Art Dubai launches report on philanthropy and South Asian art
DUBAI: Art Dubai 2020, one of the Middle East’s leading art fairs originally scheduled for Mar. 25 – 28, has modified its programme and tailored it for digital audiences, to meet current circumstances.
It’s reconfigured programme no longer incorporate events, focusing instead on digital content launched on the week of March 23, 2020, and developing over time. Among other things, in a move that will bring rich dividends, it has partnered with Arttactic, an art market research firm based in London, to give the art lover and the cognoscenti, a research-based look into the art of giving and the South Asian art market.
Titled “South Asia Special Report: Art & Philanthropy 2020,” the report investigates their models across South Asia. The investigation aims to better understand the funding eco-system for the visual arts sector, and to map and present innovative and sustainable philanthropic activities in the region. It features the inaugural
South Asian Art Patron Survey 2020, which is a first attempt to start monitoring trends and motivations in individual giving to the arts, and the South Asian Investment in the Arts Survey 2020, which sets out to better understand how arts organisations in the region are currently funding their activities, and the challenges they are facing as we head into the next decade.
The aim is to trigger a broader debate around how to encourage more support for the arts and inspire innovation and adaption of new philanthropic models fit for the unprecedented times we live in.
“We live in unprecedented times”, says Anders Petterson, Founder and Managing Director of Art
Tactic. “With the coronavirus epidemic spreading rapidly around the world, causing widespread disruption and devastation to individual lives and to businesses, the commercial and noncommercial arts sector remains particularly vulnerable.
“With more and more public events and social gatherings either discouraged or cancelled, the entire foundation for many of these organisations’ existence will be tested. Therefore, more than ever, individual generosity and passion for the arts, is what is going to help these arts organisations through this difficult period, and will demonstrate why it is so critical to encourage and build a sustainable infrastructure around art and philanthropy”.
The report also expands the footprint to include the wider South Asian region. Although the majority of philanthropic arts activities are taking place in India, the survey finds that innovative models are emerging in other parts of the region, from artist-led initiatives to new models focusing on the public realm. In the absence of public funding, younger and older generations of artists are mobilising to create their own philanthropic models to build and sustain artistic practices ignored by the commercial market.
“The timing of this report finds humankind at an unparalleled moment in time. We hope that activities and initiatives presented in this report will be part of a broader philanthropic springboard movement, one that mobilises the use of fire and hope constructively for the benefit of the human condition in the long term”, says Chloe Vaitsou, International Director, Art Dubai.
Private philanthropy remains the backbone of arts funding in South Asia. The lack of public funding available in South Asia ensures that private investment, alongside earned income, are the primary sources of income for arts and cultural organisations in South Asia. Forty six South Asian arts organisations surveyed by ArtTactic said that on average, sixty eight per cent of their funding came from private investment (individuals, foundations or corporates), whereas earned income accounted for an average of thirty four per cent of the total income for the organisations.
Funding from public bodies, including international funding agencies, accounted for an average of five per cent. Among the arts organisations surveyed, the primary funding is coming from the founders of the organisation or foundation themselves, accounting for an average of forty eight per cent of the private funding.
Twenty nine per cent of the organisations are private foundations. This was followed by an average of twenty five per cent of the funding coming from other Trusts and Foundations, and twenty three per cent coming from individual giving or donations.
An average of sixteen per cent of the funding came from business and corporate CSR, showing that corporate investment still accounts for a relative modest amount of the funding for the not-for-profit art sector in the region.
A substantial part of individual giving is linked to in-kind support, signalling a strong engagement between patrons and arts organisations, with eighty six per cent of the arts organisations saying that in-kind support was the most important form of individual giving at the moment, followed by sixty per cent who said cash donations were an important source. Although in-kind support is a key factor in sustaining most arts organisations, it also highlights the fact that most organisations desperately need cash to survive and run an organisation.
A recurrent theme mentioned by most of the arts organisations that were interviewed for the report, was that the cost-benefit of doing crowdfunding campaigns often didn’t add up, and that smaller, targeted campaigns among ‘friends and family’ was a more effective way of raising crowd support than using existing online crowdfunding platforms. The report will influence the debate around how to encourage more support for the arts and inspire innovation and adaption of new philanthropic models fit for the 21st Century.