Creative Lenses Catalyst Programme Case Study: Truc Sphérique

This case study is one of eight written as part of Creative Lenses (2015-2019), funded by Creative Europe. Truc Sphérique, a non-governmental organisation for contemporary arts and culture, runs three venues in Žilina, Slovakia. The transition it is making is from what one member of the team calls an ‘intuitive economy’ reliant on informal and entrepreneurial ways of working to being a larger organisation able to operate across venues attracting different audiences. What this case tells us is that business model change is a process that impacts across organisations, including on staff and volunteers who may have limited involvement in decision making yet who are implicated in change. Lived experience of Slovakia’s recent political history means this is an organisation with strong core values and where a preference for autonomy over structure informs all aspects of how the organisation functions. This case discusses differences in how the team understands these values and how it approaches conflicts.