ArtDayMe‌ : Dr. Mohammadreza Hoseinzadeh, CEO of Eghtesad Novin Bank:

Economic development cannot be measured solely through growth figures, investment levels, trade volumes, the expansion of physical infrastructure, or increased production capacity.

The economy, before being a collection of numbers and indicators, takes shape within the context of a society—a society that must possess the capacity for creativity, innovation, dialogue, trust, and envisioning the future. For this reason, the deeper and more long-term our understanding of development becomes, the more the position of culture and art shifts from a marginal and decorative domain to a serious component of the architecture of development.

Today, the question of “What is the relationship between art and the economy?” is no longer a new one. Economic studies and experiences around the world have demonstrated that cultural and creative industries are not merely producers of cultural value; they also generate employment, income, innovation, and social capital, with their effects spilling over into various sectors of the economy.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in its reports on culture and creative industries, has also explicitly emphasized that financing culture should not be regarded merely as an expense, but rather as a form of investment with direct and indirect economic and social impacts.

This shift in perspective is highly significant. If culture is regarded as an expense, it is natural that during the first periods of economic pressure, its budgets and resources would be among the first to be reduced. But if culture is understood as part of the capital of development, the logic of decision-making changes.

From this perspective, museums, galleries, artworks, artists, exhibitions, and even the formation of an art collection are not merely cultural subjects; they are part of an ecosystem capable of contributing to job creation, the circulation of capital, tourism development, improved quality of life, enhanced urban appeal, and the emergence of new ideas.

Art also possesses another important characteristic: its social reach extends far beyond its direct economic scale.

An artwork can simultaneously engage with the economy, identity, memory, education, a sense of belonging, and a society's vision of the future. Art can translate into a tangible language for society what cannot be measured through statistics and economic reports. Perhaps this is why a society needs more than financial capital to build its future; it also needs cultural capital.

For a region experiencing extensive economic, urban, and social transformations, this issue becomes even more significant.

In parts of the Middle East, the scale of investment, the pace of urban development, the expansion of tourism, the emergence of new economic centers, and growing connections with the global economy have created a new image of the future. Yet for any form of development to endure, something beyond buildings, capital, and technology is required: a vibrant and dynamic cultural ecosystem.

The major economies of the future will not be built solely by attracting capital; they will be built by creating environments in which capital can connect with creativity, knowledge, quality of life, and identity.

A city without museums, galleries, art spaces, and a creative community may develop physically, but it will face challenges in becoming a lasting cultural and economic destination. For this reason, culture and art can no longer be separated from policies related to urban development, tourism, innovation, entrepreneurship, and even economic branding.

Global data also emphasize the role of cultural spaces in urban vitality, city branding, and making cities attractive places to live and visit.

But within this context, one group can play an even more decisive role than before: banks and major economic enterprises.

Banks in any economy are not merely intermediaries between deposits and loans. They are part of the mechanisms of trust, investment, and shaping the economic future of society. It is therefore natural that their relationship with culture can extend beyond occasional support and corporate social responsibility.

When a bank enters the field of art with a long-term perspective, it can carry several meanings simultaneously: supporting artists, preserving contemporary cultural heritage, developing the art market, expanding public access to artworks, strengthening professional collecting, and, on a broader level, contributing to the formation of an economic ecosystem around art.

This is precisely where the distinction between “being an art patron” and “being an actor in the art economy” begins to emerge.

Financial support for an exhibition is a valuable undertaking. But creating and preserving an art collection over the course of years, recording and documenting artworks, acquiring works by artists, establishing exhibition spaces, publishing books, producing contemporary content series, and creating opportunities for the collection to be seen by society define another level of responsibility.

In this context, an economic enterprise is no longer merely allocating resources to art; rather, it is introducing part of its capital into a cycle in which cultural and economic value can emerge alongside one another.

Of course, art should not be measured solely by the criterion of financial profit. In fact, one of the most important differences between cultural capital and financial capital is that its returns do not always appear on a balance sheet.

The impact of an art collection may emerge through increased public trust, the strengthening of organizational identity, the preservation of cultural memory, the creation of connections between generations, or the introduction of artists from a particular historical period. These are values that may not be expressible through a single number in the short term, but in building a sustainable society, their importance is no less significant than financial returns.

From another perspective, this approach can also be transformative for the art economy itself. One of the structural challenges facing cultural and creative sectors is difficulty in accessing financial resources.

Numerous studies have also pointed to characteristics such as the project-based nature of cultural activities, the high proportion of small businesses, and the absence of traditional assets that can serve as collateral—factors that make access to conventional financial resources difficult for those active in these fields.

Therefore, developing financial instruments tailored to the creative economy could become one of the important paths that banks and financial institutions pursue in the future.

In other words, the future relationship between banking and art will not be limited to purchasing paintings. We can envision a future in which banks contribute to the formation of more professional art markets; appropriate financial instruments are designed for artists and creative-economy professionals; corporate collecting expands; private exhibitions and museums have greater opportunities to operate; and major economic capital, rather than circulating exclusively through traditional sectors of the economy, allocates part of its capacity to the creative economy.

This development would not benefit art alone. The economy would benefit as well. Through its inherently creative nature, art can contribute to innovation; give cities identity and appeal; generate cultural tourism; and transform the relationship between an economic enterprise and society from a purely commercial interaction into a more human and profound connection.

On this intellectual foundation, the connection between culture, innovation, employment, local development, and the attractiveness of places becomes a driver of development.

From this perspective, perhaps our definition of investment also needs to become somewhat broader. Investment is not limited to building factories, purchasing equipment, or developing construction projects. Sometimes investment means contributing to the creation of a society in which creativity has the opportunity to flourish. It means preserving something that, if we fail to protect it today, may no longer be possible to restore tomorrow.

Banks and major economic enterprises can play a historic role at this juncture. They have access to resources, communication networks, credibility, and the power to create new flows of capital. If part of this capacity enters culture and art intelligently and over the long term, the outcome will not simply be a few more exhibitions or richer art collections; it can contribute to the formation of cultural infrastructure that benefits the economy and society as a whole over time.

From such a perspective, art is no longer a guest in the economy; it is part of the economy's home.

Perhaps more importantly, economic development can no longer be conceived without attention to the cultural quality of society. Development that builds more buildings but produces less imagination, attracts more capital but creates less social capital, or generates greater wealth while losing its connection with a society's identity and culture ultimately loses part of the meaning of development.

Sustainable development takes place when financial capital can move alongside human capital and cultural capital. Art is one of the most important points of connection between these three forms of capital.

_ The Novin Collection Exhibition

The “Novin Collection” exhibition can be viewed within this framework. Coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the establishment of Eghtesad Novin Bank, a selection of works from Novin Gallery was displayed for the first time at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. The event presented 25 works from the collection physically, while the complete collection was also made accessible to the public through a photo-video presentation.

The collection, whose formation dates back to the establishment of Novin Gallery in 2006, now encompasses more than one hundred artworks. The publication of the second edition of the collection's book was also part of this ongoing journey.

The significance of this event lies not merely in the presentation of a number of artworks at one of the most important museums of modern and contemporary art in the region. Its more important achievement was the public accessibility of a portion of the cultural capital that had been developed within an economic institution.

The display of the Novin Collection at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art demonstrated that corporate banking collections can extend beyond their organizational environment and enter into a broader dialogue with artists, gallery owners, experts, enthusiasts, and society.

Perhaps the most valuable achievement of such an event is precisely this: transforming the relationship between the economy and art from a theoretical concept into a tangible experience, and demonstrating that when economic capital is invested in culture with a long-term perspective, it can also help shape part of society's cultural future.