Recommendation 1018 (1985)

Private sponsorship of the arts

Author(s): Parliamentary Assembly

Origin - Assembly debate on 28 September 1985 (14th Sitting) (see Doc. 5465, report of the Committee on Culture and Education). Text adopted by the Assembly on 28 September 1985 (14th Sitting).

The Assembly,

1. Having regard for the successful contributions already made by the Council of Europe in promoting the value of the arts ;

2. Believing that the arts are an integral part of civilised life, and that a civilised nation must support the arts as a duty to both present and future generations ;

3. Noting the changing patterns of financial support for the arts in some countries involving both the public and private sectors ;

4. Believing that the arts may be enhanced through private subsidy from corporate (and individual) sources which engenders a mutually advantageous liaison between business and the arts for the ultimate good of the whole community ;

5. Welcoming the recognition shown by the Council for Cultural Co-operation of the importance of the commercial factor in cultural policies, and in particular its activities relating to the culture industries and its two research workshops on the funding of culture (Munich 1983 and Rüschlikon 1985) ;

6. Wishing to facilitate and encourage commercial sponsorship both alongside public funding and independent of it ;

7. Recognising the role of cultural aims in the economic and social development of the member states, drawing attention to the economic importance of the arts reflected in terms of employment and revenue, and inviting its Committee on Economic Affairs and Development to study the relationship between culture and the economy more closely,

8. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers :

a. establish, on the European level and with reference to the continuing work of the Council for Cultural Co-operation, an informal framework for collaboration and the regular exchange of information between decision-makers in the field of government policy, of the culture industries and of commercial sponsorship relating to the arts ;

b. examine, on the basis of this framework, the feasibility of drawing up guidelines or a code of practice for private sponsorship of the arts, having regard to such factors as :

i. integrity for individual artistic creativity ;

ii. the principle of plurality of funding ;

iii. presentation of the sponsor's identity ;

iv. continuity ;

v. the enhancement of quality, creativity and variety in the field of the arts ;

c. consider ways in which the Council of Europe might itself directly encourage sponsorship on the European level ;

d. initiate statistics relating to the funding of the arts on national and European levels, and to the direct and indirect economic importance of the arts ;

e. invite the governments of member states, while maintaining public financial support for the arts :

i. to give greater recognition in the formulation of cultural policies to the direct and also indirect economic importance of the arts ;

ii. to give greater encouragement to private sponsorship of the arts through fiscal and other incentives, and inform the Council of Europe of such measures that exist or may be introduced to this end.