Have you ever heard of the imagination age? Well, it seems that it is the age that will eventually follow the information age. The theory predicts a shift from a global economy based on information and technology to an economy based on imagination and creativity. During the imagination age, the value of creative reasoning and emotional intelligence will supersede that of analytical thinking. Interestingly, some people believe that the imagination age has already begun. Economists are spotting economic trends favoring jobs related to the creative sector over jobs related to technology. Architecture, design, music, film, performing arts, games, writing, and media are gradually becoming the primary makers of economic value.
If this theory proves to be correct, then the creative sector must get ready to embrace the age of imagination with a better understanding of entrepreneurial tools, skills, and jargon.
In this piece, I will be conversing with dancer, designer, and entrepreneur, Romy Assouad, who managed to mold all her passions into one entity: Yaraqa.
Yaraqa is a socio-cultural enterprise that aims to strengthen the business and entrepreneurial skills of dance professionals in Lebanon, through creative productions, incubation labs, and development programs.
In what follows, Romy will help us untangle some entrepreneurial dialect, to understand what, in her experience, are the useful entrepreneurial tools for creative practitioners.
I find it difficult to equate Art & Culture with the term product. Can you give us some tangible examples of cultural products created within Yaraqa‘s framework, and what kind of marketplaces do they fit into?
Since the inception of Yaraqa in 2014, we have been experimenting with and piloting cultural products in collaboration with dance professionals and other industry experts within the framework of our Incubation Lab. While it is common to find artistic residencies in the dance sectors, spaces that allow for both artistic and strategic explorations are almost non-existent. In my experience, turning ideas into cultural products that make it to the market successfully means finding the sweet spot between 1- a high artistic value, 2- desirability within a specific audience, 3- and long-term sustainability. Strategic exploration is a very interesting creative process that involves: brainstorming, problem-solving, trial & error, and collaboration with the right technical support and a nurturing business environment.
So far, we have successfully created and launched several cultural products, namely: And So We Move, a series of workshops in nature; A City in Motion, a series of performative city walks; Together We Walk, an immersive installation; our most recent product is called Loophole, a short psychological thriller which is currently in the making.
Perhaps, the most notable of our cultural products is Glimpses of a Future. Designed and piloted in our Incubation Lab with the support of the Drosos Foundation, Glimpses of a Future is an eight-episode docu-series targeting film, dance, writing enthusiasts, and anyone who has felt the need and urgency to reimagine their future in these times of uncertainty caused by the global pandemic. When the series was piloted on social media, it received a positive reception from a diverse range of viewers, many of whom do not usually watch dance, yet felt compelled to watch the series, as the content resonated with them on many levels. This validation drove us to go beyond the dance market and target the anthology of the short films market, which eventually landed the series on the Netflix regional and worldwide network.
Amazing! As you mentioned, problem-solving seems to be a key entrepreneurial quality or skill. Why, in your opinion, is it necessary for artists and creative practitioners to solve problems?
When it comes to artists, I would frame problem-solving differently. I would say problem-solving is the practice of thinking, from the early stages of the creation process, about the specific audience that the artists are targeting, and the needs/desires of this target audience.
Granted that, for many artists, the starting point of a creation is usually their own needs or desires, in which case the search becomes more about locating the right audience who shares the same needs or desires, rather than fixating on a specific audience profile. I would even say that engaging with the audience proactively from the beginning would be beneficial since it raises awareness and helps the artist to see where their audience truly stands.
In all scenarios, creating with an audience in mind allows artists to work less in a bubble, contextualizes their work, and sometimes provides interesting constraints or insights to the creative process. It also corrects or confirms assumptions they might have because a lot of intuition goes into the creative process, after all.
And finally, what matters the most, is that this practice ensures that the audience does not come in at the last stages of production when it is time to launch to market or sell a creative work. This phase is when artists often begin to struggle, whether by feeling like the work is being compromised or not reaching the audience in the first place. So by factoring in the audience perspective early on during the creation process, artists increase the chances of their audience showing up and responding when the product launches. And as such, artists can ensure the satisfaction, impact, or financial compensation they are looking for.
Since you are versed in entrepreneurial activities, could you explain to us in lay terms what a business model is and how can artists and creative practitioners apply this tool to their practices?
First off, I want to stress that business models are useful not only to for-profit entities and institutions but also to individual artists and independent projects/products. With this in mind, a business model is a mapping of all the components professionals need to think about to make sure they continue to create value in the long run. What I like about business modelling is that it allows professionals to look at their work, aka business, from a bird’s eye view, and experiment with the different pieces that constitute their work until they find the right combination, aka model. This allows them to be as sustainable, impactful and satisfying as they want to be. In the dance sector, when artists launch a project they focus mostly on the internal backend work (partners, team, activities, resources, and costs), then feel overwhelmed when they start thinking about the frontend, things like, who they are targeting, how to reach them, how to diversify the way they cover their expenses. But when they manage to look at both the frontend and the backend together, and the interplay between them, many decisions change, especially on the backend side of the project. The business model can reveal this dynamic without having to go into a more detailed format, like business plans, while remaining highly strategic. And most importantly, this dynamic allows the artists to visualize a sustainable cycle between the frontend and the backend to ensure they do not burn their human, technical, or financial resources, throughout the project’s lifetime.
Speaking about finances and burnouts, often artists get consumed by their passion for the projects they carry to the point where they neglect their financial well-being. How can creative practitioners diversify their revenue streams?
To be able to cover all project expenses, artists have proven to be quite creative in finding funding resources: whether monetary or in-kind, whether contributed funds – such as grants, sponsorships, philanthropic contributions, or self-funding. Yet earned income, or financial returns received in exchange for delivering a service or selling a product is the least explored resource stream among creative practitioners.
More often than not, artists have skills and know-how they do not realize would be valuable for other sectors and industries. As such, there are so many missed opportunities of diversification that would increase their earned income. That could work in different ways, whether by identifying potential new products or services, or re-evaluating the pricing model of their current products/services, or creating new by-products – aka secondary products – from their current products/services or even bundling existing products/services together into new products.
Partnerships & Collaborations
CATAPULT.body program is a recent partnership between Yaraqa and the British council Lebanon. In the program brief, you state that it aims to support dance professionals to adapt and upskill, to recognize what ecosystem and surroundings they require to sustain themselves and their art, and to aid them in expanding their network of collaborators across the value chain and across industries. Can you tell us more about the program?
In light of the current context in Lebanon, it’s become increasingly necessary for dance professionals in Lebanon to access opportunities for growth and development. Looking at the rapidly changing reality worldwide, it’s also absolutely crucial for them to have the space to identify what the sustainability of their practice even looks like!
And so we launched the program in December 2021 with an online study that is still ongoing. The study is an invitation for every professional working in Lebanon (regardless of their nationalities) and every Lebanese living abroad to participate in. It’s like an evaluation of where they currently stand in their practice, where they are stuck, and which areas of expertise they must explore to advance their work.
We had great rates of participation and incredibly insightful contributions so far – people carved time out of their lives to reflect and participate! Their input helped in designing the first component of the program that will take place in March 2022.
The study is ongoing and every contribution will help shape the future components of this program to ensure the program is relevant to their needs and ambitions. To know more about the program, participate in the study or stay up to date with announcements of the first component, you can refer to our website page as well as follow our social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn)!
By: Jana Al Obeidyine, a dancer, writer and independent publisher based in Beirut- Lebanon.
Copyright Photos: Yaraqa