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One Alfred Place is a London private members' club that professes to be 'uniquely designed for business'. Now, I've been to pool parties at Shoreditch House and eaten smoked eel in Boodle's, I've chatted to Shane McGowan in the Colony Room and pretended I was a published novelist in the Groucho, but never have I seen any business conducted in any of these places. Well, at least not the kind of business I can write about here.
I'm intrigued to see how it all works but I don't want to just wander round and have lunch. I want to meet some people and see what this whole business networking thing is about. Rather excitingly, I'm given an interview with Colin Tweedy OBE, CEO of Arts & Business, member of One Alfred Place, and all-round seriously influential fellow.
I didn't think I would, but I like One Alfred Place immediately. It's easy to find, chic without being fussy, has fantastic business facilities – you know, computers, and plug sockets everywhere, and wireless, and boardrooms, lockers, a bar and even a bed. The restaurant also does lovely food – I have the Eggs Benedict and it's delicious, but the large portion I request is too much for me at 10.30 in the morning.
But it's the outstanding collection of contemporary art that really catches my eye. As we know, mis-matched furniture is cool right now; and One Alfred Place does it beautifully. The art is presented in a similarly unstructured way. But it works, and brilliantly. With works by Michael Landy, Ian Davenport, Keith Coventry, Cornelia Parker, Andy Warhol and a host of others, there's no staring out the window during dull meetings here.
And so to meeting Mr Tweedy. My questions are pretty simple: I want to know a bit more about what Arts & Business does, how the recession will affect the arts in London, and how exactly One Alfred Place fits into all this.
www.onealfredplace.com
TJ: So, how does Arts & Business work?
CT: We describe ourselves as an engine between the commercial and creative communities. So we're driving both to work together for mutual benefit.
Ernst & Young, for example, have sponsored visual arts in London for the last 20 years. They started with a Picasso exhibition at the Tate Britain, and they say that it's the most effective way of networking they ever do – far better than a lot of their marketing and PR because they can invite the people they want, have an informal dinner and everyone's in bed by 10.30.
But we're also always trying to help the smaller arts organisations engage with business. Because not only do they need the money, but it's also a way of attracting a new audience. A lot of young entrepreneurs are interested in small scale arts projects where they can feel a sense of ownership.
And we also engineer volunteering – getting business people to give up their time to help use their skills on an arts project – marketing, financial planning etc. For example, we recently had someone from M&S working with the Royal Academy on their point of sale. And it works the other way round too. We get artists involved in business projects, from helping to design spaces to holding art classes.
How is your work affected by the recession?
We announced our overall figures for 2007 yesterday – it was the largest amount of private sector giving to the arts ever in the UK – something like £680 million. We're estimating that this peak will not be seen again until at least 2013. We see business confidence really dropping, with 2010-11 seeing a real low ebb of business confidence. Even if the recession ends at the end of this year there will still be a time lag of bad news and bad figures for at least another year. We're looking at pretty difficult times - small commercial galleries are going to be absolutely hammered. Basically people are just stopping buying.
However, because of the collapse of the pound, the UK and particularly London is incredibly attractive to foreign tourists. If they've got money they'll be spending it. Whether they'll be buying British art, I'm not sure, but they'll certainly be filling out West End Theatres.
The real issue for the arts community is battening down the hatches, reducing their costs like any business and trying to survive. Obviously if they have public funding from the arts council or from a local authority they're far more secure.
Is that likely to be affected?
Yes. I would imagine that the treasury will start clawing back budget schemes maybe before the beginning of next year. I'm sure that the arts community and the Minister for the Arts and the Secretary of State for Culture will be arguing that it's counter-productive. One is acutely aware that the government is spending all its money on the banks and now the car industry and there ain't much left. Presumably they're going to keep hospitals and schools...
Obviously we're concerned – a lot of businessmen will be saying, 'why should we maintain our membership of Arts & Business when we're laying off staff. Surely you're a luxury we can't afford?'
www.onealfredplace.com
And how do you answer that?
Our line is that you can't afford not to use us, because we are here to help you use your sponsorship dollar more effectively, to deliver a better return for your shareholders, to make sure that your staff are happy, and the wider community benefit from your engagement. We're helping to keep you ahead of the market, to keep your head above the parapet. Our engagement will help you weather the storm: that's our pitch.
And do you believe it?
Absolutely. Look at UBS. They've been huge sponsors of the Tate Galleries and they want to maintain their financial contribution to arts in the UK. They want to do it because they believe that, although they've been badly damaged in the recession, this is a show of strength. It's the same with Unilever and HSBC.
But it will be a struggle. Our job is to be smarter in a recession, in really creative ways. If we don't we'll fall by the wayside. The best will succeed and the weak will go to the wall. The businesses that are collapsing at the moment are the businesses that have been bound on by financial support from the banks. Now they're all falling over but there is an argument to say that these were the weak businesses.
And how does One Alfred Place fit into all this?
One Alfred Place is a great example of money being used to create a dynamic space for people in the creative industries. Cultural industries feed off each other. A club like this is a melting pot for the creative industries – it's buzzy and it's inspiring. I think that this kind of free thinking will be the way that the economy will be transformed.
For example, I was here the other day with Julia Hobsbawm who created Brunswick Arts with Sarah Brown (the wife of the Prime Minister) and she introduced me to Martha Lane Fox who was having breakfast over here. And then you meet a high-tech magnate who's sitting over there, so you're always bumping into someone who knows someone else. You never need to move anywhere.
I first came here and I immediately thought, 'this is the place for me'. It's an ideal meeting place - you can have a meeting with an arts person, a business person, a journalist… and it has the right feel - it's what Arts and Business is all about. It's an environment that is attractive: it has art, it has flexibility, and it has good coffee!
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