Universitat Internacional de Catalunya - Barcelona

Funding for Culture

• code 06724
• course 1
• term Term 2
• type OB
• credits 3

Main language of instruction: English

Other languages of instruction: Spanish

Head instructor

Dr. Pablo AGNESE - pagnese@uic.es

Office hours

To be confirmed by email to pagnese@uic.es

The course starts with an introduction of economics of the arts and culture, in order to be able to understand how the decisions taken by the managers affect the prospect and the direction of a cultural organization.
The course provides an illustration of the various sources of financing culture, focusing on the State, the market, and the big patrons in the private sector.
The analysis is both qualitative and quantitative. To best illustrate how culture is financed, the course explains data (where possible) in a wide cultural policy frame; basically at a European and Spanish level, including the analysis of organizational objectives, priorities, and decision-making patterns.
The course focuses on four main sources of funds for the arts: the government, the Non-Departmental Public Bodies (or QUANGOs as they were formerly known), the market, and the big patrons (sponsors and donors). Each source has its own rationale and tends to generate its own institutions and organizations. Any cultural organization or project may need to take these sources and their consequences into account.
The course will also rely, when possible, on the case study methodology to highlight the practical side of the master.

Those of the Master's Degree.

To know the characteristics of the main sources of financing the arts and culture.
To know the motivations for funding cultural projects.
To set the funding needs of cultural projects.
To highlight the financial composition of the different cultural organizations according to their mission (public, not-for-profit, or profit-oriented).
To know what strategies the organizations use to obtain funding for its projects.

Basic competence

• To know how to apply the knowledge acquired and the ability to resolve problems in new or little known environments within broader or multidisciplinary contexts related to the area of study.

General competence

• To search for and/or administer economic resources within the framework of an institution, a company, or a programme, project or cultural service. 

Cross-disciplinary competence

• To design, direct, produce and evaluate projects, programmes, strategies, policies or cultural actions which involve a wide variety of different professional profiles, agents and institutions. 

Specific competence 

• To diagnose and know how to correct economic and financial imbalances in a financial or cultural institution, create and plan funding plans for cultural projects and sponsorship programmes. 

The student:

• Knows how to apply the knowledge acquired and the ability to resolve problems in new or little known environments within broader or multidisciplinary contexts related to the area of study.

• Searches for and/or administers economic resources within the framework of an institution, a company, or a program, project or cultural service. 

• Designs, directs, produces and evaluates projects, programs, strategies, policies or cultural actions which involve a wide variety of different professional profiles, agents and institutions. 

• Diagnoses and knows how to correct the economic and financial imbalances in a financial or cultural institution. Creates and plans funding plans for cultural projects and sponsorship programs. 

Course’s Coordinator: Dr. Pablo Agnese

Lesson 1: Course Overview

Lesson 2: Operational Finance

The aim of these sessions is to describe a simple model of economic/financial analysis and diagnosis.

Lesson 3: Public Funding of Arts & Culture

The aim of these sessions is to introduce the student to the public budgets and its principles: accountability, transparency, etc; and provide a rationale for the public funding of the arts and culture while showing the recent trends in the data, mainly for Spain and the EU at large.

Lesson 4: Private Funding of Arts & Culture

The aim of these sessions is to introduce the student to such things as sponsorship and its history, big donors, friends, cross sponsorship, and crowdfunding.

 The course will apply  two methodologies:

1. Lectures: Theoretical concepts will be presented and discussed.

2. Practical exercises: students will have to solve practical exercises (usually related to the case studies presented during the lectures).

Exam: 70%

Practical work + participation: 30%

Operational Finance

• Martínez Abascal, Eduardo. Finance for managers, Mc Graw Hill, IESE Business School, Madrid - 2012.
• Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí. Annual Report 2010 & 2011. Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí.

Public Funding

• John Pick. The Arts in a State - A Study of Government Arts Policies from Ancient Greece to the Present  - Bristol, 1988.
• A Study on the Contribution of Culture to Local and Regional Development - Evidence from the Structural Funds - Final Report, September 2010 and Anexes 1 & 2 - Strategy & Evaluation Services with ERICarts.
• Arjo Klamer, Lyudmilla Petrova, Anna Mignosa. Financing the Arts and Culture in the European Union -  A Study requested by the European Parliament’s committee on Culture and Education - Stichting Economie and Cultuur.

Private Funding

• Karen Nielsen. Le Mécénat mode d'emploi. Iesa. Ed Economica. Paris, 2007.