A Veteran Auction-House Executive Is Launching a Firm to Serve as a Matchmaker Between Corporations and Museums Looking for Sponsorship

Quick—what was your favorite museum exhibition last year? Now,
can you remember who sponsored it?

This is a simple but telling question that auction-house veteran
Joe Dunning likes to pose to illustrate the limitations of
corporate sponsorship. “Most people can’t remember,” he told Artnet
News. “And sometimes the sponsors themselves can’t remember.”

Enter: Dunning’s new venture Dunning & Partners, a firm that strives to
“make a business’s support of a particular exhibition stand out
above all the others.” The initiative comes at a difficult moment
for museum sponsorship: activists and members of the public no
longer take kindly to seeing companies like BP and other oil and defense
firms underwriting exhibitions. At the same time,
museums—facing dwindling budgets
and steep drops in revenue—need money more than
ever. 

“I’m essentially brokering the
partnerships by working with the arts organizations to identify a
pressing need,” Dunning said. “It’s about matching the right
business and source of funds with the right project.” He expects
that projects will be initiated by both corporations looking for a
way to boost their image and institutions looking for
support. 

Dunning left Sotheby’s, where he worked in business development,
when his contract was up in March (a time when many executives were
departing following the company’s purchase by
Patrick Drahi and cutbacks related to the
shutdown). After a stint at Christie’s, he had joined the
advisory firm Art Agency, Partners just days before it was acquired by
Sotheby’s in early 2016. At the auction house, he liaised
with museums on the annual Sotheby’s
Prize for pioneering exhibitions and realized there were
unexplored opportunities for collaboration between the nonprofit
and for-profit sectors.

The current sponsorship model, he said, “isn’t
particularly tailored” and usually involves sticking the company’s
name in prominent spots and hosting a cocktail party for top
clients. His approach, on the other hand, might involve connecting
museums with businesses that can offer unique insight and expertise
on recovering from the shutdown or help expand access to the
arts. 

Rather than work on commission, Dunning said,
“the businesses I work with pay me for my time”; fees will be
determined on a case by case basis and vary based on the size of
the job. 

Dunning sees this moment—when companies are facing growing
pressure to put people and values before profits—as an opportunity
for museum sponsorship. He cites recent data gathered by Arts Council
England showing that 44 percent of the museum-going audience
are Millennials and Gen Z (ages 18 to 34)—the same audience that
spends money on brands that reflect their values and support causes
they care about, including environmental sustainability, social
justice, equality, and diversity.

“I am arguing that companies should stop thinking of supporting
the arts as a nice-to-have and start thinking about it as part of
their recovery plan and growth strategy,” Dunning said. “Businesses
need to re-establish their relationship with their customers in an
authentic and emotional way, and the way to do this is by
demonstrating their values and supporting something they care
about.”

Though Dunning had been thinking about the venture for the
better part a year, he was forced to reconsider whether it was
still a good idea as museums and companies around the globe were
closing their doors due to the public-health situation. “I wanted
to be sure that my mission was, first of all, still relevant,” he
said.

He ultimately determined that the need to support arts
organizations “remains more pressing than ever because the threat
is more grave” and that “businesses are going to have to do
everything they can to chart a path to recovery that takes account of how their customers have changed.” Ever
the salesman, he added, “for the right businesses, this
could hasten their recovery.”

The post A Veteran Auction-House Executive Is Launching a
Firm to Serve as a Matchmaker Between Corporations and Museums
Looking for Sponsorship appeared first on artnet
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