Good practice:

Baltan Studio

Baltan Studio is the internal design studio of Baltan Laboratories, bringing Baltan philosophy into a commercial offering of tailored products and services. The Studio is the 1:1 way for external clients and partners to interact with Baltan Laboratories. It's a non-conventional studio focused on conceptual and experimental design. It doesn't define itself with predictable outcomes, but it delivers the most appropriate ones, in order to satisfy client's requests. In order to do so, we work with teams of different freelancers (artists, designers, engineers scouted in our network) for different assignments: each team is built around a specific project, depending on the skills needed.

The Studio develops formats and projects to bring the philosophy of Baltan to them in an interesting and relevant way. Through a.o. design projects, workshops, brainstorming and co-creation sessions, lectures, artworks and installations, exhibitions and consultancy.

Baltan Studio and Baltans artistic and concept-driven activities are intertwined in many ways, they share a.o. the multidisciplinary approach at the intersection of art, design, science and technology. Following Baltans philosophy, the Studio is an open-source model to be shared with other (cultural)organisations that are looking into ways to connect/implement artistic project in other context and sectors.

Human resources needed to set up and run the studio: 0.4 - 0.6 FTE for managing the program. Depending on the project the Studio works with teams of different freelancers. Yearly €20.000 for running the Studio, this should be earned back through the assignments.

The projects and programs we develop for partners are received well. The fact that partners often renew their partnership for multiple years shows this as well. Also, we see that clients return with new assignments and appreciate the non-convential approach the Baltan Studio has.

2017: 4 clients, 7 assignments
2018: 4 clients, 9 assignments + showcased projects in (inter)national contexts
2019: 4 clients, 7 assignments + cultural project developed together with client/partner

Highly dependent on the effort and personal attention of the Studio manager; a good internal communication between cultural program and studio is needed; artistic and concept-driven projects require a specific approach to develop them into ways that are relevant for the client/partner.

This methodology could be used and altered for other (cultural)institutions to use and to support artistic and concept-driven projects towards implementation. Within the Studio we developed the expertise to support artistic and concept-driven projects towards implementation, as well as to translate the value and philosophy of a cultural organization into formats that are relevant in other sectors.

It is a way for projects to make the journey from cultural support to being financially more independent, for a cultural lab like Baltan it is an alternative way to fund artistic projects.

Including this knowledge into policy, has the potential to harvest more of the creative power of the arts and put it to use in other sectors and society.