ARE THERE CULTURAL ENTREPRENEURS IN THE PHILIPPINES?

There is a character that we are seeking in the world of art. A type of person we need in a world not very open for economic themes. The character is rare breed --- only a few exists in our country, as of yet. Sociologists and economists have cited this character, even politicians and people involved in the world of the arts have talked about it. It is the Cultural Entrepreneur we are referring to. The character is not to be confused with event organizers, festival producers or mere producers of arts or cultural activities --- although practicing professionals and the like contribute well to the cultural and entertainment scenes.

A real cultural entrepreneur is a rare breed; one that has real fervor (and not mere fascination) for the arts, and applies the skills of a seasoned marketing professional. A cultural entrepreneur looks at art and culture as if it were a "brand" that should be thoroughly developed with high sense of ideals to stimulate an audience. It takes a deep look at an art or cultural product as something that should be well "positioned", to give the creators (i.e., the artists) value, and the art given its relative impact to lay inspiration and meaning to the soul of the nation --- before it is relegated to a wall (such as paintings) or to a library (for books, poems and plays).

A cultural entrepreneur does not only look at profit potentials but with the cultivation and transformation of citizens as well. He does not see art merely as a business venture, nor use it as a new business vehicle. As a cultural 'brand manager', he has his own sense of R&D, seriously talking to artists during the development stage, assessing the potential impact of the material, and ultimately creates a 'blue ocean' for activating citizens to turn their heads into devouring that which was created.

This is not to say that the character of the cultural entrepreneur features in the writings of cultural economists. The character promotes the arts world, spurs artists and their representatives, to be more market oriented and more active in selling the art. For the cultural entrepreneur to be a distinct character it needs to be distinguished from characters like the arts manager, the dealer, the seller or tradesman, the gatekeeper, a broker, a ticket seller and so on.

First of all, its connection with the entrepreneur has to be made clear. And then we need to figure out what the adjective “cultural” does for this character. An artist is active in maintaining an extensive network. He goes to many occasions and speaks with many people to interest them in his art. He sells well. Does that make him a cultural entrepreneur? Or does that make him a (good) salesman? And what difference does it make to call anyone a cultural entrepreneur? Will we understand the art world differently if we spot the cultural entrepreneurs and register, record and analyze their activities? How do we see entrepreneurs in our country? What are the type of business and activities they embark on? What has culture to do with entrepreneurship? Does it make sense to celebrate artists to become sellers on markets, for cultural organizations to deal with commercial ones? Or should cultural entrepreneurship be about something else. What makes a good cultural entrepreneur?

A cultural entrepreneur may be the kind of person who combines two faculties: 1st, one that should have a knowledge of and sensitivity towards the arts and creative processes, possibly combined with the ability to spot creative talents; and 2nd, knowledge and comprehension of the potential public and marketing techniques. While this may sound like something you've heard in the past, this is something that the art world sometimes neglect, especially he 2nd one.

What then is the characteristics of a good cultural entrepreneur? Good cultural entrepreneurs should have the following characteristics:
1) They are alert to opportunities --- possible having an eye for what some would call a "blue ocean" of opportunity
2) They are creative in terms of the artistic content but also of the way in organizing the conversation and arranging the finances
3) The artistic content is their passion and commitment; everything else, including the economics, is subsidiary
4) They are persuasive in the sense that are able to convince good artists to work with them, bring about interest in the art, get people involved (e.g. volunteers), and are able to generate the necessary funds, including donations and the like.
5) They have vision, courage, hope and faith.

Whether people qualify as cultural entrepreneurs always depends on the circumstances in which they operate. Cultural conditions matter. The goal of the cultural entrepreneur is not thoroughly to sell or to market the arts, the objective is to stimulate business skills in artists and artistic organizations. From an 'economists" stand-point, what is expected is to see more demand driven production of the arts rather than supply driven production. The cultural entrepreneur should work on the bridging the gap between the arts and the market. Most especially nowadays that majority of the people devour more of the movies, television, cyberspace and other more entertaining forms of art. We need true-blue cultural entrepreneurs to create some sort of renaissance in the 'traditional' art forms like theater plays, painting, poetry and literature and other forms that seem to be dying amidst modernization and technology-based entertainment forms.

So what does that character imply? The cultural entrepreneur combines artistic qualities with business sense; he or she is able to attract customers for the arts without compromising the artistic mission and artistic integrity. The cultural entrepreneur he champions can be an enterprising artist, a producer, or an organization commissioning a work of art. They all exemplify his wish for more economic sense in the world of the arts, for a less protective and conservative atmosphere and less reliance on the government for financial support.

The question is whether the arts manager who is bringing in a sponsor deal qualifies. Is a marketing person in a cultural organization by definition a cultural entrepreneur? It can compromise the cultural entrepreneur when the values of the market crowd out those of the cultural field. To be clear, we are working on a moral picture here and try to figure out what makes a good cultural entrepreneur. Someone who sees in cultural trade a way of adding profit, becomes suspect as culture is his instrument and not his mission. He is rather a businessman. That does not make him a bad character but he is miscast as a cultural entrepreneur. The market will be an instrument for the cultural entrepreneur, but not much more than that. After all, the real challenge for the cultural entrepreneur will be to contribute to the common good that art is.

A cultural good or an artistic process has cultural value because it is common property in some sense. A cultural good needs to function in the art conversation in order to qualify as art. People can compose music in their private dwellings, but if nobody else hears it, when nobody else bothers to pay it attention, the music does not circulate as such.

Because of the commonness of art, cultural entrepreneurship has to involve more than marketing skills and sensitivity to the artistic process; it also involves the persuasive power to induce a candidate for art into the appropriate conversation and to realize it as a common good. Filling a theatre with people may do the trick, but if they are not the people involved in the right conversation, the whole exercise is fruitless except for the money it may have generated. Selling a painting to anyone who is willing the price is bad entrepreneurship if the objective is to realize the artistic value of that painting. Donating it to a major museum, and persuading the museum director to accept it, may be than the better strategy.

Part of the realization of the values of art is the financing of it. An artist has to make a living and a theatre group needs money to survive. The ability to acquire the right finances in a proper way is one of the attributes of a good cultural entrepreneur. Amidst the dried-up coffers of government and with corporations looking at the more commercial mass media for more eye-balls for their advertising funds, the art world calls for that character with more entrepreneurial skills to sell the traditional art forms, which we believe is more fulfilling and full of soul.

In the end, a good cultural entrepreneur should be a champion for the arts and for artists. And above all, it seeks to revive art and culture as something that can revive the spirit citizens, and the soul of the nation. A good cultural entrepreneur should also be a "brand manager" for arts --- each discipline managed as some sort of 'product category' with brand development stage and life cycles. A good cultural entrepreneur should identify the blue ocean of opportunities for promoting the arts and the materials that artists create --- and not march into the market using a salesman's techniques in bloody red oceans in the market. A good cultural entrepreneur knows what art is, and in himself , should be a passionate fellow for the arts.

There are a few of them who exists in our country. They are recognized in our country as real evangelists for arts and culture, and artists know them as real individuals with passion for helping Filipino talents excel and let their works be known to many. We need more of them.


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In the next blog-post, I will be discussing about Brand Management Principles applied in Arts and Culture. We will look at how certain art disciplines and cultural activities could be organized and managed the way multinational professionals manage product brands, product lines, or product categories; how arts and culture can be promoted in a more disciplined and cunningly systematic process the way product marketing professionals promote their brands into to temptingly desired lifestyle commodities. We'll see if the shoe fits... for art's sake.