It is a Guggenheim project first.”(UBS
Sponsorship director)
According to Guggenheim, one of the main challenges when it comes to building long term partnerships
with commercial brands… “is melding a corporate culture with a non-profit culture.
We both have similar ideals but we have different ways of approaching things and there are also
some legal issues that we have to negotiate. As a non-profit institution the Guggenheim cannot
be seen as endorsing or promoting a commercial product. (…) The other issue is that Guggenheim
is a corporate-friendly environment for sponsorship but at times it has been seen as too
corporate-oriented and perceived as if corporations are coming in and determining the programming.
But it is really not that at all. It is much more of a collaboration and the programming
is always handled 100% by Guggenheim. So there are two cultures that are coming together
in one project and sometimes it leads to misunderstandings and sometimes there are certain
things that we just cannot do. It is an education process that has to take place with the corporate
sponsor. From the sponsor point of view, those [managers] who have not been working in this
field, which is the case with some of the UBS local offices, say “hey we are giving you all this
money, why can’t we use your logo on our product…”. That is my job, to bridge the gap between
the two different cultures and make sure the corporations are getting what they are expecting
and the Guggenheim is maintaining its artistic independence and legal requirement.” (Guggenheim
Sponsorship director)