BUSINESS

Quality of life is sometimes painted as the soft side of economic development,  more and more institutional investors (in municipal bonds) are looking increasingly at the local quality of life to determine if they wish to invest. Without quality of life, they reason, reinvestment won’t occur. No reinvestment means no economic growth. No economic growth means economic decline. Economic decline means less tax revenue. Less tax revenue means the bonds can’t be paid off.

 We must respect the rootedness of people in their own social context. We must protect the heritage of the past. But we must also foster and promote living culture in all its many forms. As recent economic analyses have consistently shown, this also makes sound business sense. From tourism to restoration, investments in cultural heritage and related industries promote labour-intensive economic activities that generate wealth and income.

 ARTS

There are numerous immutable arguments for support of the arts yes, they are our identity, our ‘soul’ if you will, and offer a country its best ambassador abroad yes, they can and do attract new money into areas with little else to offer festivals alone can regenerate impoverished areas; yes, they can create jobs not only within their own sector but with inevitable run-on into service and hospitality industries yes, they are a catalyst for urban regeneration yes, they are key to educating, challenging and stimulating young and old, to building civil society, a society comfortable with its own diversity and yes, for the corporate sector, sponsorship of the arts presents numerous and as yet largely unexplored  opportunities to meet both commercial and philanthropic objectives.

But in truth they need no justification in the history of all societies, the arts are as natural as breathing, whether in Africa or Europe, or Asia . They have survived through war and censorship, pestilence and famine. Simply put, artists live only to make art, building up a treasure house that today we rightly call heritage – our cultural heritage.