Sean McGrath, CEO, Allianz Ireland, Helene Hugel, Artistic Director, Helium Arts & Andrew Hetherington, CEO, Business to Arts at the launch of the 2017 Allianz Business to Arts Awards. Picture by Shane O’Neill Photography

Today marks the launch of the 2017 Allianz Business to Arts Awards Call for Nominations. Both Allianz and Business to Arts are highlighting the unique opportunities that business engagement with the arts provides and are encouraging businesses and arts partners across Ireland to share their creative partnership stories.

This year marks the 26^th anniversary of the Allianz Business to Arts Awards and Allianz’s 17^th anniversary of involvement and sponsorship of the awards. The success of the Awards has developed considerably over recent years and with economic growth set to continue, there is even greater opportunity for further partnership between business and the arts.

A new online application system has been devised to accommodate the ever increasing entries received.

Sean McGrath, CEO of Allianz Ireland, said:

“We are always honored to be associated with the Business to Arts Awards. We believe that both businesses and the arts community benefit tremendously from collaborating and working together. The partnership inspires creativity, promotes understanding and enhances the presence of businesses in the wider communities that they serve.

With the economy continuing to grow strongly we believe there is enhanced scope for businesses across Ireland to really engage with the arts community and to build on the strong legacy that has been created by Business to Arts over the years.’’

Andrew Hetherington, Chief Executive of Business to Arts said:

“The Allianz Business to Arts Awards identify and celebrate best practice creative partnerships between business and the arts. It is fantastic to witness the increasing creativity, innovation and hard-work demonstrated by the various nominations from all over Ireland.

2016 saw Irish culture represented on a world stage. Many of the cultural commemorative activities that took place would not have been possible without the partnerships involving Irish artists, businesses and other agencies working together. As we look to the future and the evolving funding patterns in the cultural sector across earned income, public funding and private investment it makes the celebration and recognition of world-class partnerships more important than ever”

Closing date for applications is Monday, May 8th 2017 at 5pm. Click here for information on the entry process and to complete the online entry form.

The Sharp Building, McGarrell Reilly Group

We are delighted to announce the launch of the ‘The Sharp Building Commission’ Open Call for visual artists. A McGarrell Reilly Group initiative, ‘The Sharp Building Commission’ seeks to include a permanent or temporary sculptural artwork within the glazed, double height corner of the building as part of the reception area to this new office building. This commission will create an original and innovative sculptural installation in response to environment, architecture and historic and cultural references associated with the new building and its location off Hogan Place.

Realised during 2017 and revealed in early 2018 this sculptural commission will inspire commuters and office staff alike in the Docklands / Core Dublin 2 area.

The commission is open to arts practitioners in the areas of visual arts. The Sharp Building is named after George Sharp, RHA, an Irish portrait and figure painter who resided at Hogan Place during the early 19th Century.

Business to Arts will project manage the open call with an advisory curatorial panel. The deadline for applications is Tuesday 11 April 2017, 5pm. The commissioned artist will be announced in May 2017.

For more information, please download the Open Call document and click here to complete your online application.

For all queries relating to this project or the Open Call to artists please contact: thesharpbuilding@businesstoarts.ie

We are delighted to announce that Katie Molony has been appointed to the board of Business to Arts.

Katie is CEO of Maximum Media, Ireland’s fastest growing online publishing company and the parent company of JOE.ie, Her.ie, SportsJOE.ie & HerFamily.ie. She is responsible for leading the company’s Dublin-based HQ, overseeing all aspects of business strategy across editorial and commercial business operations.

Recently promoted to CEO, Katie previously held the position of Managing Director of Maximum Media for two and a half years. She has played a crucial role in growing the company from 27 staff to 65, introducing the MADE by Maximum Media internal branded content hub with its own studio, launching the JOE brand into the UK market, spearheading research project “A slice of Ireland” earlier this year, and significantly increasing sales revenue and overseeing unprecedented growth of the websites.

Prior to Maximum Media, Katie was Marketing Manager at The Irish Times, where she spearheaded the marketing strategy for the publisher. Highlights included the highly successful “the Story of Why” brand campaign and the “The Best Place to Live in Ireland” initiative.

Katie holds an MSc. in Marketing from DIT, a Diploma in Online Marketing with Advertising and Public Relations from Fitzwilliam Institute, a B.A. in Business with Arts Management from IADT, Dun Laoghaire and most recently completed The Trinity International Growth Programme.

Business to Arts Picture Conor McCabe Photography

Today we launch the first phase of our search for individuals interested in participating in the Fundraising Fellowship, Dublin programme in partnership with Dublin City Council’s Dublin’s Culture Connects. Four selected cultural organisations will recruit for new Fundraising or Marketing & Fundraising Executives to participate in the programme.

All recruited Fellows will be required to participate in what is a new and very exciting initiative, from April 2017 until March 2019. This will require the Fellow’s attendance at various workshops, training, and mentoring sessions with Business to Arts and our partners.

For current job specifications relating to the Fundraising Fellowship, Dublin please see below:

• Helium Arts
• Fishamble: The New Play Company

Details relating to Dublin Theatre Festival & Temple Bar Gallery + Studios will be released at a later date.

Accenture ‘Women on Walls’ 2016 portrait commission. From Top LtoR: Shelia Tinney & Francoise Henry From Bottom LtoR: Phyllis Clinch & Eleanor Knott. Artist: Vera

Through our partnership with Accenture and the Royal Irish Academy on ‘Women on Walls’, we aim to make women leaders visible and inspire future generations.

Portraits of 12 female academic leaders, which are the first to hang on the walls of the Royal Irish Academy, were unveiled today. The Accenture Women on Walls campaign features individual portraits of the first four women to be admitted to the academy alongside a group painting of eight of today’s leading female scientists. The finished artworks, by Vera Klute and Blaise Smith, are the first portraits of female subjects to be featured on the Academy’s walls in its 230-year history. Business to Arts, working in partnership with Accenture facilatated the commisioning process.

The campaign originated when Accenture executives were attending a meeting in the Royal Irish Academy to discuss addressing the gender gap in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths (STEM).   On leaving the meeting, they asked “Where are the women?” as they surveyed the hall dominated by traditional male portraits.

The portraits are now available to view by the public at Academy House, 19 Dawson Street, Dublin 2. They can also be viewed online at Accenture.com/womenonwalls, along with the full story of the campaign and background on the academics, scientists and artists.

If you are interested in commissioning a portrait and need some advice contact Hannah at hannah@businesstoarts.ie and read or top tips for commissioning an artist here.

Eight Scientists From LtoR Professor Emma Teeling, Professor Catríona Lally, Professor Debra Laefer, Professor Lydia Lynch, Associate Professor Aoife Gowen, Dr Maria McNamara, Professor Sarah McCormack , Professor Aoife McLysaght. Artist Blaise Smith

Accenture ‘Women on Walls’ 2016 portrait commission. From Top LtoR: Shelia Tinney & Francoise Henry From Bottom LtoR: Phyllis Clinch & Eleanor Knott. Artist: Vera Klute

Over the past 30 years, Business to Arts has been involved in the commissioning of artists for various projects including working with daa on the annual Allianz Business to Arts Awards sculpture, Dublin Port Perspectives Open Call for Artists and most recently the portraits unveiled at the Royal Irish Academy for Accenture’s ‘Women on Walls’ project. We often get asked for guidance on how to commission an artist. So, if you are thinking of commissioning a portrait, here are some things to think about:

• Purpose: Who or what is the portrait for?
• Location: Are there any special requirements? Dimensions of the work, the location where the work will be displayed, the function of the work, any materials that cannot be used?
• Budget: What is the budget? Does this include installation and/or delivery
• Time: When do you need it for – give yourself plenty of time as some artworks can be time-consuming to make!

