What Happens to Culture When Brands Become Patrons
Culture

What Happens to Culture When Brands Become Patrons

Traditionally artists rely on galleries, festivals, or cultural institutions for support and funding. These organisations don’t just distribute work, they also act as cultural gatekeepers, deciding what projects are worthy and what work should reach the public. But that model is being rewritten.

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Years of funding cuts have hollowed out the arts ecosystem. In England alone, government funding for the arts fell by 18% between 2010 and 2023, with local authority spending halved since 2009, according to Campaign for the Arts. As institutional support weakens, new patrons have stepped in.

Today, some of the most ambitious cultural patronage comes not from museums or foundations, but from platforms with unimaginable scale. Amazon and Apple commission TV and films through their studio and streaming businesses. Google Arts and Culture digitizes and showcases global art, history, and cultural heritage. WeTransfer’s editorial arm, WePresent, has gone even further, winning an Oscar for The Long Goodbye.

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