Creativity is a buzzword that we regularly hear. But it’s still one that’s most readily associated with the creative and cultural industries.
In fact, the ability to be creative and to think outside of the box is something that businesses across all sectors of the economy are going to be increasingly expected to demonstrate.
Published at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2016, the Future of Jobs Report considers the top ten skills across all industries globally, what those top ten skills were in 2015 and what they are predicted to become by 2020.
In 2015, creativity was already ranked as the tenth most important skill for businesses. But by 2020, it is predicted that creativity will shoot up the list to reach number three. The message from this report is clear: To be able to survive and thrive in the years ahead, businesses of all types will need to put creativity on the business agenda.
That being the case, it is equally clear that the cultural sector has a huge amount to offer in helping businesses to embrace and inspire creativity. Furthermore, the Future of Jobs report identifies a number of other transferrable skills, already firmly established in the cultural sector, that are also predicted to become increasingly important for all businesses to have.
Featuring for the first time on the 2020 top ten list are softer skills including emotional intelligence and cognitive flexibility; skills that are readily promoted within the cultural sector workplace. By sharing these skills, the sector can play an important role in helping businesses to learn and adapt, and to equip themselves to meet the challenges of the future.
One programme specifically designed to foster mutually beneficial collaboration between business and the cultural sector is the recently launched Culture & Business Fund Scotland, managed by Arts & Business Scotland. The new fund is designed to build on the huge success of its predecessor, the New Arts Sponsorship (NAS) Grants programme which, between 2006 and 2017, successfully generated more than £7.5 million in public and private investment to help realise more than 500 individual cultural projects throughout Scotland. Both programmes promote collaboration between business and culture by match funding business sponsorship of cultural projects pound for pound.
One successful collaboration made possible through the NAS Grants programme was between the National Galleries of Scotland and financial services provider AEGON. This innovative partnership delivered a hugely successful exhibition of the work of 20th Century Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher, bringing more than 53,000 visitors to Edinburgh’s Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art during the summer of 2015.
AEGON’s creative approach to the partnership was to look beyond opportunities to offer corporate hospitality and board room benefits, instead focusing on local educational and community benefits, by actively engaging more than 3,000 young people below the age of thirteen – including local schoolchildren with little or no prior experience of art galleries or of M.C. Escher’s work. Following the huge success of this project, the partnership continued with AEGON sponsoring an exhibition of Dutch painter Carel Fabritius’ ‘The Goldfinch’ in November 2016, generating workshops that brought yet more children and young people from the community into the gallery spaces to engage with creative processes and explore their own creativity.
The winner of the Business Creativity category of this year’s Arts & Business Scotland 30th Annual Awards is another great example of a creative partnership between business and the cultural sector. Suppliers to the building trade Check-It Scaffold Services demonstrated an attention-grabbing ability to think outside the box when they partnered with Scottish Ballet to bring a new production of Swan Lake to the stage, successfully creating some exciting new commercial opportunities for both parties as a result.
With public sector budgets under ongoing pressure, it’s easy to assume that greater collaboration between business and culture is a one-way street, with the cultural sector reaping the benefits of increased business sponsorship and participating businesses getting little direct benefit in return – beyond a warm feeling of having done the right thing.
But if businesses are to embrace the soft skills such as creativity and emotional intelligence that are likely to become a prerequisite for future success, collaborating with the cultural sector will no longer just be something that’s nice to do. It is going to become increasingly essential.
Carl Watt is Head of Programmes at Arts & Business Scotland.