If you are interested in commissioning a portrait and need some advice please contact Hannah at hannah@businesstoarts.ie. For more in-depth advice click here.

Business to Arts Picture Conor McCabe Photography

Today, Business to Arts in partnership with Dublin City Council and Dublin’s Culture Connects announced the four selected cultural organisations that will participate in a 24-month Fundraising Fellowship, Dublin programme for new Fundraising Executives. Dublin Theatre Festival, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Fishamble: The New Play Company & Helium Arts will each be part-funded to recruit a Fundraising Fellow who will take part in the programme. Recruitment for the Fellow positions will commence in January 2017.

Fundraising Fellowship, Dublin offers each of the selected organisations up to €30,000 toward the employment of full-time fundraising or marketing & fundraising human resources, contracted over a 24-month period. The four recruited Fellows will take part in a structured programme of training and mentorship worth an additional €15,000, developed by Business to Arts and Dublin City Council as part of the Fellowship. They will receive fundraising training and mentorship from experienced national and international leaders inside and outside the arts sector. The aim is to equip these Fellows and their cultural organisations with skills to build capacity in their own organisations and subsequently share the skills and knowledge with local smaller organisations. Business to Arts are currently seeking Dublin-based community organisations interested in learning from and partnering with the selected organisations.

The objective of Fundraising Fellowship, Dublin is to enhance the investment by arts, cultural and community organisations in their strategic planning and fundraising capacity. The programme addresses the lack of human resources dedicated to fundraising in the selected arts, cultural and community organisations, as well as facilitating a ripple-effect of the knowledge created, to smaller, less resourced organisations.

Andrew Hetherington, Chief Executive of Business to Arts states:

“This Fellowship builds on our existing partnerships and mutual objectives to address long-term human resource issues facing Dublin’s cultural sector. The four diverse organisations selected have the opportunity to develop and enhance their fundraising capacities, sharing their knowledge with local community organisations, through our intense programme of training and mentorship. We look forward to working with them over the next two years. Our extensive networks and resources will equip these organisations and Fellows with a range of resources which we hope will have a significant impact on the Irish arts fundraising landscape in years to come.”

At the announcement of the four organisations, Owen Keegan, Chief Executive, Dublin City Council said:

“The investment by Dublin City Council in creating positive legacies from the 2020 European Capital of Culture bid signals our commitment to the role that Culture will play in the future sustainability of the city, alongside Economic Development, Environmental Awareness and Social Inclusion. Building capacity in cultural organisations in the City, and further supporting the sharing of this learning and experiences with others that have less experience in fundraising and philanthropy will foster important new partnerships with communities, business, cultural organisations in Dublin.”

To learn more about the Fellowship click here

An Organic and Inventive Arts Office at NUI Galway: Emerging from a Historical Educational Institution

Donnacha Cahill, Romantic Notions, Múscailt Festival 2016

The Arts Office at NUI Galway has had to be organic and inventive in order to make space for new and emerging artists and to provoke a response from a largely online audience. In 2000, NUI Galway won a Allianz Business to Arts Award for its partnership with Bank of Ireland when The BOI Student Theatre was launched as a state of the art 80 seat, black box, performance space. The same year an Arts Officer was installed in the University and an ambitious Arts programme was planned. A period of phenomenal growth in numbers of students followed, with enormous pressure on venues and resources. Information and cultural experience became a virtual exchange with digital archives super-ceding cultural events. The success of the digitised Abbey Theatre Archive helped to move NUI Galway up the rankings of Research-led Universities. There was no longer physical or psychological room for live encounters with cultural events. How did we tackle this challenging environment and make art visible? We had to take stock and take control. The Arts Officer and a small part-time and casual team had to stand up and be counted, to be inventive. We worked with what we had around us: first and foremost, an Art Collection; second, an established Múscailt Arts Festival with access to a large outdoor public space; and third, hidden treasures on campus, awaiting an outing, most notably in Zoology and Geology.

The Art Collection revealed itself to house over 560 pieces, once we counted them. A wonderful resource, underused, only spotted on the walls of the management offices in the Quadrangle. Our mission was to take everything out of storage, photograph and document all pieces, place them in public areas of the campus and populate every building including offices and stairwells. We created a public database and found we were well ahead of many other collections in Ireland. We encouraged all of our staff to access and use the images in the collection as covers for publications and to forge identities for projects. The dividends to having an accessible database to show off our wares have been noteworthy. New bequests and donations are now a regular occurrence, including a rare 15ft high wooden sculpture “Banbha’s Warrior”, by James McKenna, donated by Desmond Egan. It stands proudly in our new “Life Course and Society Public Research Building (ILAS)”. James McKenna sought to sculpt and capture the Soul of Celtic Ireland and this warrior looks as if he is striding across the land with purpose. We are committed to increasing the awareness of our heritage and to the encouragement of new and younger artists.

Marielle MacLeman, The Rise and Fall of Sleeping Finch, NUI Galway Art Gallery

MUSCAILT Festival meaning ‘to awaken, to inspire, to create’, takes place in early spring and encourages original ideas and events, visual, performance, happening, dance and film from artists, students and staff, all open to the public. We commission new work, showcase new work and facilitate ‘happenings’. Our natural challenges in the West of Ireland in springtime are rain, damp, dark and isolation. Add to these a lack of venues. Drastic measures are called for as we seek to connect with our audience and inhabit the campus. Our themes became ‘Float Away’ in 2015 and ‘Stand Your Ground’ in 2016. Artists are natural collaborators. James Fleming, Sculptor and Director of Colours Street Theatre, believes that Art should be free and he creates pop-up, recycled and reusable artworks. His sculptural works are temporary and regularly inhabit our campus. His repertoire includes swans made of piping floating in the Corrib, and the magnificent floating fish, entitled ‘Creatures of the Campus’ as seen in our glass boxes above our canteen in Múscailt 2016. Another Múscailt collaborator is Donnacha Cahill the Sculptor. He had previously built a large metal gramophone structure for the Electric Picnic. Together, we customised this design and built a portable gramophone for the Múscailt Festival, ‘Romantic Notions’, 2 metres high that could be transported literally anywhere and became a sound system, a microphone and a portable stage/venue in its own right. The gramophone travelled throughout the festival and everyone engaged with it. It was FUN. So much fun, it was then taken up by Galway International Arts Festival and gained even more notoriety on the streets of Galway. Artists Anne O’ Byrne, Aideen Barry, Ben Geoghegan and many more have created new temporary sculptural work in situ. The expertise and experience we have in this field will allow us to move into the realm of public and permanent sculpture. Our new mission is to populate the campus with fun and serious sculptures to forge new identities of place within the landscape, create meeting points and social spaces and to become an open-air public resource. The proposed greenway from Galway city to Moycullen will pass through NUI Galway, along the Corrib River, and we have a wonderful opportunity to open our campus to the world.

