Exploring Models for Arts Education Social Enterprises

A team of six SIPA students was tasked by the Brilliant International Group (BiG), a Taiwanese company with an expertise in the publishing and media industries and active in Corporate and Social Responsibility CSR) initiatives, to design a self-sustainable Social Enterprise model to advance the company’s mission and ambition in achieving social innovation. As BiG’s business is expanding to different continents, their vision for the future Social Enterprise goes beyond the boundary of Taiwan. They want a model that is adaptable and culturally fitting in multiple social contexts. To help fulfill the client’s ambition, the SIPA team conducted intensive research on best practices of CSR and Social Enterprise in selected geographies, namely Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region, based on which two preliminary models were proposed, with one focusing on promoting social innovation via creative education and the other on creating change through change makers. Taking advantage of being located in New York City and having access to vast resources, the team conducted field research by interviewing various organizations in NYC whose activities are related to BiG’s social missions. The findings from the field research enriched the proposed models and provided valuable, practical and tested tips and lessons learned from experienced professionals and institutions. Finally, the team developed actionable field trial plans for BiG to test the models in Taiwan, and suggested future research ideas to make the models fully implementable and adaptable to be expanded in other geographical and cultural environments.