsorship of the arts in the UK increased by 11% to over £599m in the 2006-07 financial year. Colin Tweedy, chief executive of Arts & Business, says: ‘These figures are not crumbs from the arts funding table, but a central pillar to build on.’ But as the importance of corporate sponsorship to the arts increases so does the risk of relying on it: arts bodies may find their funding closely tied to the economic cycle, as companies become more cautious about sponsorship commitments. Says Tweedy: ‘Yes, the marketplace is buoyant, but there are clouds on the horizon. If there is financial turbulence ahead, the arts could be the first expenditure businesses look to cut.’

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