Moses Whyte runs a social enterprise in Walsall. When I asked him if he considered himself to be a cultural entrepreneur, he looked at me quizzically and said perhaps he was. Then laughing, he said anybody could be anything they wanted to be and as long as it didn’t mean paying more taxes then perhaps indeed he was a cultural entrepreneur.

When I embarked on writing this blog entry, I myself was somewhat uncertain as to whether Moses Whyte and his enterprise, the Trelawny Overseas Relief Association UK Ltd. (TORA), fitted into the category of cultural entrepreneur. The confusion came because TORA is essentially a social enterprise. There is no question about its entrepreneurial factor, but the question arose in my mind, can its specific activities of community outreach and involvement be classified as cultural as in the term cultural industries. After carefully unpacking the definition of culture, I decided that it did indeed fit the category.

As Hesmondhalgh asserts (2002:11), the definition of the term cultural industries is surrounded with difficulties. By extension, the term cultural entrepreneur will likewise encounter similar difficulties. It is generally agreed, however, that the cultural industries include television, radio, cinema, newspapers, magazine and book publishing, the music industry, advertising and the performing arts (Hesmondhalgh, 2002:12). Hesdmondhalgh recognises these as the core cultural industries. He also recognises a set of peripheral cultural industries that do not use industrial production methods e.g. theatre, the arts prints industry and fashion. While TORA’s main activities are centred on community advice and outreach (not generally considered cultural industries), it was involved in producing a community newspaper (now defunct) and still is involved in aspects of the peripheral cultural industries i.e. sale of African/Caribbean arts prints and gifts, as well as fashion and is aiming to find funding to get involved in other projects like community/youth theatre. It can therefore legitimately be considered as participating in the cultural industries and by virtue of its business functions can be regarded as a cultural entrepreneur.

Cultural entrepreneurs share several characteristics. In the first instance, they do not fit into neat categories. As outlined in The Independents, cultural entrepreneurs are often “producers, designers, retailers and promoters all at the same time.” (Leadbeater, C. & Oakley, K., 1999:11). This is certainly true of TORA when one stops to scrutinize its many projects, which include a lunch club, retail outlet for African arts and cosmetics, an overseas money transfer agency, a now defunct community newspaper production (Walsall News) and other projects in the pipeline including a school (the nature of which cannot be disclosed at present).

This plethora of projects that TORA operates is also indicative of another feature of cultural entrepreneurs i.e. the project based nature of their businesses as opposed to having one main core activity. (Leadbeater, C. & Oakley, K., 1999:15). In a bid to survive, many cultural entrepreneurs have to be constantly devising new ways to maintain a competitive edge in an increasingly global age where cheap digital technologies are stiffening competition for the greater number of product and service providers entering most markets.

Informal networks through which work is organized is also another trait of many cultural entrepreneurs (Leadbeater, C. & Oakley, K., 1999:11). TORA certainly epitomizes this trait. The organization routinely uses volunteers and relatives/friends of Mr. Whyte and his wife to assist with everyday tasks. Additionally, as Deiniol Morris and Michael Mort of Aargh! Animation found out, TORA also found it difficult to recruit the right sort of manager to run the organization (Leadbeater, C. & Oakley, K., 1999:10). Along with informal working networks, this difficulty in recruiting the right sort of management expertise is often another characteristic of cultural entrepreneurs. In fact, it is often the reason that contributes to the development of the informal networks of work relationships. Several managers have come and left TORA in relatively short periods of time. But recently, the organization has recruited a well-experienced manger, who although he is near retirement, has years of experience within the voluntary sector and so far appears to be doing fairly well in terms of addressing management, organizational and legal issues which had previously been overlooked because of the lack of such management expertise within TORA.

TORA is not small on big ideas. It has a massive business plan, which incorporates many projects. But like many cultural entrepreneurs, the organization has in the past lacked the business skills to hit the ground running with all the ideas to bring about rapid growth. Instead, over its ten-year history it has achieved some growth (recently it moved to larger premises at West Bromwich Street from its smaller offices at number 2 on the same street.) The organization has therefore obviously achieved some success in its operations but it has not realized its full potential because of its previous lack of adequate business management skills. For e.g. there was not an adequate marketing plan in place to sell and distribute the art prints (this is still yet to be done).

contributed by J. Roxborough

Posted on Friday, February 29th, 2008 at 6:13pm.
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