The arts can be more than “condiments” such as welfare policies or marketing opportunities for businesses. They can become an engine for innovation and development in an organization, a group of academics and businessmen claimed Tuesday.

They urged more Korean organizations to adopt “artistic intervention,” which involves artists at all levels, from human resources management to strategic planning and business development, at firms and organizations.

“Arts can engage people with mind, emotions and body. It is different from other business innovation tools that usually involve the head,” said professor Arian Antal from Cultural Sources of Newness of Social Science Research Center Berlin.

“Artists perceive what business consultants define as resistance and negativity as a challenge and a new source of energy,” she said.

For example, at Volvo Technology, aural artists joined engineers and behavioral scientists in developing a wholly different horn.

“Artists are not afraid to provoke people with a fresh perspective. They keep asking ‘why’ and ‘how,’ which drives people deep down,” said Pia Areblad, founder of TILLT, a Swedish organization responsible for dispatching artists to Volvo. “Art is all about questioning the reason for existence and when it is applied to business, it creates a fresh aspect,” said Arantxa Mendiharat, the organizer of the Silam project.

Hundreds of similar projects are being conducted in Europe at the moment and a joint promotion and research body, “Creative Clash,” was established in 2009.

“For the past 50 years the world has been focusing on the technical side of an organization but studying the human model through arts will bring complete side of a business,” said Giovanni Schiuma, director of Innovation Insights Bub at the University of the Arts London.

He explained that artists can develop a new communication tool or routes among workers and bring them unity at the lowest level, explore the products and come up with improvements or innovation as they proceed.

Korea is keen on the rather new subject. The Culture Ministry has initiated a study into artistic intervention with the Korea National University of Arts and created the Arcom, a pilot body marrying business and art.

The Ministry is also hosting the Artistic Intervention in Organization in Creative Economy forum on Wednesday to discuss the future of arts and business.

Businesses have been responsive. Nexon, the country’s largest online game developer, has established an in-house educational institution to provide its workers with art programs to nurture their creativity, while Seoul National University Hospital has invited a dramatist to create a musical about its nurses and allow them take part in the play to relieve stress.

“We are still the early stage of artistic intervention in Korea,” admitted Jeon Su-hwan, head of the KNUA’s Industry Academy Cooperation Foundation. “But one thing that is clear is that the government, businesses and artists understand that art should be able to provide something practical to the business industry instead of just depending on sponsorship from it,” he added. “It will also be a good means of living for artists willing to explore the business territory, something they never really cared about.”

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)