COMMUNITY CULTURAL ENTERPRISES

Lord Elgin's marbles British Museum

An enterprise is typically a project or undertaking that requires boldness, proactive effort and an element of risk taking. ‘Enterprise’ requires a readiness to energetically embark on new ventures and explore new ‘territory’. Enterprise is about invention and innovation, and very often collaborative and cooperative effort. 

Entrepreneurial museum CEOs are more likely to ask “what if” and “how about” than traditional ‘collection keepers’ who populated museums and art galleries in the 19th & 20th C. Certainly, in those times there were entrepreneurial ‘musers’ operating out of, and working for, large and small institutions. Many scoured the world for exotica and antiquities to invest their galleries with the power of their imagination and their prowess as collectors. 

However, if they were to be understood as ‘colonial plunderers’ it would not be too surprising if you critically examined the museums that evolved under the aegis of ‘empire’ and ‘globalisation’. 

Interestingly, Edward Lawrence, theguardian.com, August 2011 wrote under the heading “UK riots: When is a looter a heroic entrepreneur?” 

“Parliament denounced the 21st century Britons who looted their own high street, but 18th century looters who plundered distant nations to build the British Empire became heroes ... The big mistake the current looters made was to do it here in Britain in the 21st century. If they had done it in an "uncivilized" land a couple of centuries ago, and claimed that they did it in the monarchs' name, they would be lauded by their parliament as aggressive entrepreneurs.’ [link]  and notable among the ‘heroic plunderers’ was one Lord Elgin with his plundered marbles from the Parthenon. 

In November 2010 Jonathan Salem Baskin in his contribution to a discourse on the future of museums – Museums in 2020: When Communities Got Real – he wrote 

“What’s the future look like? Now that museum communities are real, the next decade will herald a new era of creativity. It’s possible that by 2030 we’ll see museums routinely involve their communities in the vetting of information, selection and design of exhibits, and other forms of mediated crowd-sourcing. Members could get engaged with what’s inside museums before it’s ever inside.” [link]

From GOMA Brisbane

Somewhat banally by comparison to their colonial precursors we might imagine a Community Cultural Enterprise (CCE) as an organisation that applies commercial strategies to maximise an operation’s ability to improve relative to cultural and social well-being, rather than delivering maximum profits to shareholders. CCEs can be set up either as: 

• A commercial for-profit operation delivering cash dividends and other tangible benefits to investors; or 
• A not-for-profit operation that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals and grow the operation rather than distributing them as cash dividends to members, associates and sponsors. 

Typically CCEs take the form of a mutual organisation, a social enterprise set up to address a social problem, or a charity. Many commercial enterprises would consider themselves to have social objectives, but commitment to these objectives is motivated by the perception that such commitment will ultimately make the enterprise more financially valuable.

A CCE differs from other business enterprises in that, inversely, they typically do not aim to offer any cash benefit to their investors, members, associates et al. With museums and art galleries operating as a CCE there would be a much stronger emphasis on community organising, democratic control of capital and mutual principles, rather than philanthropy. Interestingly, philanthropy is one of the important corner stones for cost centre museums. 

Some entrepreneurs, whilst running a profit focused enterprise that they own, will make charitable gestures through the enterprise, expecting to make a loss in the process. However, a CCE is differentiated through its transparency and the evidence that its social and cultural objectives are primary, and that profit generation is secondary. 

Cultural entrepreneurship is about measured risk taking and generating new understandings of the cultural realities we have inherited down through time. Cultural entrepreneurs are typically ’change agents’. Cultural entrepreneurship can be a ‘potent driver’ behind the innovation and the entrepreneurial characteristics found in industry, trade and corporate activity. 
At its best, it plays a part in the formulation of ethical criteria for business, politics and the arts, and devises innovative models for financing cultural activity. 

Cultural entrepreneurship draws its inspiration from the interface between diverse disciplines and technologies. In doing so existing concepts can be combined to generate outstanding news ideas. It’s that phenomena that allows innovation take place when people see beyond their expertise and approach situations actively. It’s that inclination to look toward putting available materials together in new ways. At its best, its purpose is to consider ethics as an infinite resource with the potential to guarantee long lasting returns for future generations. 

From Australian Museum Sydney

Diversity drives innovation and variety is central to productive collaborations.

Musing in the 21st C is increasingly likely to find serendipitous interfaces between cultural production and entrepreneurship given the speed in which information can be conjured up. Museums once focused on the past in order to make sense of the world. However, in the future innovative musing, and entrepreneurship, may help us make living in the world truly make sense.

Notwithstanding any of this, in order to operate sustainably community cultural enterprises need to operate both sustainably and strategically. This immediately implies that there is a clear and unambiguous need for a strategic plan in place whether it is a not-for-profit operation or not. More to the point, community cultural enterprises need to be as accountable to its Community of Ownership and Interest as any business needs to be accountable to its 'owners'/shareholders. Most of all these plans will need to be benchmarked plus have enshrined within the measurable performance indicators.

Musingplaces as community cultural enterprises, enterprises generating increasingly larger portions of their recurrent budgets, hold out the promise of increasing sustainability. However, they will need to explore new income generating opportunities in much more proactive ways than is currently evident.

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