Lastly, to our hidden treasures, kept in the Zoology and Geology Collections among many others. There is a resurgence of interest in the OBJECT. In fact, we have a priceless collection of hand-blown marine specimens by the Blaushka Father and Son. They are original recreations of marine species discovered in the mid-1800s and being transparent they also embody delicately coloured internal organs. They are still used to this day. The Geology Museum houses fossils, precious stones and gems, including a Neanderthal skull. Marielle MacLeman was the perfect artist for a residency at Geology and Zoology, the result of which is much more than a sum of the parts. It all began with one Albert Finch, a fictitious museum keeper that morphed himself into some of the objects. Museum keepers were notorious for burning collections held in high regard by previous keepers and for re-labelling collections to suit their own views and generally re-modelling the world. Were they the first artists-in-residence then? MacLeman’s exhibition was titled ‘The Rise and Fall of Sleeping Finch’ with meticulously created sculptural objects, made from hundreds of tiny pencil shavings, hand-cut miniature wooden triangles, stuffed animals, medals, rolls of wall-paper, and more. Her new pieces complemented the existing collections. As part of our expanding collectionwe purchased some sculptural objects and wall-mounted artworks and installed them in the public foyer en route to the Zoology museum. They seamlessly knit the artist, viewer and scientist together. We will move onto the Anatomy Department and Physiology Department in an organic way as they both prepare to move from historic buildings to a new ones. Perhaps it is the perfect time for an artist in residence to create something new to complement these changes.

Students are not forgotten in all this. During the last 3 years the Victorian Society was born on campus and held two Victorian ‘funfairs’ during Múscailt Festivals. These funfairs house inventions, boardgames, steam-punk, science, artwork, literature, tea, cake, pies, costumes and good old Victorian conversation, all in a suitably large sociable space. It is a huge hit and set to continue. That suits us in the Arts Office at NUI Galway as we embracing the impromptu, the pop-up, the tactile, the sculptural and the object. We are happy to support new and old ideas.

Find out more about what we do here:
NUI Galway Arts Office
NUI Galway Art Collection
MUSCAILT Festival

Kris Nelson, Director, Tiger Dublin Fringe Festival, Anna O Sullivan, Director, Butler Gallery, Damien O Neill, Head of Marketing, Allianz and Mark Deering, Director, Sky Ireland in GPO Witness History to launch the Allianz Business to Arts 2016 Arts, Festivals and Music Sponsorship Report. 

Allianz and Business to Arts have published the results of the second Arts, Festivals and Music Sponsorship Survey, following on from the success of the recent 25^th Allianz Business to Arts Awards in September. The summary report, launched at GPO Witness History, was drawn up by Business to Arts from data supplied by sponsorship and marketing managers, adding to the membership organisation’s research and insight services for the leading corporate sponsors of the arts, festivals and music.

The survey looks at sponsorship objectives that differentiate the arts over other types of sponsorship areas; at sponsorships that are both one-off event relationships or multi-annual partnerships; sponsorship spend between 2015 and 2016, as well as anticipated spend in 2017; methods used to activate relationships; measuring success; and a peer-review of the leading cultural sponsors in Ireland.

Key outputs include:

• 87% of sponsors would choose an arts sponsorship over other types of sponsorship, because it creates unique events and experiences for their stakeholders; 69% state that arts sponsorship provides more engagement with customers than other types of sponsorship
• The most popular forms of activating sponsorships in the arts, festivals and music include creating branded signage, PR, printed literature (81%), staff engagement (64%) and digital campaigns (62%)
• Sponsors surveyed report that in 2017, 35% will increase their spend
• All respondents were asked to nominate brands that they feel are best-in-class in their engagements with culture, and Bord Gáis Energy, ESB, Tiger and Hennessey are among those identified

Andrew Hetherington, Chief Executive of Business to Arts said:

“We’re delighted to be building on the outputs of the annual Allianz Business to Arts Awards. This report is an important tool for both sponsors and rights holders in 2017 and it assists with our advocacy work and objectives to increase corporate sponsorship in arts, festivals and music throughout Ireland “

Sean McGrath, Chief Executive of Allianz Ireland, said:

“2016 marks the 25th year of the Allianz Business to Arts Awards and Allianz is proud and privileged to continue to play its part in this process of continuous renewal, individual fulfilment and ultimately, societal enrichment. Whilst the awards highlight and facilitate this positive reality, the 2016 Arts, Festivals and Music Sponsorship Report is based on the experiences of all involved in the 2016 year. It ensures that their experiences and insights are recorded and shared. This helps safeguard the continued delivery of substantial cultural, economic and commercial benefits for years to come”.

Download the summary report here

From Left to Right: Sinead Connolly, DCC, Sinead Smith, Corporate Responsibility Manager, A&L Goodbody, Catherine Ann Cullen, Writer in Residence & Andrew Hetherington, Business to Arts at St. Joseph’s National School in East Wall. Picture Jason Clarke

Business to Arts and leading corporate law firm, A&L Goodbody, have today announced author Catherine Ann Cullen as the 2016 Writer in Residence under the Docklands Arts Fund. Catherine will work with children at St. Joseph’s Co-Ed Primary School in East Wall to develop their creativity and literacy skills.

The Writer in Residence role will see Catherine working with pupils at St. Joseph’s, participating in literacy workshops and supporting Business to Arts’ wider civic programme of promoting the Arts collaboratively through businesses and communities. The venture marks the first time that a business in Ireland has engaged a Writer in Residence programme with Business to Arts and Dublin City Council. As part of the partnership, A&L Goodbody will also provide funding for the programme worth €30,000 over three years.

Catherine Ann Cullen to date has published three collections of poetry The Other Now (2016), Doghouse, Strange Familiar (2013) and A Bone in My Throat (2007). Her children’s books, Thirsty Baby (2003) and the award-winning The Magical, Mystical, Marvellous Coat (2001), were published by Little, Brown in the US. Her work has been anthologised including in If Ever You Go: A Map of Dublin in Poetry and Song (Dedalus 2014). She won the Francis Ledwidge International Poetry Award in 2009 for her poem ‘Scooter’. She is a former producer with RTÉ Radio 1, and writes occasional pieces for the Sunday Miscellany programme.

Commenting on the announcement Andrew Hetherington, Chief Executive of Business to Arts said

“The Catherine Ann Cullen and A&L Goodbody residency with St. Joseph’s National School is an important and exciting community project as part of the Docklands Arts Fund. Catherine’s background as an author and producer, will give students at St. Josephs a very special opportunity to explore the magical world of literature through a new engaging format. We look forward to watching the residence develop, encouraging and instilling a love reading in all students involved.”

Sinéad Smith, Corporate Responsibility Manager at A&L Goodbody states:

“A&L Goodbody is delighted to be supporting this innovative initiative. This partnership builds and complements our ongoing work delivering similar projects to boost literacy levels in our local area. We look forward to working with Catherine Ann through the Writer in Residence programme which creates an exciting new dimension in our work to engage and inspire children.”

