Soft skills for the internationalisation of the arts: Basic skills, attitudes or soft skills for the international dissemination of the arts, rooted in the intrinsic values of culture.
In the article “Value propositions of the arts sectors and cultural values”, I referred to cultural values as essential elements in the design of business models in the arts and cultural sectors. These values, such as the ability to critically imagine other realities, determine whether a project or product is considered 'art' or part of other fields of human activity.
What distinguishes a purely economic model from a cultural model is the presence of cultural values in the definition of its business model. In this deliberate search for the differences between the unique selling proposition - USP, of a cultural product and a commodity, between artistic creation and entertainment, or between cultural sectors and industrial sectors, I will refer to the attitudes of professionals (soft skills) when faced with the circulation and international dissemination of artistic works, services or projects.
When offering artistic works to potential clients, future audiences or intermediaries (programmers, distributors, etc.), cultural values determine different ways of acting. By responding to values, professionals involved in the development and distribution of artistic works will have different attitudes or behaviours than other professionals in other fields. In this sense, the repeated statement that "selling a cultural product is the same as selling any other consumer product" does not apply to culture. In each of the different fields, attitudes vary and respond to different intrinsic values.
IT'S NOT ALL ABOUT BUYING AND SELLING IN THE ARTS
For cultural and artistic projects to develop, grow and survive over time, they need to be offered ('sold') to their potential clients, audiences or funders. Their recipients will buy them if they meet a specific set of needs. This process of offering and buying in the artistic sector cannot be seen as a mere process of economic exchange, there is 'something else' involved. It is not all about selling and buying in the cultural sectors. This ‘something else’ is linked to intrinsic cultural values and is manifested in the attitudes and corresponding skills of those responsible for dissemination. The basic skills, competences or soft skills for dissemination, linked to the intrinsic values of culture and which I will define in this article are: collaboration, knowledge, innovation, care, respect and use of time.
COLLABORATION IN CULTURAL NETWORKS. YOU GET AS MUCH AS YOU GIVE
In the cultural sector, the most effective way of communicating work is through direct contact with people who can help in the different areas of its development. These direct contacts lead to the creation of networks of professionals with common interests. Networks are sustained by mutual trust, cooperation and exchange. A cultural project in which the people involved have a high level of collaborative skills will be in a better position to be known and heard than others in which the promotional work is purely commercial.
Cultural networking meetings, marketplaces and professional events in the sector help to distinguish professionals with collaborative skills. At these events, moving from being a spectator to a full player, for example by actively participating in discussions, is the icing on the cake that makes your artistic project stand out from the rest.
KNOWLEDGE. IN CULTURE, KNOWING IS KEY
Culture is knowledge and this is expressed in the projects or products that the cultural sectors offer to the community. Therefore, the tools used to disseminate it must not dilute the level of knowledge proposed in the artistic work with empty and repetitive messages. The marketing of the arts must also make use of knowledge and prioritise the transmission of content that is relevant to the people to whom the messages are addressed. Content marketing will therefore be a key part of the overall promotion strategy.
In this sense, those in charge of disseminating cultural products must be able to communicate contents that are coherent with the project they are working on. Moreover, their level of cultural preparation must be in line with the products they offer.
INNOVATION. ESSENTIAL FOR SURVIVAL
It could be said that the arts and culture sector has innovation in its DNA. It is difficult to imagine artistic creation that is not innovative. However, campaigns to disseminate artistic projects must also be at the same level of innovation as the projects themselves that are being promoted. Moreover, those responsible for dissemination need to be creative in their relations with potential clients. Creative people working for artistic projects will be better considered when proposing a project or defining a collaboration.
CARE. SUPPORT AND SOLIDARITY
Artists and cultural workers, as well as the management structures they rely on to produce and disseminate their work, are generally highly vulnerable people. Yet the values of culture also include the capacity to make the world more humane, just and caring. For these reasons, care, support and solidarity are needed and valued in the cultural sectors above the fierce competition for hegemony in markets and circuits. Although this is not always the case in the real world, cultural workers who can demonstrate skills based on care, support and solidarity will be in a better position to gain greater recognition and respect.
RESPECT. THE MOST PRECIOUS VALUE IS DIVERSITY
Relationships established in the cultural sector, especially at an international level, offer the opportunity to meet people from very different cultural backgrounds. In many cases, the cultural differences are very great. This fact determines the success or failure of a conversation. Sensitivity to cultural differences will be essential in building lasting relationships. People who value cultural diversity and treat people from other cultures with respect and care will be able to undertake collaborative projects and will be more successful in offering their products or projects.
THE USE OF TIME. TIME AS AN ALLY
Building innovative collaborative networks on the basis of knowledge transfer and mutual trust, respect for diversity, support and solidarity is not a one-day process. In culture and the arts, collaboration takes into account trajectories, past projects and proposals for the future. Demonstrating solid trajectories and longer-term visions is a necessity for any cultural project. Relying on one-hit wonders is common to the more commercial cultural industries and not to the artistic sectors. Solid trajectories with proposals for the future are achieved when there is the ability to give projects time to develop. In this case, time will be an ally, not an obstacle. But only if the development of the project has been strategically planned in phases, from the short to the long term, and from the local to the global, to ensure its economic sustainability.
OTHER SKILLS. ARTISTIC DISSEMINATION IS NOT ONLY NOURISHED BY CULTURAL VALUES
The competences described above are not the only ones that cultural professionals and organisations need to master; there are others that should be taken into account for the effective dissemination and development of projects. However, they are the ones that are most closely linked to the intrinsic values of culture and that differentiate cultural professionals from those in other fields of social and economic activity.
In the podcast Mentor Cultural, episode #06 “Las Capacidades para los Sectores Culturales” (available only in Spanish) other necessary skills are mentioned, such as resilience, oral and written communication, languages, digital skills and the ability to negotiate and reach agreements. Although these are common to most sectors and projects, in the cultural sector it will be necessary to master them in order to 'go further' with cultural and artistic projects.
In order to approach the dissemination of artistic projects, a deep process of reflection and analysis is needed. It is necessary to be clear about the skills that the dissemination team already possesses, to ensure that these are based on cultural values, and to diagnose which ones are lacking or misdirected. In the latter case, a complete process of behavioural change needs to be carried out from the top down in the organisation, in order to change behaviours and attitudes to bring them into line with the principles and values of the culture.