It’s been a busy couple of years for the team at Mission, Models, Money (MMM) but as the third phase of this widely respected, and at times provocative, “national action research programme” draws to a close what has it achieved?
The MMM programme started out as a reponse to the growing need for arts and cultural organisations (A&CO) to demonstrate their public value in order to continue receiving essential public funding (Money), whilst at the same time facing pressure from within to maintain the pursuit of artistic goals (Mission). The first two manifestations of the MMM programme were conferences held in 2004 and 2005. These were attended by arts leaders, programmers, policy makers, consultants, and other key industry figures. According to MMM they were successful in fostering “a more honest conversation” and developing greater awareness of the challenges and opportunities facing the sector. The third and current phase of the programme emerged from an evaluation of the discussions that took place during the conferences. A number of objectives were identified with the main challenge “to illustrate, build, share and test the applicability of best and emerging new practice through a number of different activities.” The MMM team has decided to focus on seven “exemplar projects” made possible by funding and business development support received through MMM.
Some of the additional activities undertaken during this phase of the programme include:
A complete overview of MMM programme activities can be accessed here.
Unfortunately the jury is still out on the exemplar projects as they are currently at various stages of completion. However, the scope of work undertaken, from a project by Audiences Yorkshire to establish a national promotion and distribution network for independent publishers to completely revamping the business model for Aegis Trust, is indicative of the ambition behind the MMM programme. There is a definite sense that with the right vision, planning, and allocation of resources, anything can be achieved.
According to Arts Council England the roadshows went off without a hitch, earning the MMM team major backing from Her Majesty’s Treasury. Feedback from the East Midlands roadshow, attended by over 40 senior industry executives, was described as “uniformly positive”.
The provocation papers are particularly interesting as they build up arguments intended to guide the direction of future business plans for arts organisations at every level through the UK. Of particular social relevance is the paper written by Sarah Robertson and Teo Greenstreet that ponders the provocation: “As long as arts organisations keep their educational strands as a bolt on to the ‘core’ or ‘main house’ programme, they will never become fully relevant and engaging to the people they are there to serve”.
A conspicuous lack of feedback posted in response to the provocation papers on the MMM blog could be taken as a sign that industry professionals view it as just another Government sanctioned initiative that is principally designed to give the impression that something is being done (at the highest level) to improve the woeful financial mismanagement of the industry. After all, in the USA, similar initiatives aimed at non-profits were heralded as the salvation of the sector, only to be derided soon after.
Financial models emphasising the importance of Mission when it comes to business analysis and running an organisation are being developed worldwide. There is no doubt that the team responsible for implementing this latest phase of the MMM programme are motivated by good intentions, but they are not operating in a vacuum. There are hundreds of thriving arts organisations across the UK from which arts leaders of other A&CO’s could learn. The information, the examples, and the networking opportunities are already out there, supported by the MMM programme. But having access to the right information is only the beginning.
Right now there is a real buzz about MMM and leaders of arts organisations want to improve their management and performance based on the seven principles of the emerging model, but the perennial danger is that even with the best will in the world, many still lack the resources (financial, human, or time) to effect real change. A&CO’s, and the not-for-profit sector in general, are plagued with managers who are ineffective not because they don’t know what they’re doing but because they are unable to do what they know they should be doing.
The problems facing arts organisations at every level are neither new nor specific to the UK. In his 1999 testimony to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labour and Pensions then NEA chairman Bill Ivey echoed many of the challenges the MMM programme is attempting to get to grips with in 2007. The reality is that organisational change costs money, hence why the MMM programme is having to fund the exemplar projects. Perhaps a more realistic assessment of the principles and management model proposed through MMM would have been to analyse the performance of organisations that were not in the receipt of any additional funds to help them implement change.