If you are a business, organisation or individual based in Dublin’s Docklands and would like to support the Docklands Arts Fund, please get in touch. For further information on the Fund see here.

‘Masterlabs’ by Colin Martin

We are delighted to announce the 2016 Docklands Arts Fund Print Commission made possible by the support of TIO, the South Docks Fund and Savills Ireland.  Artist Colin Martin is currently making a multi-plate etching in Graphic Studio Dublin – from his series of images of Masterlabs, a recording studio in Dublin’s North Docklands.

This etching is a terrific way to celebrate Dublin Dockland’s music, industry and art traditions. All the proceeds of sales support the Docklands Arts Fund Small Grants Open Call for 2017.  Last year’s Chris Judge Screenprint ‘A Shower of Dubs’ raised €21,000 towards three great art projects currently taking place in Dublin’s Docklands. Selected projects are  listed here.

This unique piece of Dublin Docklands Art will be made in a limited edition hand-made etching, and sold to collectors for a very special price of €100 unframed, or €250 framed, and will be available in November.

For further information or to pre-order the Masterlabs etching please contact: Jackie@businesstoarts.ie

If you are a business, organisation or individual based in Dublin’s Docklands and would like to support the Docklands Arts Fund, please get in touch.

From Left to right, Andrew Hetherington. CEO, Business to Arts, Dee Forbes, Director General of RTE, Lorelei Harris, Head of Cultural Strategy, RTE & Sean McGrath, CEO of Allianz Ireland pose for the 2016 Allianz Business to Arts Awards. Picture Conor McCabe Photography.

Sky Arts/Sky Ireland, Cartoon Saloon, Bank of Ireland, An Post and ESB were among the winners in 12 categories at the 25^th annual Allianz Business to Arts Awards ceremony at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre on Monday, September 19th.

This year’s Allianz Business to Arts Awards, attracted a record number of nominations with over 15% related to the 1916 commemorations. The Awards recognise businesses, artists and arts organisations that develop creative partnerships to bring businesses and the arts into mutually beneficial relationships across society. The evening was a celebration of the most innovative and creative partnerships in Ireland which use the arts to enhance communities and working environments.

In addition to the award winners, RTÉ received the 25th Anniversary Special Award from Allianz and Business to Arts in recognition of its long-term contribution to the development, support and promotion of the arts during the 25-year history of the awards.

The Allianz Business to Arts Awards recognise businesses, artists and arts organisations that develop creative partnerships, bringing the arts and artists into mutually beneficial relationships across society

The Allianz Business to Arts Awards 2016 Winners are:

Best Use of Creativity in the Community:    Matthews Coach Hire & Louth County Council Arts Office and Monaghan County Council Arts Office – the Matthews.ie Arts Show

Best Creative Staff Engagement:                  Bank of Ireland ‘Be Our Inspiration’

Jim McNaughton Perpetual Award for Best Commissioning Practice        An Post for `GPO Witness History 2016 Commissions Programme’ & Barbara Knezevic ‘They are of us all’

Jim McNaughton / TileStyle €10,000 Artist’s Bursary         Padraic Rowan

Allianz Community Art Award          Helium Arts

Dublin Airport Authority €5,000 Arts Award           axis: Ballymun

Best Small Sponsorship – under €25,000 value       Lynders Mobile Home Park & Fingal County Council’s Arts Office

Best Long Term Partnership ESB & Feis Ceoil – ESB Feis Ceoil

Best Large Sponsorship – over €50,000 value          Sky Arts/Sky Ireland & Brink Films, Landmark Productions, Wide Open Opera – The Last Hotel

Best Mid-Size Sponsorship – over €15,000 -€50,000 value Cartoon Saloon & Butler Gallery – Song of the Sea: The Exhibition

Judges’ Special Recognition  An Post

25th Anniversary Special Award        RTÉ

Leading the congratulations among over 500 business and arts leaders at the theatre was Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Heather Humphreys TD.

Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Heather Humphreys TD said:

“It’s great to see that this year’s Allianz Business to Arts Awards include such a high level of nominations from cultural events associated with the centenary of 1916. The Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme is woven through a number of this year’s winning entries, reflecting the huge impact the commemorative programme has had on the arts, and indeed the huge impact the arts have had on our commemorations. Now in their 25th year, the Allianz Business to Arts Awards continue to highlight the benefits of collaboration across the cultural and commercial sectors, facilitating new partnerships with large corporations and the arts for the benefit of communities across Ireland. I would like to commend all of the winners of this year’s Business to Arts Awards, and wish the organization and its partners the very best for the remainder of 2016.”

Andrew Hetherington, Chief Executive of Business to Arts, said:

“Co-creation and wide-ranging collaboration are at the heart of the partnerships we celebrate in this very special 25th Anniversary year of the Allianz Business to Arts Awards. Each winner showcases the powerful impact artists, arts organisations and businesses can have on communities throughout Ireland. In this year of Commemoration, the cultural sector has been an important part of State and corporate events. The winners shine a spotlight on what can be achieved by working with artists to the interpret and re-imagine our heritage. Each year of the Allianz Business to Arts Awards builds on the previous, and it is always inspiring to see organisations from diverse sectors push boundaries and create world-class art”

2016 marks the 25^th anniversary of the Allianz Business to Arts Awards, which recognise businesses, artists and arts organisations that develop and sustain creative partnerships. The awards recognise large, mid-sized, small and long-term sponsorships, staff engagement activities, commissioning, corporate social responsibility programme, community engagement and portfolio-based partnerships. Many of the short-listed collaborations are the result of long-term relationships.

Eamonn O Reilly, CEO, Dublin Port Company & Andrew Hetherington at Poolbeg Lighthouse announcing the launch of Port Perspectives. Picture by Shane O’Neill Photography.

We are delighted to announce the launch of ‘Port Perspectives’, a Dublin Port Company commission that will create a series of original and innovative public artworks/installations. These commissions will be realised throughout 2017 and respond specifically to the built environment, local areas, history and context of Dublin Port. The commissioned artworks will be part of a year-long programme of activity in 2017, which include an exhibition of works by the Belgian artist Eugeen Van Mieghem at Dublin City Gallery the Hugh Lane and a range of related arts education and engagement activities.

The commission is open to arts practitioners in the areas of visual arts and film. There is an open category for artists and arts projects using other media that are keen to respond to Dublin Port Company’s commissioning brief. Proposals may be made for temporary and permanent artworks and a number of locations within Dublin Port have been selected as potential locations for commissioned work. These include Poolbeg Lighthouse, the Half Moon Battery, Dublin Port Company’s Headquarters and the North Quay Extension close to the East Link Bridge. Details of all Dublin Port locations are included in the open call documentation.

Business to Arts will project manage the open call with an advisory curatorial panel. The deadline for applications is Monday 10 October, 5 pm. The shortlisted artists will be notified in November 2016 and the commissioned artists will be announced in early 2017.

For more information, please download the Open Call document and click here to complete your online application.

For all queries relating to this project or the Open Call to Artists please contact margarita@businesstoarts.ie
 

 
Note to Dublin Docklands-based businesses: Business to Arts are currently developing a range of opportunities for businesses (of all sizes) to get involved with creating opportunities for artists, audiences and enriching the Dublin Docklands. For more information on the Docklands Arts Fund select here.

