CANADIAN BUSINESSES WIN PRESTIGIOUS ARTS AWARDS

For immediate release: Monday, September 29, 2003

Volkswagen, EPCOR and Burnet Duckworth Palmer LLP have won top awards for the arts. These outstanding business sponsors will be presented with National Post Awards for Business in the Arts at a gala dinner in Toronto on October 20th. DuMaurier, Investors Group, Lexus, PARA Paints and TELUS will be honoured as well with Awards of Distinction in this recognition program which is administered by The Council for Business and the Arts in Canada (CBAC).

For the first time in the Awards' 25-year history, an Award of Distinction will also go to a consortium of seven businesses: Framework Partners; Richter, Allan and Taylor; Fraser Milner Casgrain; Communication Incorporated & Jock Osler Communications Inc.; The Development Group and Ipsos Reid will share the honour in recognition of their collaborative efforts to re-structure the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra.

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 150 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 2003 Awards were juried by: Louise Bellingham, Senior Director, Sponsorships, CSR & University Research, Bell Canada (Toronto); John Mayberry, Chairman & CEO, Dofasco Inc., (Hamilton); Jacques MŽnard, Chairman, BMO Nesbitt Burns, (Montreal); Joanne Morrow, Senior Vice-President, Programming, The Banff Centre; and Jeffrey Spalding, Director, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, (Halifax).

Volkswagen Canada (Toronto) has won the Award for Most Innovative Marketing Sponsorship with its title sponsorship of the Toronto International Film Festival's Volkswagen Canadian Short Film Circuit. Seeing the fit between the market for its latest Beetle model and the audience for independent films, Volkswagen put its marketing resources to work and, through the development of film trailers and promotional brochures, increased the audience for the Circuit by 45% within a year. Local dealers in 110 communities in nine provinces tied in their own local marketing efforts, thereby reaching an audience over 320,000 people and effectively overcoming the shortage of screen-time available to Canadian films.

For its 10-year commitment to Calgary's Centre for the Performing Arts, EPCOR (Edmonton) has won the category of Best Arts/Entrepreneur Partnership. The utility decided to underscore its commitment to the Calgary market by providing $400,000 to the Centre annually, in exchange for naming rights. The EPCOR Centre for the Performing Arts is building an endowment with the $4 million, while the company is helping the facility to become a model of energy efficiency in its use of electricity, water and gas. Together they are marketing the performing arts in Calgary, most recently with a joint float in the Stampede Parade.

Calgary is also home to the winner of the Award for Most Effective Corporate Program. Burnet Duckworth Palmer LLP has become the first law firm in the 25-year history of the Business in the Arts Awards to be so honoured. The jury was impressed by the firm's focused approach to supporting a wide range of arts organizations in the city. A list of groups from the Alberta Ballet to the Youth Singers receive financial support, while partners serve on the boards of organizations as varied as One Yellow Rabbit theatre and the EPCOR Centre for the Performing Arts. But it was the decision to become actively involved in marketing, with its title sponsorship of the BD&P World Music Series, that set the firm apart. Its promotional work has helped not only to brand BD&P but also to develop the audience.

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 - one set in the middle of Calgary's 8th Avenue Mall. 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.

The jury also awarded six other winners, each of whom will receive a framed Award of Distinction featuring McElcheran's Businessman with Muse.

In the category of Most Innovative Marketing Sponsorship, Awards of Distinction will go to:

Lexus of Oakville for its support of Oakville Galleries. This dealer has been introducing its new line of luxury vehicles to those attending gallery openings each year, as the exclusive exhibition sponsor of the respected contemporary art gallery located in Ford's home town.
Investors Group for its four-year sponsorship of the Arts Club Theatre's annual provincial tour which involves its dealers from the Lower Mainland to Northern BC, each of whom undertakes local promotions, helping to develop the theatre's audience while enhancing client relationships.

In the category of Most Effective Corporate Program, Awards of Distinction will go to:

duMaurier for its three decades as a risk-taking sponsor of events such as Harbourfront Centre's World Stage Festival. That ground-breaking work with Canada's performing arts community set the stage for its newly-created successor: the Imperial Tobacco Canada Arts Council and Fund.
TELUS for strategically aligning itself with the National Arts Centre when it looked to increase its profile in eastern Canada. By choosing to become the Founding Partner of the NAC's National Youth and Education Trust TELUS extended its support of arts in education from BC to Ontario.

In the category of Best Arts/Entrepreneur Partnership, Awards of Distinction will go to:

PARA Paints for its clever program to "put a little Group of Seven on every Canadian wall". It features 10 well-known works from the McMichael Canadian Collection gallery on colour cards promoting new decorator paint colours drawn from the Group's palette.
A consortium of seven businesses led by Framework Partners Inc., who undertook to re-structure the Calgary Philharmonic and gave new meaning to "arts and business partnerships." Richter, Allan and Taylor; Fraser Milner Casgrain; Communication Incorporated & Jock Osler Communications Inc.; The Development Group and Ipsos Reid put their legal, marketing, financial and strategy skills to work to keep the music playing in their home town.

Arts and business leaders from across the country will be on hand to celebrate when CBAC and National Post present the Awards at a special Tribute Dinner to James Fleck, winner of The Edmund C. Bovey Award, CBAC's award for leadership support of the arts. Designed to recognize individuals who have had the vision to contribute their business leadership in support of the arts, The Edmund C. Bovey Award carries with it a cheque for $20,000 which the winner must give to the arts. This year's Bovey Award recipient has been an active art collector, patron and volunteer since he founded Fleck Manufacturing Inc. in 1954 and went on to have a varied career as a successful businessman, scholar, teacher and public servant. Currently Chair of the Art Gallery of Ontario, Jim Fleck is also director of a number of companies and is Emeritus Professor at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Management.

The Awards celebration on October 20th will be held at the Art Gallery of Ontario. AGF, BMO Financial Group, Financial Models Company, KPMG and Rogers Communications are generously sponsoring the event.

For more information: Sarah Iley or Eileen Love, CBAC : (416) 869-3016