Feature
Issue No. 15 - February/March 2004
The Art of Business
A close business—arts relationship has been the holy grail of many governments down the years, as a way to spread the cultural funding load. In 2000 the federal government formed the Australia Business Arts Foundation to give business—arts partnerships some much—needed direction and support.
AbaF’s approach has been to identify and highlight ways arts organisations can bring real commercial and measurable benefits to the business partners whose support they need. A national organisation, AbaF is business—driven with an impressive list of business advocates both as partners and directly involved as Councillors , including South Australia’s Rick Allert AM, the chairman of Coles Myer and Chair of the SA Chapter.
Living by the principle that innovation and commitment to excellence are key attributes of the arts as well as successful business practice, AbaF works to facilitate, promote and educate partners on both sides of this equation.
The goal is to advise corporations on developing a business case for investing in and supporting the arts and to show them how to find suitable arts partners. Similarly, it is to train arts organisations to prepare and present their business case to prospective partners.
AbaF has developed guides to business case methodology, published as Business Arts Partnerships – a Guide to the Business Case Approach for the Cultural Sector and A Guide to Contracts for Business Arts Partnerships. Both documents are available from AbaF ($30 each).
Every year AbaF holds national awards recognizing the best business arts partnerships and leaders. These examples of ‘getting it right’ have been published in the Gold Book of Business Arts Partnerships, in 2003, 2002 and 2001. A collection of case studies of the best nominations for the AbaF Awards including winners and finalists, this publication is free.
An example of a successful partnership involves Harris Scarfe Australia and Windmill Perform...