Andrew Hetherington, CEO & Helen Carroll, Senior Manager, Marketing & Strategic Partnerships of Business to Arts with Brendan Kenny, CEO of Dublin City Council

Business to Arts is delighted to announce a partnership with Dublin City Council to grow and develop the successful New Stream Programme through targeted human resource support for four Dublin-based organisations in their Fundraising and Marketing.

Applications are now open for a 24-month Arts’ Fellowship Programme for the recruitment and part-funding of new Fundraising or Marketing & Fundraising Executives who will be supported by a structured programme of training and mentorship with Business to Arts as part of the Fellowship.

The Fundraising Fellowship for Dublin-based arts, cultural and community organisations hopes to build on the €15.7million of new income already raised in the first 7 years of the New Stream Programme; as well as on the success to date of the Docklands Arts Fund created by Business to Arts and Dublin City Council which was launched in 2015.

The Fundraising Fellowship is part of a series of Legacy Projects developed by Dublin City Council following their European Capital of Culture 2020 designation bid in 2015. The civic energy generated, new connections made, and new thinking developed produced a blueprint for delivery on many of the objectives set out in the Bid Book.

It is hoped the Programme will enhance and continue the investment by cultural organisations in capacity building, creating stronger organisations committed to long-term sustainability based on business-minded planning and a robust cultural strategy.

For further information on the Application Criteria and how to apply, click here.

Press Up Entertainment Group is an Irish leisure and hospitality company. The Group has interests in a variety of sectors, most notably hotels, bars, restaurants, venues and nightclubs. With a range of 18 venues and meeting rooms in Dublin, it is perfectly suited for corporate and cultural events or conferences.

For more information and details on all their venues and entertainment opportunities. download their brochure here.

Fundit.ie a project operated by Business to Arts is delighted to offer Project Creators Ireland’s first dedicated crowdfunding manual, extensively discussing all aspects of crowdfunding and how to successfully raise funds through the site.

Over the last 5 years, Fund it has firmly established itself as Ireland’s leading reward-based crowdfunding platform for creative ideas. Having attracted pledges from 66 countries, over 1,300 projects across every county in Ireland have been funded. 65,000 people have successfully funded Irish performances, films, events and projects in music, science, art, fashion, publishing, tech and gaming since the site launched in March 2011.

Fund it is among the most successful reward-based crowdfunding websites globally, with a 71% success rate, and is run by the charity Business to Arts who support creative partnerships between business and the arts in Ireland. Project creators from across the creative industries encourage pledges to their idea by offering rewards linked to their project, and promoting them to their network. By doing this, it not only enables projects to attract financial support but also to build a new connection with their audiences and consumers.

Click here to read our new handbook

We are delighted to announce three Grant Recipients via the Docklands Art Fund Small Grants Open Call process.

The successful projects selected are as follows:

• Oonagh Young Gallery, MONTO Arts programme in Docklands with artists Seoidin O’Sullivan & Mary Jo Gilligan
• What is Drawing 2017 with Martina Galvin in St. Laurence O’Toole GNS, Dublin 1 & St. Patrick’s GNS, Dublin 4
• Vanessa Daws, History of Swimming Sound Piece & Publication.

We received high levels of applications for consideration and were inspired to see the exceptional quality and diversity of project proposals received.

If you would like to stay up to date with future projects and open calls of this nature please sign up to our Arts Training newsletter here.

If you are a business, organisation or individual based in Dublin’s Docklands and would like to support the Docklands Arts Fund, please get in touch. For further information on the Fund see here.

The award winning artist and illustrator Chris Judge created a drawing for a screen-print based on Dublin Docklands characters. This commission was made possible thanks to the support of Oaktree Capital, Target Investment Opportunities ICAV – South Docks Fund.

If you would like to buy Chris Judge’s Screenprint ‘A Shower of Dubs’, click to buy print here

For further information, please contact jackie@businesstoarts.ie

Pictured Andrew Hetherington, Cara Murphy, Paul O’Kane Picture Conor McCabe Photography

The 25^th Allianz Business to Arts Awards saw high levels of nominations from cultural events associated with 1916, expanding sponsorship portfolios and long-term partnerships which continue to evolve through diverse activation campaigns.

Andrew Hetherington, states “2016 is a special commemorative year for Ireland and it marks the silver anniversary of the Allianz Business to Arts Awards. In our 25^th year, we have received the highest number of applications to date, displaying the best examples of creative partnerships between corporates and cultural communities. We are inspired by the creativity, innovation and cost effectiveness demonstrated by the various nominations this year. These cultural partnerships cement our ethos, that when creativity and business acumen come together, astounding things can be achieved”

Sean McGrath, CEO of Allianz Ireland agrees and adds “The Allianz Business to Arts Awards occupy a very special place in Irish Corporate and Artistic communities. The shortlist showcases the cultural, societal and economic dividends generated when the two collaborate for their own benefit and the benefit of society at large.  Allianz is proud to have facilitated this process for many years and in the 25^th year of the awards is delighted to see how this very worthwhile initiative has evolved, grown and strengthened with each passing year”.

For the 25^th year, the award sculpture has been commissioned by daa. This year’s award was created by Northern Ireland artist Cara Murphy. ‘Destination’ consists of 25 silver birds in recognition of 25 years of the Business to Arts awards. The different flight paths of the birds symbolise business and the arts converging to work together, showing how creative ideas can manifest and take flight often dispersing and creating new opportunities and ideas.

The winners of the 2016 Allianz Business to Arts Awards will be announced on 19 September at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre.

The Allianz Business to Arts Awards 2016 Shortlist:

 Best Large Sponsorship – over €50,000 value

• Sky Arts/Sky Ireland & Brink Films, Landmark Productions, Wide Open Opera for ‘The Last Hotel’
• RTÉ & Various Artists/Organisations in association with Ireland 2016 for RTÉ 1916: Reflecting the Rising
• An Post for ‘GPO Witness History 2016 Commissions Programme’
• Bank of America, Merrill Lynch & Trinity College Dublin for The Early Irish Manuscripts Project

Best Mid-Size Sponsorship – over €15,000 – €50,000 value

• Cartoon Saloon & The Butler Gallery
• JAM Media & Animation Dingle
• A&L Goodbody & Suas Educational Development
• Accenture & Royal Irish Academy

 Best Small Sponsorship – €15,000 value and under

• Matthews Coach Hire & Louth County Council Arts Office
• Airbnb & Irish Architecture Foundation
• TileStyle & NCAD
• Lynders Mobile Home Park & Fingal County Council’s Arts Office

Best Long Term Partnership

• The Bord Gáis Energy Student Theatre Awards
• ESB Feis Ceoil
• Arthur Cox & Various Designers
• Bank of Ireland Junk Kouture

Best Use of Creativity in the Community

• IT Sligo & Hawk’s Well Theatre
• Matthews Coach Hire & Louth County Council Arts Office
• Lynders Mobile Home Park & Fingal County Council’s Arts Office
• HSE & axis Ballymun

Best Creative Staff Engagement

• IT Sligo & Hawk’s Well Theatre
• Deloitte & Various Artists for the Deloitte Art Collection
• Bank of Ireland ‘Be Our Inspiration’
• New Ireland Assurance & NCBI Braile & Audio Library

