Transition year students Casey Swaine, Caitlin Tucker and Csenge Horvath of CBS Westland Row at the launch of photographic exhabition titled ‘Docklands Story Walks’. Picture Conor McCabe Photography.

Walkers and Business to Arts have announced the ‘Walkers Stories from the Docklands Photography Competition’. Walkers staff, family members, and students from local schools in the Dublin Docklands area are eligible to enter.

The deadline for entry is 5pm on Wednesday 6th February 2019.

The winning photographs will be displayed in the new Walkers offices in the IFSC and each winner will receive a professionally produced and mounted copy of their image. Additionally, voucher prizes will be given to category winners.

There are three competition categories for people to enter:

• Children of Walkers staff/Students 11 years and under
• Children of Walkers staff/Students 12 to 18 years of age
• Walkers Staff

The competition looks to find great images, which focus on the themes of community, neighbourhood, work and play. For further details and to enter, please click here.

This project builds on the Walkers Photographer-in-Residence programme which is now its second year. In February 2018, Irish photographer Kate Nolan was announced as the Walkers Photographer-in-Residence. The residency includes a series of workshops, where Kate has introduced documentary photography to CBS Westland Row transition year students through ‘story walks’ of the Docklands. The residency supports Business to Arts’ wider programme of activity, which promotes the Arts collaboratively with businesses, artists, audiences and communities.

Garry Ferguson, Managing Partner, Walkers commented:
‘We are immensely proud to support this initiative as an extension of our successful Photographer-in-Residence programme which is a key part of the annual CSR calendar at Walkers. The Docklands is an historic, vibrant and diverse area of Dublin City Centre and we look forward to seeing it captured in the photographs submitted for competition.’

Andrew Hetherington, Chief Executive, Business to Arts stated:
‘As our Docklands Arts Fund programme continues to expand, we are delighted to build on our partnership with Walkers on this new photography competition. Taking the beautiful backdrop of Dublin Docklands as inspiration, we look forward to seeing staff family and student entries that focus on community, neighbourhood and work life in the local area’.

Andrew Hetherington with Aibhlínn Doheny, Music Generation Student from Portlaoise, Sean McGrath, Allianz CEO & Rosaleen Molloy, Music Generation National Director. Picture: Robbie Reynolds

Today, Allianz and Business to Arts published the 2018 Arts, Festivals and Music Sponsorship – Summary Report, following on from the success of the recent 27^th Allianz Business to Arts Awards held at Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in September. The annual report, launched at the Irish Film Institute (IFI), was published by Business to Arts from data supplied by sponsorship and marketing managers from the corporate and cultural sector during the 2018 Allianz Business to Arts Awards campaign. This report adds to the membership organisation’s research and insight services providing an enhanced layer of insight and analysis for sponsors, rights holders and the public about this segment of the sponsorship market.

The report looks at sponsorship objectives that differentiate the arts, festivals and music over other types of sponsorship areas. It looks at sponsorships that are both one-off event relationships or multi-annual partnerships; sponsorship spend between 2017 and 2018, as well as anticipated spend in 2019; methods used to activate relationships and how success is measured.

Key outputs include:

• Sponsors would choose an arts sponsorship over another type of sponsorship because it increases awareness of an organisations brand (80%); engages staff (78%) or creates unique events/experiences for a variety of stakeholders (78%) than other types of sponsorship
• The most popular forms of activating sponsorships in the arts, festivals and music include branded signage, PR, printed literature, advertising (88%), digital campaign’s (72%) and staff engagement activities (67%)
• Sponsors surveyed report that in 2019, 42% will increase their spend
• All respondents were asked to nominate brands that they feel are best-in-class in their engagements with culture, and Accenture, Audi, Dublin Airport, ESB/Electric Ireland, Bord Gáis Energy are among those identified

Andrew Hetherington, Chief Executive of Business to Arts stated:

“It is vital and encouraging, to see that 92% of respondents say that their sponsorship spend will remain the same or increase in 2019. The data analysed reflects a degree of mixed sentiment in the arts, festival and music sponsorship market, particularly as Brexit fast approaches. Trends point to an increase in staff engagement and digital activation of creative partnerships.  In 2019, we look forward to working with our partners to broker, enable and support partnerships.”

Sean McGrath, Chief Executive of Allianz Ireland, said:

“As title sponsor of the Allianz Business to Arts Awards we are delighted to partner the publication of the Arts, Festivals and Music Sponsorship – Summary Report 2018.  We welcome its many insights on the significant collaboration benefits generated when our business and artistic communities collaborate – not just for themselves, but for their communities and for society at large.  Business to Arts is to be commended for brokering, enabling and supporting these partnerships and for having the foresight to collect and publish the experiences, learnings and insights of those who have successfully participated in the 2018 projects.”    

Read the report here.

Andrew Hetherington, Máire Carroll, Crash Ensemble, & Shane Hennessy with Bill Whelan. Picture Jason Clarke

For the fifth event of our 30th Anniversary year, we collaborated with Bank of Ireland, partner of Fundit.ie to celebrate our three-year sponsorship. The event showcased performances by successful Fundit.ie project creators Máire Carroll, Shane Hennessy and Crash Ensemble. The highlight of the evening was the world premiere of ‘Educo’ composed by renowned composer Bill Whelan to mark the occasion.

Bill was inspired by our “advocacy work and the mentoring role Business to Arts plays in an artist’s career”. Through support and training, we encourage artists to discover their own potential and artistic expression. In this composition, the guitar stands for the artist and the piano represents the support that can stimulate and inspire. The piece was composed for pianist Máire Carroll, guitarist Shane Hennessy, & members of Crash Ensemble. What connects these artists is the fact they have used Fundit.ie to fund a project.

Here are some thoughts from Andrew on the occasion:

“Over the last three years, we have had a partnership with Bank of Ireland on our crowdfunding website Fund it. It has included sponsorship of the website and a national programme of crowdfunding clinics at Bank of Ireland workbenches. This investment in Fund it has allowed us to redevelop the website, make it relevant for more projects and it has helped us to future proof our technological needs.

The support from Bank of Ireland has also enabled us to unlock matched-funding from the Department of Culture, Heritage and Gaeltacht to achieve this. To date, Fund it has helped 1,500 Irish projects launch and raise funds on the website. In doing so, close to €5m has been committed by more than 80,000 people around the world.

As part of Business to Arts 30th Anniversary celebrations, tonight we are showcasing some of the exceptional musical talent that have used the website to help their own ideas come to life. Nights like tonight only happen when there is an alignment of trust, connection, commitment and talent.”

Our final 30^th Anniversary event will take place at TileStyle on November 28^th.