The collaborative research of the subproject aims to provide knowledge-based abilities to create viable, flexible, and sustainable cultural activities through entrepreneurial organisation.
Background and questions
Culture is offered and practiced within the framework of a variety of organisational forms, ranging from the state to independent art and theater groups. Quite often, it involves non-profit activities, in semi-organised form. For activities to be sustained and for them to be able to develop, and for others to be able to take part of the culture, an increased degree of organisation is required. Creating an organisation and developing it is an important part of entrepreneurship.
For cultural organisations to become financially sustainable over time, some funding is usually required, but we see that public funds for cultural activities are limited. In addition, long-term economic and social sustainability requires that the organisation is not only based on non-profit work and people's free time, but also involves private or public organisations. Thus, in theoretical terms, an entrepreneurial organisation across sector boundaries is required.
We have seen in previous studies that cooperation across sector boundaries – such as the public, private, and non-profit sector – is often a key issue for the organisation of socially beneficial and community-supporting activities. One of the challenges is that the different sectors are organised according to different logics and with different time perspectives. The organisational forms can vary from non-profit and economic associations to sole proprietorship and limited liability companies (sometimes with limited profit distribution). The forms of collaboration with the public sector in turn vary from grant situations to contractual relationships and partnerships. Each of the forms of cooperation is associated with its own problems and opportunities.