Our 2022 in review

This year we supported the arts sector through grants, commissions, capacity-building, and more…

As our members and affiliates emerged from the pandemic full of optimism and momentum, we ushered in a new era at Business to Arts by welcoming our new Chief Executive Louise O’Reilly in April.

While 2022 brought new socio-economic challenges, BtoA continued to add value to our community of corporate and cultural members through unique events and experiences, grant-making and capacity-building programmes, and curatorial and commissioning expertise. 

Our advisory and consultancy services with both sectors range from strategic development to arts innovation workshops, and one-to-one mentorship.  

Brendan Gleeson, Ciarán Ó Maonaigh, Caitlín Nic Gabhann, and ITMA Director Liam O’Connor at our private event at the Irish Traditional Music Archive

Convening our corporate-cultural community…

Although we began this year worrying that it might be a long time before we would be able to invite our members and affiliates to an in-person event, we were lucky to host some really unique and interesting experiences in 2022.

In April, we had an exclusive first look at the soon-to-open Dean Art Studios with behind-the-scenes studio tours. In June, we hosted our first event for the construction and development industry with our Placemaking talk and bespoke curated tour of the RHA Annual Summer Exhibition.

In August our Friends were treated to private rehearsals of THISISPOPBABY‘s Fringe hit WAKE, and then in September, we brought our annual Awards ceremony back in person to the National Concert Hall.

We had a bumper November, kicking off with our annual CEO Forum in association with PwC tackling the ongoing challenge of re-imagining our cities for a new way of working. We followed that up with a unique and intimate evening with actor Brendan Gleeson at the Irish Traditional Music Archive, with an exclusive preview of a work-in-progress film highlighting his passion for traditional Irish music and its community. 

Finally, we took a long overdue trip to Cork and hosted our Cork members, friends, and affiliates at a reception and a curator-led tour of Corban Walker’s exhibition at the Crawford Art Gallery before bringing our guests to the Cork Opera House for the Cork International Film Festival Opening Gala film screening of Aisha.

Sculptor John Rainey at the installation of the RCSI Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery commission of two new sculptures to celebrate pioneering women in nursing and midwifery: Florence Nightingale and Elizabeth O’Farrell.

Curating and commissioning for new beginnings and landmark moments…

This year we facilitated 10 commissions worth almost €123,000, and worked on art collections for members old and new.

In March we developed a new collection for Iconic Offices for their Viscount House building which opened on Fitzwilliam Square in April. We followed up that work with another collection for Iconic’s newest location in the NSQ2 building in Cork.

We worked with our patron RCSI on a number of exciting arts initiatives this year, including a landmark sculptural commission by John Rainey for the Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery; and the unveiling of a new artwork from 2020 RCSI Art Award winner Colin Martin that reflected on the pandemic’s impact on RCSI’s staff, students, and alumni.

We worked with another patron CBRE on a commission with sculptor Donncha Cahill for their New Century House building; our patron Bank of Ireland commissioned Jen Donnery to create their annual Staff Recognition Awards Sculpture, and An Post recently released their stamp to commemorate the centenary of Saorstát Éireann featuring a design by Brian Gallagher that was selected via a BtoA open call.

Finally, we worked very closely with our patron Irish Life to oversee a major conservation project as part of their art collection and to curate a selection of works from their broader collection to display in their customer care centre in Dundalk.

Samuel Yakura, part of the collective We Are Griot who were awarded a grant with Festival in a Van as part of Round 3 of the Bank of Ireland Begin Together Arts Fund in partnership with Business to Arts.

Building capacity in the arts across Ireland

Corporate membership of Business to Arts subsidises the work we do with arts organisations across the country, supporting them to become more sustainable.

This year began with the announcement that €250,000 had been awarded to five organisations through the ESB Brighter Future Arts Fund. These projects engage communities around sustainability and the energy transition and will continue into 2023.

In April we launched the recruitment campaign for the ninth and tenth Fundraising Fellows. Sing Ireland and Graffiti Theatre were chosen to participate in a two-year programme that provides a match-funded fundraising or marketing and fundraising position in an arts organisation alongside a structured mentorship and training programme.

As part of our Awards in September, we awarded a total of €20,000 through two bursaries: the Jim McNaughton/TileStyle €10,000 Bursary for Artists awarded to Afghan photographer Barialai Khoshhal, and the inaugural Accenture €10,000 Digital Innovation in Art Bursary awarded to Nadia J. Armstrong to further her practice in the technological medium.

In October, we announced the 27 projects that have been awarded as part of Round 3 of the Bank of Ireland Begin Together Arts Fund, they join the previous 75 projects that have been awarded since the Fund began in 2020.

We are keenly aware of the need to support the Irish cultural sector in the face of rising costs and uncertain revenue streams. 

Download our Private Investment in the Arts Report

Today we launch our annual Private Investment Report which provides our sectoral intelligence and insights into investment in the arts sector across the past five years, arising from data captured during our annual Awards process.  In addition, we asked leading sponsorship consultancy ONSIDE and fundraising and philanthropy consultants O’Kennedy Consulting to provide their observations on the trends they are seeing emerge. 

You can access the report here, please note that members and affiliates will receive free access to this report.

Recommend us!

If the work we do has had a positive impact on you personally, your arts practice, arts organisation, company or corporate network, please share your appreciation online.  

We are always looking to welcome new members, friends, and affiliates into our network, so please recommend us to anyone you know with interest in having a positive impact on the arts sector by developing compelling corporate-cultural partnerships, strategic investment in the arts, curatorial or commissioning work, innovative capacity-building or creative community and inclusion programmes, and more.