Interview with: Ross Douglas by Michael Coulson

From studying grassland sciences in Pietermaritzburg to promoting international art events may not sound a logical career path, but Ross Douglas, whose Artlogic company organises the Johannesburg Art Fair, makes it sound sensible enough.

Though he didn’t complete that degree, after switching to philosophy and economics Douglas started his career in ecotourism, first in the Okavango and then Mozambique. When Mozambique’s tourism industry was slow to get back off the ground after the 1993 election, Douglas produced a documentary on the demobilisation of Frelimo and Renamo soldiers.

He returned to SA the following year to make documentaries for TV channels like SABC’s 50-50 and National Geographic. When the burgeoning of witless reality TV slashed budgets for more worthy projects, he switched to making commercials and planning the long (and still!) awaited Great SA Film.

This too ran up against budgetary constraints, but educated him in the basics of film production. Deciding on another fresh start, he persuaded William Kentridge to adapt his Soho Ekstein videos as an event with 35mm film production and live music. Presentations in New York, London, Berlin and Milan were a huge success, says Douglas, and emboldened their next venture: Kentridge wanted to stage his successful European production of Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute in SA.

This required major corporate sponsorship. Douglas says he was turned down by Standard Bank, which was heavily involved in its Picasso & Africa exhibition, but was fortunate enough to bump into Paul Harris of FirstRand and Rand Merchant Bank. Banks were then in great shape and RMB, which had for years sponsored annual Starlight Classics concerts, was looking for further arts sponsorships.

Harris as well as being an art collector of note, is also a shareholder in the Everard Read Gallery, so is au fait with both the aesthetic and commercial sides of the art market. In return for branding rights, RMB paid a fee and put up an unsecured interest-

free loan. The production ended up costing R11.5m, and Douglas says “It broke even. We managed to pay RMB back in full – though it took time.”

But, says Douglas, “One-off projects are a terrible business model. You can’t capitalise on them. So though Flute was a success – it sold out in both Jo’burg and Cape Town – we needed a sustainable business model that we could repeat every year.

“We did some research and found that art fairs are popular internationally. An internet search identified 247 worldwide, before we stopped counting. I even went to Delhi to see how the Indian art market, which is estimated at US$750m a year, works.

“It took some time for us to come up with a model that would work locally. Thanks to Harris, First National Bank then came on board as the major sponsor, followed by BMW and Telkom.”

Douglas is not starry-eyed about why corporates sponsor the arts. “They need success at a number of levels. Sponsorship helps build the brand, in terms of both general awareness and social responsibility, and provides an opportunity for interaction with clients.

“But too often in SA delivery doesn’t match up to the promises. The challenge is to keep a contemporary art event going to gain credibility and continuity, and we’re trying to do that.”

He admits that times are hard, but is confident that the 2009 fair will build on this year’s. “There’s no doubt that we’ve grown the market. Six months after the event, one leading Cape Town gallery told us that 70% of his business was coming from people he’d met at the fair.”

But he’s not resting on his laurels. As the Art Fair settles down, it should no longer demand all his time. He’s built up a great data base, and is looking for other ways to exploit it. Nor has he dropped his interest in ecology: his other passion is global warming, and with his partner Cobi Labuschagne he’s started Greenlogic, which he wants to become as important in the local green space as Artlogic is in art.