What is the Value of Artists in Business? A lunch and conversation

I had the pleasure of Chairing a lunch and conversation convened within the context of an Artists Placement Programme, to discuss the question "what is the Value of Artists in Business?" A dodgy question in difficult territory, of course, sailing as it does between those who believe that artists are subversive and those who believe they are instrumental. Nonetheless it provided a springboard for a lively and open discussion. The guests, coming from as diverse backgrounds as artists, or businesspeople, or the media, had experience and forthright opinions. They included Barbara Steveni of the Artists Placement Group (APG), Dick Penny of Watershed in Bristol, Paul Gerhardt of the BBC Creative Archive, Gordon Knox of the Montalvo Arts Centre in California, Prof Tom Barker, and the artists Ansuman Biswas and Vicki Bennet.

Can Artists add Value to Business?

The definition of Art and Artist has shifted dramatically, the 21st Century Artist has skills and abilities which are valuable in domains outside those traditionally prescribed for artists. These domains include Business and Government.

This is not to say Artists working with Business is not problematic. The experiences of people who have bravely embarked on this journey are full of difficult stories.

There is a realm in which Artists are working which goes beyond Corporate Collections.

Artists work outside of the Context of Business, and thereby call Things into Question. Is there a role for the Artist in the Boardroom?

Artists possess tools for looking at situations, which call Things into Question

Artists may subvert existing structures and forms

Artists may problematise a situation simply by their presence

Artists may provide perspectives from alternative worlds

Artists may conceive of possibilities

The presence of an Artist may act as a “strange attractor” of new ideas within a Business Domain

How does an artist deliver Value, in a tangible manner to business?

What about the clash of cultures?

What about the indescribable question of Language and Languages?

What about independence? What about the Artist resisting definition, or positioning or pigeon-holing.

What about the rise of Creativity within Management Theory?

Are there any examples of where Artists have unquestionably added Value?


Ansuman insists that as an Artist, he will remain outside of the Context, working from the outside of a system, to understand and to question.

Barbara Steveni suggests that Context is half the work - motivation is primary - Artists are Carriers of Culture.

Paul Gerhardt that the question of Value is problematic, there are many different types of Value, beyond Business Value and Public Value.

Dick Penny, understands how difficult it is to work with Artists in an Organisational situation, but that an understanding that bringing Artists in is an invitation to question.

There is a difference between Art that works in the Social Realms and Art that produces Products.

Vicki talks of her experience with Archive material, and finding new and interesting things, through a Creative Process that ignores the titles, and digs into content. She remarks how seldom she has received feedback on her work in the past, from the people who have sponsored her work.

Tom Barker asks whether we are the dawn of a new Enlightenment - Enlightenment 2.0 - where we will see the rise of Patronage as never before.

Peter Day of BBC Radio 4 "In Business" queries the old models, and asks whether the rise of the Internet and the Social Technology provided by new applications enable instrumental creativity on a global scale.

Gordon Knox asks for, and provides, an extremely precise definition of the Artist - "anyone who has a critical engagment at the very edge of the envelope of change, who has a lifelong commitment to this endeavour, and who is engaged with the Humanist Project".

I summarise that "to question....is the answer!" I wonder if we've heard that before somewhere?