Jim McNaughton Perpetual Award for Best Commissioning Practice

• An Post for ‘GPO Witness History 2016 Commissions Programme’
• Accenture & Royal Irish Academy for ‘Women on Walls’
• Trinity College Dublin for ‘Trinity Creative Challenge’
• An Post & Barbara Knezevic for ‘They are of us all’

 Judges’ Special Recognition Award for Portfolio of Investment

• ESB / Electric Ireland – for their partnerships with Electric Picnic; Feis Ceoil Association; Science Gallery Dublin; ESB Centre for the Study of Irish Art at the National Gallery of Ireland, Improvised Music, Ballyfermot College of Further Education
• An Post – for their partnerships with, Carlow Arts Festival, Stoney Road Press, Fishamble: The New Play Company, Barbara Knezevic, Dublin Dance Festival, GPO Witness History & Philatelic Advisory Committee
• Accenture – for their partnerships with Dublin Theatre Festival, GAZE Film Festival, Royal Irish Academy, ANU Productions, Accenturephonics, Tempo Music School
• RTÉ – for their partnerships with RTÉ Supporting the Arts & RTÉ 1916: Reflecting the Rising

Allianz Community Art Prize

• Helium Arts
• ReCreate
• Visual Carlow – Dancehall
• Children’s Group Link – House of Horrors

For the silver anniversary of the Allianz Business to Arts Awards, the awards sculpture has been commissioned by daa. This year’s sculpture was created by Northern Ireland artist Cara Murphy. Cara created a beautiful silver winged form `Destination’, is a reference to how creative ideas can manifest and take flight, often dispersing and creating new opportunities and ideas.

‘Destination’ by Cara Murphy, commissioned by daa. Image by David Pauley

Design by Eavan Butler featured in the NCAD Fashion Show 2016 at The Westbury Hotel

Rising stars of Irish fashion design showcased at the annual NCAD Fashion Show held in The Westbury car park

The annual show presents an opportunity for graduating students to showcase their creative identities and their work processes as they begin their professional careers. This year’s show featured a range of collections, from highly conceptual garments to ready-to-wear, high-street designs.

Angela O’Kelly, Head of Design for Body and Environment at NCAD, commented: “NCAD’s annual fashion show has become a staple of Ireland’s design calendar and continues to be a leading fashion event. This year, holding our catwalk fashion show in the urban surroundings of The Westbury Hotel’s underground carpark further cements the positioning of NCAD as Ireland’s number one producer of cutting-edge fashion designers.”

“The annual Fashion Show serves as a springboard to launch the careers of our graduates and showcase the knowledge, skills and talent that our Fashion Design graduates have acquired and developed during their time in NCAD. We’re very excited about the innovation, quality of design and breadth of creativity that will be showcased at this year’s Fashion Show – it’s an exciting time for the fashion design industry in Ireland!”

For the second year running the event was supported by Brown Thomas, offering a bursary and mentorship to one student, chosen by Brown Thomas Fashion Director Shelly Corkery as the ‘Designer to Watch’. The prize consisted of a €4,000 bursary, an installation of designs in Create at Brown Thomas in July 2016 and also a mentoring programme with the management team.

The NCAD Fashion Show 2016 was also kindly sponsored by The Doyle Collection. The Westbury is part of The Doyle Collection. Pat King, CEO of The Doyle Collection commented, “We take great pleasure in supporting and nurturing Ireland’s emerging young fashion designers; this was reflected in our activities as corporate sponsor of ID2015, the year of Irish design. Following the success of last year’s NCAD graduate fashion show held in our beautiful Grafton Suite, we were extremely excited to be welcoming back the graduate students again this year and host the first-ever fashion show in the underground car park of The Westbury – this space created a cutting edge catwalk in Dublin’s metropolitan heart.”

NCAD Inspired Afternoon Tea at The Westbury

Supporters of arts, culture and design, Dublin’s luxury hotel The Westbury, launches an NCAD Inspired Afternoon Tea

Nestled within the heart of Dublin’s creative quarter, The Westbury is renowned for its commitment to supporting the arts, culture and design. To celebrate The Westbury’s partnership with the National College of Art and Design (NCAD), Dublin’s premier hotel has launched the NCAD Inspired Afternoon Tea. Served in the serene surroundings of The Gallery, guests will have the opportunity to sample exquisitely designed desserts inspired by some of Ireland’s budding fashion designers.

Executive Pastry Chef at The Westbury, Tatjana Upelniece-Kiselova drew her inspiration from five of NCAD’s third and fourth year students who focused their collections on Colour, Print, Pleating, Stitch and Construction.

An impressive fiery red ensemble infused with Colour created by Zoe Redmond, influenced Tatjana to draw on the bold colour choice with a sumptuous cherry macaroon with smooth velvet, mocha cream.

Eavan Butler’s sophisticated Prints took creative vision from Roy Lichtenstein’s famous pop art prints. Tatjana developed this idea, drawing on the citrus feel the outfit brings to create a lime, lemon and grapefruit tart, finished with a modern-day quote. Similarly, Construction by Laura Egan inspired an exotic piña colada entremets from the beautiful black and yellow dress based on fond childhood memories.

A delicate hand-decorated light and fresh blueberry, vanilla cake inspired by the Pleating in Ciana Keating’s ‘Beach Belle’ sky-blue, swimming dress. The delicate cloud-white linen motivated a fluffy, light dessert. The final look, Stitching, by John Burrows influenced Tatjana’s choice of a delicious chocolate and pistachio eclair, with a light raspberry panel to imitate the pastel pattern of the jacket.

Tatjana Upelniece-Kiselova described how she enjoyed creating and designing desserts; “As a pastry chef it is particularly important to pay attention to the finer details, as it is necessary to have a balance between both how the cakes and pastries resemble the NCAD fashion designers creations and how they will taste for our guests. It was a very exciting challenge to meet with the designers in their NCAD fashion studio and choose which from some of their amazing creations and decide which ones would translate best as a dessert. Overall, it was an incredible experience which I thoroughly enjoyed and it was an absolute pleasure to work with the NCAD fashion graduates, who have each created truly inspiring collections.”

Speaking about the partnership and afternoon tea Angela O’Kelly, Head of Design for Body and Environment at NCAD commented; “We are delighted to be working with The Doyle Collection and The Westbury and received a fantastic response from our recent graduate fashion show which was held in none other than the car park of The Westbury! The Doyle Collection’s support of art and culture singled them out as an ideal partner for the show. We are particularly excited to see how the work of our fashion graduates has inspired the creation of a new Afternoon Tea and we are interested to see how the use of different ingredients to develop textures, colours and shapes will rival the original designs.”

Allianz Business to Arts Awards 2016, Judging Panel Picture by Shane O’Neill Photography.

