Business for the Arts Awards $175,000 to 26 Arts and Cultural Groups

Business for the Arts, Canada’s national association of business leaders who support the arts, has announced the pre-approved artsVest™ participants in Vancouver. artsVest is a sponsorship training and matching incentive program of Business for the Arts and delivered in Vancouver with funding support from Canadian Heritage and the BC Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development. The program’s goal is to assist small- to medium-sized arts and culture organizations in the development of new and mutually beneficial partnerships with local businesses.

Arts and culture organizations in Vancouver were invited to apply for artsVest matching funds in June 2012. Following a jury process and a review of 77 applications, 26 organizations with annual budgets under $1.5 million have been pre-approved for matching incentive grants ranging from $1,400 to $11,500. The organizations have now embarked on campaigns to attract matching sponsorship(s) from the local business community.

For a complete list of organizations, click here.

“We congratulate our 2012-2013 Vancouver participants and are excited about bringing together local businesses and arts and cultural organizations to build long-term partnerships that will ultimately benefit the city’s creative economy,” said Nichole Anderson, President and CEO of Business for the Arts.

Also operating in Ontario, Saskatchewan, Calgary and Winnipeg, the goals of artsVest are to leverage public sector dollars to build partnerships with the arts community; stimulate new business investment in the arts; train arts and cultural organizations through free sponsorship training workshops to approach the business sector with a partnership plan; activate municipal cultural plans and build local cultural assets; and showcase what is possible when business invests in the arts.

Since the inception of the program in 2002 to 2011, 960 businesses have partnered with 305 cultural organizations – 602 of these businesses were first-time sponsors of the arts. A total of $1,675,000 in matching funds generating over $3,457,000 in private sector sponsorship and resulting in an influx of more than $5,124,000 to the cultural economy. For more information on the program, visit www.artsvest.com. 

Founded in 1974, Business for the Arts aims to strengthen arts and culture in Canada by connecting arts organizations to business patrons and volunteers through our artsScene and boardLink programs; by providing arts organizations with matching incentive funds to stimulate business investment and professional development resources to improve their sustainability through artsVest; by communicating the value of investing in the arts through advocacy and research via roundtables and surveys; and by providing a platform for arts organizations to celebrate their outstanding business partners in the arts through the National Awards Gala and media partnerships. For more information, visit www.businessforthearts.org.