At a lunch last year hosted by Wesfarmers in the company’s corporate headquarters in Perth, Richard Tognetti talked with a group of Western Australian business leaders about his twin passions for surfing and music. He was in Perth to introduce the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s new project The Reef, taking musicians and surfers to the remote wild coasts and communities across northern Western Australia to create a performance production ‘at the intersection of music and nature’. He talked about the single-minded purpose and sense of adventure that focuses both surfer and musician – the pursuit of perfection, the embrace of risk and the exhilaration of performance. His description of creative endeavour was simple and compelling in its universality: he articulated ideas about what it means to be dedicated and open to new experiences with a spirit and directness we could all respond to.
It is this one-to-one direct interaction with artists that makes a partnership relevant and rewarding. From the perspective of business it offers a way to enter into open conversation about motivation and challenge with high achievers from across the creative professions. It can be the opportunity to talk with a director about achieving the balance between artistic integrity and resourceful pragmatism in order to actualise an idea from concept to stage. It could be a chance to hear an artist from Arnhem Land talk about the traditional methods of working with the raw materials of the earth to make contemporary art of astounding refinement and beauty.
These opportunities stretch our thinking and broaden our world view. They also help bridge some of the barriers that many non-arts people have about the elite arts, and vice versa, some of the preconceptions that those in the arts may have about business. In doing so, these moments of coming together build respect and a wider understanding of what it means to be the best in your field. In our experience, the most enduring and productive partnerships are invariably those kept fresh and relevant through this kind of exchange.
Wesfarmers has supported the arts in Western Australia for over thirty years. Our partnerships and the Australian art collection that we share with the national community through loans and exhibitions enable us to make an imaginative and meaningful contribution to the cultural life of the community and enrich the working lives of our people.
The focus has remained consistent: the Wesfarmers Arts program aims to enable transformational change for the organisations with which we work and to achieve that goal we take a long-term view.
Last year marked a milestone in our sixteen year relationship with WASO as we entered a new phase of partnership as the orchestra’s Principal Partner.
Our longest-standing collaboration is with the Art Gallery of Western Australia with which we have worked since the 1980s on exhibition, publication and major legacy-building projects to develop the State Art Collection and extend the opportunities to connect people with art.
The Wesfarmers Arts Commission Series launched in 2004 was the first step in what has evolved into an extended relationship with the Perth International Arts Festival and our state’s four flagship arts companies to commission new work that continues in new ways today to draw together artists, designers, composers, choreographers, directors, producers and companies from around the country and the world.
The majority of Wesfarmers’ relationships are with Western Australian arts companies, and those that travel to the state, including The Australian Chamber Orchestra, Bell Shakespeare Company and Musica Viva Australia. The reasons for this are partly historical, reflecting the origins of the company. It’s also a factor that until recently, the pool of large corporates based in Western Australia has been relatively small and access to the business dollar correspondingly limited. Focusing our resources in our home state, where the arts have historically done it tough has offered Wesfarmers a way to make a real difference over the long-term to the cultural life of a whole community. Wesfarmers now has a large national footprint and that’s reflected in our broadening the scope of our involvement with the arts to encompass a relationship with the National Gallery of Australia.
As a society, we benefit enormously from the continued growth of the indigenous art sector – from economic development and social cohesion for indigenous communities to the opportunity that all us have to experience, enjoy and understand more about the richness of indigenous culture, past and present. We are very much aware of the role that national institutions and businesses like our own must play in respecting the central place that indigenous art occupies in defining the contemporary face of Australia – both at home and to the world. This is the rationale behind our partnership with the National Gallery begun in 2009 to increase the levels of indigenous leadership in our museums and galleries.
Many of our staff have told us that our involvement with the arts has helped us to be seen as an employer of choice. Each year, thousands of our employees in Western Australia and nationally attend a wide range of arts events that offer them and their families the chance to enjoy exhibitions, performances, behind-the-scene tours and talks by leading artists from Australia and around the world. For many, these events bring them into museums, concert halls, galleries and theatres for the first time. The feedback we receive is that the experience is always inspiring, and sometime life-changing.
These days all companies are looking at their spending on marketing and advertising. We’re of the view that arts sponsorships offer a return on investment that exceeds many other options. The longevity of arts investments outlives the short term impact of media advertising. Creative work that we have supported has gone on to appear both nationally and internationally.
As a society we need to encourage a sense of identity and a sense of place for these will provide us with an anchor in an uncertain economic climate. Our artists and creative forces articulate the fears, the joys, the triumphs and the challenges of life.
Companies that support the arts are helping people to gain meaningful and valuable experiences. As Richard Goyder, Managing Director of Wesfarmers has said: ‘at a time of public cynicism about corporations, people appreciate and remember those companies that are making a difference for the better’.
We gain so much when we open ourselves to new conversations. Supporting creative endeavour is a sound business strategy.
