Coast to Coast Winners of Prestigious Arts Awards

Alcan, Orlick Industries and Investors Group have been named the winners of awards for outstanding business sponsors. They will be presented with National Post Business in the Arts Awards at a gala dinner in Halifax on October 11th. Another company, HSBC Securities, will also be honoured with an Award of Distinction in this recognition program which is administered by The Council for Business and the Arts in Canada (CBAC).

The Business in the Arts Awards recognize businesses that have formed remarkable partnerships with Canadian arts organizations, effectively serving community needs while meeting corporate objectives. This prestigious national awards program was created in 1978 as a partnership between The Financial Post and The Council for Business and the Arts in Canada (CBAC), the national business association committed to increasing private sector support of the arts through its leadership. Over the history of the Business in the Arts Awards over 165 businesses have been honoured - businesses large and small, working in a variety of industries in communities across Canada

To be eligible to win, businesses must be nominated by an arts organization. An independent panel of judges drawn from business and the arts then adjudicates the nominations and selects the winners in each of three categories: Most Effective Corporate Program, Best Arts/Entrepreneur Partnership and Most Innovative Marketing Sponsorship.

The 2005 Awards were juried by: Denise Carpenter, Senior Vice-President, Public and Government Affairs for EPCOR Utilities Inc. (Edmonton); Doreen Malone, General Manager of Neptune Theatre (Halifax); Linda Mackenzie, Senior Manager, Donations and Sponsorships for Sun Life Financial (Toronto) and Paul Lowenstein, Chairman, Northbridge Equity Partners Inc. (Montreal) who is also a director of CBAC.

The jury acclaimed Alcan as the outright winner of the Most Effective Corporate Program category for the creation and sustenance of the Alcan Performing Arts Award for British Columbia - the largest award of its kind in Canada. For each of the past six years Alcan has provided $60,000 to the Vancouver East Cultural Centre to select a BC-based arts company working in music/opera, dance or theatre to create new work. Alcan has renewed its support of the juried prize for a further three years making its total commitments $540,000 to date. The award is unusual in that it is not meant to "reward an artist's history but to encourage artistic futures", a fact that Premier Gordon Campbell lauds, saying the Alcan Award "gives new generations of British Columbia's most talented artisans and performers the financial reward for reaching new levels of excellence in their discipline."

In the category of Most Innovative Marketing Sponsorship, the jury declared another BC company as the Award winner. Investors Group's Pacific division has long had a relationship with the Arts Club Theatre, as production and tour sponsor, and last year they approached the theatre with another idea: to host a performance for volunteers during National Volunteer Week, which the company was sponsoring nationally - and they wanted to leverage regionally. Choosing the production of Carol Shield's Unless, the company hosted 200 volunteers from a range of Vancouver charities - thereby introducing many to the theatre for the first time.

Orlick Industries' strategic support of the Art Gallery of Hamilton earned it recognition as the Award Winner in the category of Best Arts/Entrepreneur Partnership. Seven years ago the gallery was faced with enormous financial challenges, Orlick stepped in and said it would sponsor free admission to the gallery. At the end of the first year, with Orlick's help in marketing and promoting attendance, not only had visitations doubled, voluntary donations at the door actually exceeded the amount of paid admissions the year before. The gallery's fortunes have since turned around, but the company has continued to provide this support, extending it to cover free Friday admissions for specially ticketed exhibitions. As juror Paul Lowenstein said, "As a member of the board of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, I can tell you every museum could use such a sponsor!"

Each of the three Award winners will receive a bronze sculpture created by the late William McElcheran, an internationally renowned Canadian artist who left an artistic legacy of whimsical bronze businessmen. In their look-alike suits and hats, toting briefcases, McElcheran's sculpted businessmen have found their way into public and private collections in North America, Europe and Japan.

As the winner of an Award of Distinction HSBC Securities will receive a framed certificate featuring McElcheran's Businessman with Muse. The jury singled out HSBC in the category of Most Innovative Marketing Sponsorship, for its astute sponsorship of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra - which reaches the same elite market that HSBC wants to attract and nurture, and shares the same characteristc of "punching above its weight".

In the category of Best Arts/Entrepreneur Partnership, Office Interiors Group of Halifax will be publicly presented with the Award of Distinction that it won last year but was unable to pick up at the ceremony held in Vancouver. Led by the example of CEO Jim Mill's active involvement as a director and, later, Board President, of Neptune Theatre, the Group's employees have taken on the creation and production of annual fund raising events for the theatre. Over the past few years the company has raised over $100,000 for the theatre, in addition to its own provision of time, talent and products, for which it will be, fittingly, recognized in its own home town.

Arts and business leaders from across the country will be on hand when the Awards are presented in Halifax on October 11th at a gala dinner designed to not only celebrate the Business in the Arts Award Winners, but also to pay tribute to the winner of the annual The Edmund C. Bovey Award for leadership support of the arts. David Fountain, the President of Halifax-based Longwood Investments, is the 15th winner of this prestigious national award which is intended to recognize individuals who have had the vision to contribute their business leadership in support of the arts. (See "Halifax Arts Philanthropist Wins National Arts Award")