FROM NESTA IN THE UK: ARTS AND THE DOWNTURN

NESTA is the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts—a unique body with a mission to make the UK more innovative. They invest in early-stage companies, inform and shape policy, and deliver practical programmes that inspire others to solve the big challenges of the future.

“Unsurprisingly I find myself these days participating in a large number of discussions on what the financial and economic downturn means for businesses and organisations involved in the arts. The overwhelming feeling is predictably pessimistic. History suggests that business-facing creative sectors, like advertising and architecture, face particularly challenging times as demand for their services slow down. The prospects for more consumer-facing creative sectors, such as film and the performing arts, are more uncertain. On the one hand, there are the negative effects of generalised weak consumer spending, but on the other there may be positive effects if households spend more of their time on cultural leisure activities.

Cultural organisations are also bracing themselves for the impact of the credit crunch: sponsorship deals may be seen as an unaffordable luxury by cash-strapped companies. In a recent survey by Arts & Business, two-fifths of companies interviewed thought that the economic downturn will negatively impact their arts sponsorship activities.

But whilst the arts will surely suffer in the short term—like other sectors—it is not inconceivable that the crisis may create a more positive long-term climate.” Read More.