We are very excited to announce this years Jury Panel for the Allianz Business to Arts Awards 2016. The Jury Panel includes:

Mark Deering, Director of Corporate Affairs, Sky Ireland

Dr. Niamh Nic Ghabhann, Course Director, MA, Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, UL

Paul O’Kane, Chief Communications Officer, daa

Gerard McNaughton, Retail Director, TileStyle

Ursula Murphy, Director of Human Resources, Allianz Ireland

Bevin Cody, Corporate Reputation Manager, ESB

Gavin McLoughlin, Business Jounalist, Independent News & Media

*Also pictured, Andrew Hetherington, Chief Executive, Business to Arts

The shortlist for the 2016 Allianz Business to Arts Awards will be announced mid-July with winners being announced at the 25th annual Allianz Business to Arts Awards in the Bord Gáis Theatre on Monday 19 September 2016.

Pictured at the announcement were Andrew Hetherington, Chief Executive of Business to Arts and Julian Yarr, Managing Partner at A&L Goodbody with pupils from St. Joseph’s Co Ed Primary School, Dublin 3 Cerys Duff (age 7), Heather McNeary (age 9) and Ruby Lawless (age 10).

Business to Arts and leading corporate law firm, A&L Goodbody have launched a unique, new Writer in Residence programme under the Docklands Arts Fund which will see a writer work with children at St. Joseph’s Co-Ed Primary School in East Wall to develop their creativity and literacy skills.

The Writer in Residence role will include working with pupils at St. Joseph’s, participating in literacy workshops with the children and supporting Business to Arts’ wider civic programme of promoting the Arts collaboratively through businesses and communities. The exciting venture marks the first time that a business in Ireland has engaged a Writer in Residence programme with Business to Arts and Dublin City Council. As part of the partnership, A&L Goodbody will also provide funding for the programme worth €30,000.

Commenting on the announcement Andrew Hetherington, Chief Executive of Business to Arts said “We are thrilled to partner with A&L Goodbody on this important and exciting community project as part of the Docklands Arts Fund. Promoting literacy and interaction between writers and the youth of today allows children to bear witness to what can be achieved creatively. It also gives them the opportunity to explore the magical world of literature through day to day encounters with a writer in residence. This is the type of project we envisage has the potential to grow as there are many schools who could reap the benefits from an artist in residence programme.”

A&L Goodbody is committed to raising literacy levels among children in the Docklands area of Dublin. Over the last four years they have been working with education charity Suas in a programme that includes A&L Goodbody people volunteering for a paired reading literacy support programme with 8-14 year olds. 180 of A&L Goodbody’s employees have so far taken part in this programme.

Julian Yarr, Managing Partner at A&L Goodbody said “A&L Goodbody is delighted to be supporting this innovative new initiative. This partnership builds and complements our ongoing work with delivering similar projects such as Suas to boost literacy levels in our area. We look forward to continuing to support this important work over the next three years through the Writer in Residence programme which creates an exciting new dimension in our work to engage and inspire children in our local community through literacy.”

Ellie Kennedy, Principal of St Joseph’s Co-ed Primary School said that “By having a Writer in Residence for our school, we hope that it can provide fantastic opportunities for children to develop a love for writing as well as promoting their creativity and ability to think outside the box. Pupils and staff in our school love working with different people which enhances team work and quality learning in today’s all inclusive classroom.”

Call for experienced writers

The first stage of this partnership is to seek and appoint the Writer in Residence. The successful candidate will have a passion for education, enjoy working with children and be able to demonstrate literary flair. Talented professional writers can find more information here.

The selected Writer in Residence will be announced in August 2016.

Sky Academy announced the recipients of their 2016 Sky Academy Arts Scholarships, including Gearoid O’Dea a visual artist from Dublin and four emerging artists from the UK who have been selected from over 1,100 applicants. The Irish winner was chosen by a judging panel including Mary McCarthy, Director of The National Sculpture Factory and Chair of Culture Ireland’s Expert Advisory Committee; Kris Nelson, Director of Tiger Dublin Fringe, Phil Edgar-Jones, Director of Sky Arts and Andrew Hetherington, CEO of Business to Arts.

Sky Academy Arts Scholarship will fund Gearoid’s first solo exhibition ‘The Had, The Have and the Should’. The exhibition will comprise of eight large scale pieces is supplemented with a central sculpture in a street installation, inspired by Gearoid’s personal experiences with mental health.

This year’s winners represent a broad range of skills and industries including visual art, music and theatre. Each winner will receive €40k/£30k funding, in addition to high level mentoring from Sky and the arts industry to ensure they’re equipped with the skills to deliver their creative projects and unlock their potential.

Sky Ireland’s Director of Corporate Affairs, Mark Deering commented: ‘Sky Ireland welcomes the opportunity to support young Irish artistic talent through the scholarship programme and we hope that Gearoid’s career will go from strength to strength’.

Andrew Hetherington, Business to Arts, Joe McCann, Bath Avenue Community Gardner, Angus Potterton, Managing Director Ireland, Savills, Andrew Christopher Dunne, Garden Designer Iain White/Fennell Photography Fennell Photography 2016

We are delighted to announce our latest Docklands Arts Fund Champion and new member – Savills.  Savills has teamed-up with renowned Irish gardener, Andrew Christopher Dunne to the create award-winning ‘The Savills Garden – Face to Face’ at Bloom this June.

Following the event, Savills will partner with the Docklands Arts Fund founded by Business to Arts – to donate plants from The Savills Garden to the 4th Port Ringsend Sea Scouts Community Garden and the East Wall Mens’ Sheds Community Garden in Dublin’s Docklands. Andrew Christopher Dunne and his team will advise on how to cultivate and maintain the wide variety of plant species that will be donated to the community gardens.

The garden is designed to highlight the importance of connecting and communicating ‘face to face’ within the confines and comfort of our own homes – a concept that is lost on many in the age of the smartphone.

Andrew Christopher Dunne, designer of The Savills Garden commented:
“With the ever changing landscape of the social media age, interactions between people and our environment has all too often become a series of text and images which we like, share, post and retweet. Where we believe we are more connected than ever, in reality, the opposite is true. In place of real interactions and engagements on a human level, we have succumbed to the ease of virtual connections and interactions which are often just a shadow of the real thing. Our garden has been designed to both highlight the problem and offer a solution to this disconnect and redress the balance in all our lives.”

Speaking about the partnership, Angus Potterton, Managing Director of Savills Ireland commented:
“Savills is committed to enriching the communities in which it operates. As part of our commitment to arts and the community, we have recently become a corporate champion for the Docklands Arts Fund, which seeks to enrich the Docklands area through artistic means. We are delighted that some of the plants from our award winning Bloom garden will be donated to two community gardens in recognition of our commitment to playing our part in the rejuvenation of our city.”

Andrew Hetherington, Chief Executive of Business to Arts said:
“Business to Arts are delighted to work with Savills and Garden Designer Andrew Christopher Dunne, incorporating the design of the ‘The Savills Garden – Face to Face’ in two terrific community gardens, in tandem with Savills commitment to the Docklands Arts Fund. Recreating aspects of the design and facilitating the cultivation of the community gardens ensures the creative energy of the Savills garden lives on in the Docklands.”

Click here for more information on the Docklands Arts Fund.

Pauric Dempsey (Royal Irish Academy) and Michelle D. Cullen (Accenture Ireland) presenting the Women On Walls project at the 2016 International Women’s Day.

