ABSA’s annual awards for business and the arts, now with the Financial Times as principal sponsor, were presented on July 3 by actress, Diana Rigg at Shakespeare’s recreated Globe Theatre in London. Thirty five companies were shortlisted for the ten awards from 450 entries, with a new award for sponsorship of the arts in a European country, won by Creditanstalt. Winners of the main awards included:
best use of a commission of new art: CDT Design at the Tate Gallery;
first time sponsor: Lilt for Notting Hill Carnival;
increasing access to the arts: Scottish Power for the Royal Scottish National Orchestra
single project: Glaxo Wellcome at the National Gallery
strategic programme: BT.
In addition a manager at Microsoft won the Business in the Arts awards for adviser of the year. Contact Paul Brown, ABSA, on 0171 378 8143
TAKING ARTS TO WORK
Companies will be encouraged to bring the arts into the workplace, stimulating creativity and building teams as well as providing entertainment, under a new initiative led by Andrew Stone, joint managing director of Marks & Spencer. Arts at Work aims to generate new audiences and new money for the arts and is being promoted by ABSA which is seeking 20 corporate sponsors of ?20,000 each to mark its 20th birthday. Contact Chris Thompson, ABSA, on 0171 378 8143
SPONSORING THE EARTH
The first phase of the new Earth Galleries at the Natural History Museum were officially opened on July 17 by national heritage secretary, Virginia Bottomley MP. The ?12 million project has been achieved with support of ?1 million from The RTZ-CRA Group and ?6 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The new exhibitions show how the forces of nature have shaped the earth and a key objective is education, with some 200,000 school children visiting the museum every year. Contact Karen Gorham, RTZ-CRA, on 0171 930 2399
COSTLY HERITAGE
English Heritage and the National Trust are seeking private finance to build and operate a visitor centre at Stonehenge big enough to cope with nearly two million tourists a year. Of the estimated cost of ?65 million, half will be sought from the lottery-funded Millennium Commission. The plan also involves closing a main road and improving the 4,000 acre site. Contact Moya Tosh, English Heritage, on 0171 973 3250
RICH PICKINGS
Prudential has revised its annual Awards for the Arts, the most generous in Britain, with total prize money increased by a fifth to ?300,000. The shortlist for the 1996 awards is being announced in August with the finals due in October. Contact Peter Barker, Prudential, on 0171 548 3735
YOUNG WRITERS
The 1996 W H Smith Young Writers’ Competition received over 30,000 entries from which were chosen the 33 winners at the prize giving on July 4 in London. The competition has run since 1959, with sponsorship from W H Smith since 1977. Contact Lois Beeson, WH Smith Schools Projects, on 0171 824 5456
EDINBURGH RECORD
The Edinburgh International Festival has achieved a 25% increase in corporate sponsorship and donations, raising a record ?1.3 million. Seven sponsors have also won Pairing Awards, including Standard Life and Mitsubishi Electric. Contact Ann Monfries, EIF, on 0131 226 4001
TELEVISED SINGING
Twenty four choirs have been shortlisted for the 1996 Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year competition from among the 260 who applied. Over 10,000 singers took part in 17 auditions. Now in its twelfth year, the finals are broadcast on BBC TV. Contact Marah Winn-Moon, Sainsbury’s, on 0171 921 0147
Comment
When ABSA started 20 years ago, arts sponsorship was estimated as just ?600,000. Today the estimate is ?82 million, a growth rate worthy of a truly creative accountant. As with wider community involvement, the trend from purely philanthropic to a mixed market, with business benefits and clear outputs, has not dented growth, rather led to greater professionalism.
The next 20 years will not be so easy. Competition for corporate funds is intensifying. In the arts and heritage, unlike charities, what the lottery gives to one project it takes away from another by requiring matched funding. Moreover the greater pressure on companies about the environment, education, employment standards, et al the more the arts drop down the pecking order of public concerns, showing up in the attitude surveys now routinely used to guide corporate priorities.
So it is astute of ABSA to be moving more into the mainstream community involvement agenda, especially employee involvement, through Arts at Work and Business in the Arts. But let’s have a two-way street. Is it not time for a comprehensive CCI annual awards scheme, as prestigious and well patronised by the corporate great and good as was ABSA’s bash last month at the Globe?
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