When business is a Blast
“Sometimes you look around and everyone looks like people you have to feed.” Business director Kirsty Jennings discusses the inner workings of Blast Theory at Spark.
Behind every artist is a good business director, or at least that’s the case for UK-based Blast Theory.
The company, run by three artists, looks for funding where it can in order to get its work out to an audience.
Pulling the strings is business director Kirsty Jennings, who spoke about her role and dished the do’s and don’ts of creating a successful business in art at the Wintec Spark Festival this week.
Blast Theory uses a range of interactive media across different mediums, like film, performance, and apps.
Jennings said finding funding for each project can be a challenge, so it is important to search for opportunities and encourage collaboration.
“It about finding new models that work. Like touring used to be a way of making money and it isn’t any more, so it’s looking at what we can do and how that landscape changes.”
The company, which is marking its 25th year, is onto its 72nd project and is supported by a range of funding like commissions, grants, sponsorships, research partnerships, crowdfunding, and donations.
Her role, which covers areas of business strategy, marketing, finance, creative producing, support for artists, and oversight of a project, can be stressful.
“You’re always doing about 10 times more jobs than you should be doing and that’s really hard,” she said.
Jennings said being responsible for artists’ future income also sometimes freaks her out.
“Sometimes you look around and everyone looks like people you have to feed.
“And sometimes your brain physically hurts when you’re switching between too many projects in the day.”
Jennings, who has been with the company since 2012, said that the three artists were not getting proper wages until 10 years into the launch of Blast Theory, so they lived off of their part-time job to get by.
She says that Blast Theory history shows that over time if you keep at it and grow a business mindset you can do well in your chosen field.
“I think it is having that stamina to keep going and building it [your brand] so that it becomes a company.”
This is the first time Jennings has been to New Zealand and she is looking forward to seeing more of the country.
