A Case Study of Arteconomy - Building a bridge between art and enterprise - Journal of Management & Organization (JMO)

home > archives > 14/5 > A Case Study of Arteconomy - Building a

A Case Study of Arteconomy - Building a bridge between art and enterprise: Belgian businesses stimulate creativity and innovation through art

Herman van den Broeck
Head, People and Organization Department, Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School; Professor, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Gent University, Gent, Belgium

Eva Cools
Senior Researcher, People and Organization Department, Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, Gent, Belgium

Tine Maenhout
Researcher, Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, Gent, Belgium

PP: 573 - 587

Abstract

In a world where there has long since been more at play than functionality and cost price, we need creative innovation more than ever before. Organizations are trying to find ways to embed more creativity, more innovative potential, and more entrepreneurship into the everyday running of their businesses. They are constantly in search of effective ways to make their organization's culture better equipped for change.

The Belgian non-profit organization Arteconomy has developed a method for doing this, by bringing business people and artists together in a series of particularly unique projects. In this paper, you can read about the philosophy that give rise to Arteconomy and the pioneering work that preceded it.

The paper describes two specific projects that provide a concrete illustration of the arteconomy approach in two Belgian textile firms: 'The Dragon of Deerlijk' at Promo Fashion and 'The Walk' at Concordia Textiles. This paper is particularly relevant to illustrate change as an organizational process and to demonstrate how organizations can stimulate employees' creative skills.

Keywords

change management, innovation, creativity, organization development, Entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship, art

Article Text

In his book A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink (2006) claims that the ability to grasp ‘the big picture' will be the number-one skill allowing employees and companies to make a difference. In a world where there have long since been other factors at play than functionality and cost price, where design and meaningfulness can be the most important criteria, we need creative innovation more than ever before. After all, organizations are trying to find ways to embed more creativity, more innovative potential and more entrepreneurship into the everyday running of their businesses. They are constantly in search of effective ways to make their organizational culture better prepared for change.

Arteconomy vzw has the aim of creating a growing awareness that art and economics are not two separate worlds, but two aspects of a single creative process that develops society as a whole. I strongly believe that employees need to be seen as ‘creative resources' and not just as ‘human resources'. I am convinced that companies can speed up this transition by working with artists. At the same time, this collaboration will also ensure that artists have the means to work on more complex projects as their career continues, because they have gained technical knowledge and other skills from the business community. In short: the encounter between these two worlds promises numerous advantages for both.
(Julie Vandenbroucke, founder and driving force of Arteconomy vzw[i])

The Belgian non-profit organization, Arteconomy, has developed a method for doing this, by bringing business people and artists together in a series of particularly unique projects. ‘It is time to shake up some of our mental models', says founder Julie Vandenbroucke. ‘Businesses need to learn to change their visions of artists as ‘eccentric', ‘lazy' and ‘odd', and artists need to learn that business means more than producing, buying and selling, and making profit. But above all, it is important for us to break out of the fixed patterns of the art world and the economic world and to learn to think in other ways'.

Artists and Entrepreneurs: A New Relationship

Michel Espeel - manager of the metal company Constructies Espeel - and his wife Julie Vandenbroucke have cherished a passionate love of art for many years. In 1989, their ‘love' formed the basis of an adventurous combination of business sense and art. It all began at Constructies Espeel with the production of metal sculptures and metal components for various sculptors. Artists were selected on the basis of project proposals that bore the possibilities of a positive, mutual and enriching collaboration. The art world is a different living environment, and in that sense this collaboration allowed Michel Espeel to think and live in a way that tangibly ‘crossed borders'. For the artists, entrepreneurship and management tended to be alien concepts, and at first the working environment of Constructies Espeel felt like a confrontation. This is part of what we mean when we speak of an ‘enriching' collaboration.

Arteconomy vzw itself was officially founded in 2002. That formal point was an intermediate moment of tangible success for a joint venture that had come about organically. The organization's official aim was to investigate and develop the possibilities of the field of tension between art and economy. It is this field of tension that acts as a lever for reflection on entrepreneurship, creativity, innovation and social relevance, as well as the new role that artists can play in society. In other words, Arteconomy vzw is a genuine think tank, a real discussion forum for art-loving business people as well as artists.

Michel Espeel bears witness to a period that stretches over almost 20 years in which art has become embedded in the company culture of Constructies Espeel:

When I look back, I think I can distinguish three main periods. The first years, from the beginning of 1989 up to somewhere in 1997, are what I call the creeper period. During that period our collaboration was completely internal, and we were hardly aware of what it was doing to the company. From 1997 until 2001, there was more outside interest and exhibitions were organized in the company lobby. It was in that period that I started to realize there is a difference in effect between a single event involving art and a process approach. From then on, new forms of collaboration with artists evolved in our company. That was during the years from 2002 to 2006.

This statement by Espeel is particularly revealing. It shows the way that the entrepreneur's thinking has developed, but also the development of the role of the artist in this project. Where art was initially present as an object, or possibly the starting point for a discussion, the whole process behind the artwork was now being used as a process catalyst for change within the company. This much is clear from what Espeel had to say next:

Arteconomy vzw was founded to investigate the collaboration between art and economy, separately from our company and in the context of society at large as a social model in itself. In 2007 we began a study of the possibilities for implementing this collaboration as an instrument of growth and development in the company, independent of my vision as an entrepreneur. Within two years, we hope to use this research to reduce the vulnerability of the link between the economics and art, because I think that this is strongly determined in my company at the moment by my personal vision and commitment.