Helping firms to understand the value of artwork

May 29 2008 by Karen Dent, The Journal

Discovering she was adept at providing a bridge between the art and corporate worlds opened up a host of business opportunities for Carol Metcalfe, as she tells Karen Dent

COMMUNICATING the tangible benefits that art can have on a business’s bottom line might seem a difficult concept to grasp but it’s all in a day’s work for Carol Metcalfe.

A fine art graduate with a head for business – and the ability to juggle a number of different enterprises – she is the director and co-founder of Musa Fine Arts. The business represents more than 100 artists in the region and commissions, sells and hires artwork to companies and individuals.

“One of the hardest things is to get businesses to understand the value of artwork to themselves,” she says.

“It can be something the business buys or they can commission something. Usually they start by hiring, and changing over about four times a year. That makes them seem bigger than they are, especially if they have the same people coming in all the time.

“Art in the boardroom is a talking point – it can change the atmosphere of the place. Businesses tend to start very conservative with their art, very small and then get more controversial as they go on.”

Musa, a not-for-profit company, counts Quorum, which is constructing buildings at the Balliol Business Park in North Tyneside, among its clients. Each time a new building its completed, Quorum has bought artwork to display.

Carol said: “The value for them is if they put a £40,000 piece of art outside a building they can then charge more rent per square foot because it raises the value of the building.”

Now approaching its fourth anniversary, Musa is a multi-award winning organisation that has gathered a number of accolades. During its first year of trading its awards included the best cultural and creative business in the regional women entrepreneur of the year awards, and it won the £10,000 Blueprint North East Universities Business Plan award in 2004.

The concept came from Carol’s efforts to raise sponsorship to stage an exhibition of her work towards the end of her Master’s degree in fine art. She went out and talked to businesses and not only managed to raise £22,000 in sponsorship, the contacts she made meant she was able to sell all of her artwork on show at the exhibition. The experience taught her that many businesses did not know how to talk to artists and vice-versa. And so Musa was founded with Hilary Turner, who now sits on the organisation’s board of directors.

On a day-to-day basis, Carol runs Musa with Emma Handley and her daughter Clare Metcalfe. Her dream now is to roll out the concept across the UK, managed by local people in each region.

“We want to see a Musa in every region of the country for their own artists. Yorkshire looks like being the first,” she said. “We started with just this region where we have the artists but we will put art anywhere.”

Musa in the North East is also expanding in a new direction, offering business advice to pre-start-up enterprises. The Consult Musa wing of the business sprang out of work the organisation was already doing, offering business advice to art students.

Business support is not a new area for Carol, who is an enterprise champion for South Tyneside-based Tedco, looking at people’s ideas and considering whether they would make a viable business. She also works with Spectrum – a creative hub for businesses in South Tyneside, and Phema, which works to improve the legal situation for people suffering from domestic abuse.

“I never intended to start a business at all. Then the opportunity fell into my lap,” said Carol. “I have many hats but it all came from Musa. I wouldn’t have dreamt of doing all of this unless I started Musa, because of the confidence it gave me.”

Carol is adept at juggling her enterprises but they are all things she is passionate about – something she believes is essential.

“Money isn’t everything – self satisfaction is bigger than anything else. Go out and do what you love doing every day.”