Consultancy

Consultancy is a much maligned and often misunderstood word in the modern world. In the cultural field is has a particularly patchy record and sometimes with good reason. Consultants can arrive without any practical experience of arts organisations and then try to ‘shoe-horn’ conventional business strategies into an arts situation. On the other side, the arts organisation can often see the consultant as filling gaps within the staff, hoping that they will organise, fundraise, manage or otherwise deal with problems. This is why OLIVEARTE places a lot of emphasis on the relationship with a client. Clear aims and objectives are established at the outset and then, based on a real working knowledge of the cultural field and a commitment to finding practical solutions, these goals are pursued in partnership with the client. A consultancy focus could include:

• Strategic planning (how to devise and implement a plan).
• Finance (financial planning and decision making, cost centre accounting, systems and accounts).
• Fundraising (including maximising income, writing funding applications, European funding, new sources of income and developing fundraising strategies).
• Communications (internal and external communications, including human resources, PR, marketing, advertising and media).
• Management (management structures, recruitment, project management, decision making).
• Organisational development (how to build capacity within an organisation combining key building blocks like strategic planning, staff training, good communication, team building, financial planning and leadership).

street events, fund-raising events, retreats, training programmes and have even managed a week-long arts project on a boat with 250 artists!