The Circus Space is a performance skills training organisation. Early on, they took the unusual step of seeking long-term corporate support from UBS bank.
Both Circus Space and UBS spoke to Choices about how they help each other - everything from writing business plans to staff training days. They also give advice on the most effective ways to develop partnerships between arts and business.
Support for an arts organisation
Daisy Drury, Head of Circus Development, Circus Space
"The Circus Space was established in 1992 by a group of circus artists who were looking for somewhere to train, trying to create a home for circus artists. The Circus Space was originally a Victorian power station. The building was literally redeveloped on the basis of regeneration money.
"It quickly emerged that we needed additional sources of income and there had always been an earned income model here. We had always sold courses and classes and today earned income courses, classes, some performances, forms a considerable part of our income."
Rob Colbert, Head of Business and Enterprise Learning, Circus Space
"We refer to ourselves however as a social enterprise. This is a much more useful model for us to refer to as it represents the different income streams we have in terms of that we don’t rely just on being a charity or being a commercial company."
Building a partnership between arts and business
Nick Wright, Managing Director, Corporate Responsibility & Community Affairs, UBS
"The partnership between UBS and The Circus Space goes back 18 years. And we very quickly realised that there were a vast number of ways in which UBS could partner with The Circus Space."
Daisy Drury
"It originally began through a relationship with the East London Business Alliance, who proposed a UBS Director as one of our Board members. Our Chief Executive has a UBS mentor who she spends a couple of hours a month with.
"We ask UBS to support some of our students as they write business plans in their third years. That’s tremendously useful to us and has emerged as being a highlight of some UBS staff’s year, we’ve discovered."
How corporate staff benefit from arts collaboration
Nick Wright
"The Circus Space started to develop workshops for corporate members of staff, not just UBS-specific but much more generally. Over the course of time we have put upwards of 700 UBS staff through the personal and professional development programmes that The Circus Space run."
Rob Colbert
"For example, the Royal Albert Hall have booked an afternoon for their backstage team, to come down to have a bit of a team building bonding session.
"Whilst the Circus Space had a downturn due to the recession last year, it was very short-lived for us."
Advice for arts organisations looking for corporate support
Nick Wright
"My recommendations for anybody who is thinking of approaching an organisation such as UBS to forge a partnership or look to forge a partnership or garner support?
"The first thing I would do is absolutely conduct as much research as you can.
- Read their internet site,
- Look at the annual report
- Find someone from within the organisation that you can talk to
- Find out what the policy is, how strategic it is, their particular areas of focus or their particular areas of need.
"The second thing I would suggest that people do in approaching an organisation is to think very broadly. With the larger organisations there are a number of ways in which organisations and partnerships can be developed.
"One of the things The Circus Space has been extraordinarily good at, over a very long period of time (over 10-15 years), is very consistent and high quality communication.
"They have consistently brought us information about where they are going as an organisation. They’ve consistently presented us with the many ways in which we can become involved with their work through human interest stories.
"The bonds between UBS and The Circus Space can be strengthened. So that’s had a practical application in terms of an ever growing number of members of staff from UBS who have been involved with Circus Space.
"By their very nature, they are quite visual, so they can provide something which is quite striking. But they will provide us with stories, with examples of what has been achieved as a consequence of UBS support and involvement.
"That’s very key in developing that long term association and awareness amongst staff here, of the relationship as a whole."
This case study was created as part of a collaboration between Arts & Business and Creative & Cultural Skills.