Women on Walls is a campaign by Accenture, in partnership with the Royal Irish Academy (RIA), that seeks to make women leaders visible through a series of commissioned portraits that will create a lasting cultural legacy for Ireland in 2016. The programme is simultaneously raising awareness of the gender gap in STEM and supporting Accenture’s global Inclusion & Diversity agenda.

Accenture is commissioning five portraits of leading women academics to recognise their achievements and inspire future generations. The five portraits will consist of four individual portraits of the first four female Members of the Royal Irish Academy, elected in 1949. The fifth portrait will be a group portrait of eight women scientists, who are recipients of the European Research Council Starter Grants 2012 – 2015 and have been chosen as representatives of a generation of outstanding young female scientists working in Ireland today.

The portraits are planned to be placed on public display in the main hall of the Royal Irish Academy towards the end of 2016. The five new portraits will be the first portraits of women subjects to grace the walls in the Academy’s 230 year history.

Commenting on the programme, Alastair Blair, Country Managing Director of Accenture Ireland said: “Accenture is deeply committed to supporting the arts and creative industries. Working with our partners the Royal Irish Academy, Women on Walls provides us with an opportunity to highlight the critical role women have played in the area of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths). In the design led world of today, the intersection of Arts, Technology and industry is of huge importance – form and function are equally important to consumers, employees and the citizen. This programme will help highlight the enormous contribution women have made to Arts, Humanities and Technology in Ireland, with the aim to leaving a cultural legacy for the last 100 years and also to inspire the next 100.”

Phase 1 of the project is drawing to completion with the appointment of the chosen artist(s) for the commission. In total 55 submissions were received from the Open Call to artists, all of which were of a very high standard.

View more about the programme and subjects by visiting www.accenture.com/womenonwalls

“The partnership has really captured the imagination of many people and has helped to engage them on a broader topic of understanding gender inequality. The first women who will be honoured in the portraits achieved the highest Academic honour in Ireland in being elected to the Academy almost 70 years ago, but the fact that none of them had a place on the walls of Academy House reminds us of the unconscious bias that can exist in so many contexts. Sometimes, we need to look at things through a new lens to see what’s right in front of us. Driving real change means changing the way we look at things, and it all starts with each of us. The paintings will honour the individual women in the portraits as role models for future generations. But additionally, the story of the paintings, and how they came about, will form part of the narrative, and part of the conversation about attitudes to women in science and the humanities over time.” Michelle Cullen, Head of Inclusion & Diversity, Accenture Ireland

Feargal O’Rourke, managing partner, PwC (centre) with Liam Kavanagh (back), managing director, the Irish Times and Andrew Hetherington, chief executive, Business to Arts. Photograph: Jason Clarke

As part of Business to Arts’ ongoing CEO Forum series, PwC will host next month’s Business to Arts CEO Forum. The Forum is a group of 100 CEO’s from across business and the arts in Ireland who come together each year to discuss new models of partnering and engagement between the cultural industries and the wider business sector.

On May 18^th, the CEO Forum will discuss how Irish corporates are leveraging new technologies to engage differently with customers, bringing their assets, heritage and story to a wider audience. The recent PwC Global CEO Survey ‘Redefining Business Success in a Changing World’ found that nine out of ten CEOs say they are changing how they use technology to assess customer and wider stakeholder expectations, and deliver against them.

PwC managing partner Feargal O Rourke said technological and digital advances were “game changers” for business and consumers alike.

“For businesses it’s about using the technology for competitive advantage, providing the content and monetising it,” he said. “For consumers it’s all about exciting content experiences, anytime, anywhere. Technology is transforming how we engage with customers. And we also see technology transforming the world of work, enabling people to work in virtual offices wherever they are located and presenting opportunities for even better collaboration.”

Chief Executive of Business to Arts, Andrew Hetherington states:

 ‘New forms of technology present organisations with unique opportunities and possibilities where there is the potential to create a truly immersive brand experiences for consumers. However, there are concerns that these rapid technological advancements could have negative societal implications. We look forward to starting this conversation at the CEO Forum next Wednesday’ 

The Business to Arts CEO FORUM takes place at the PwC headquarters at Spencer Dock on Wednesday May 18th. Speakers include RTÉ chief digital officer Muirne Laffan, An Post Director of Communications and Corporate Affairs Barney Whelan, Alex Gibson from the DIT School of Hospitality, Management & Tourism and Irish Times Managing Editor Liam Kavanagh.

River Liffey and Dublin Docklands from Liberty Hall

We are delighted to announce that Business to Arts are seeking applications for the Docklands Arts Fund  from artists and not-for-profit, charitable & voluntary arts organisations. The objective of the grant round is to contribute funds to a range of artists and arts organisations working in the Dublin Docklands Area.

Approximately 3 grants of a maximum of €7,000 each will be given to projects by July 2016. Additional opportunities will be announced during 2016 and applications will be accepted from 6th May – 27th May 2016.

We aim to support activities that enhance the practice, appreciation and development of quality arts experiences in the Dublin Docklands Area. These include:

• New/innovative art commissions/projects
• Projects that are delivered by OR involve professional artists
• Projects that widen access to participation to arts activities and arts education for under-represented groups, such as persons from low-income background, those with disabilities, older people etc.
• Projects that provide opportunities to engage in safe and productive out-of-school arts activities for young people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities
• Projects that promote arts/cultural awareness and understanding and develop new audiences
• Once-off arts events (performances/productions, festivals) that will occur in the Docklands Area
• Projects that will take place between July 2016 and June 2017

For full details click here.

To Download a PDF of the Briefing Criteria and a Hard Copy of the Online Form , click here.

Pictured from left to right, Andrew Hetherington, CEO of Business to Arts and Brendan Murphy, CEO of Allianz Ireland hitting a high note at the launch of the Allianz Business to Arts Awards 2016.

This year we mark our Silver Anniversary – 25 years celebrating world-class relationships across arts and business.

The Allianz Business to Arts Awards recognise and champion the spirit of collaboration between businesses, artists and arts organisations that develop creative partnerships; bringing the arts and artists into mutually beneficial relationships across society.

“Both the artistic and business landscape has changed beyond recognition in the last 25 years. And we have seen the evolution of the relationship between business and the arts evolve into a mutually beneficial dialogue where both sides collaborate to benefit the business and societal bottom line,” said Brendan Murphy, CEO of Allianz. “Did you know that €60.3 million that was used to fund arts organisations and individuals across Ireland in 2010, €41.1 million was returned directly to the Exchequer in the form of income, VAT and other taxes? That is before you factor in any consumer spending during the events or activities. Supporting the arts has and continues to deliver in terms of measurable return of investment and reaps dividends for our society as a whole.”

Andrew Hetherington, Chief Executive of Business to Arts said, “In our 25th year celebrating creative partnerships, the Allianz Business to Arts Awards will honour some of the most outstanding examples of partnerships between business and arts. Each year we are amazed at the creativity, innovation and excellence demonstrated by the various nominations we receive from around the country. In this, our silver anniversary, we look forward to recognising and celebrating new award-wining projects with our own partner, Allianz. With an evolving funding paradigm in the cultural sector across earned income, public funding and private investment it makes the encouragement and celebration of world-class partnerships more important than ever”

Closing date for applications is Monday 9 May 2016 at 5pm. Click here for information on the application process and to complete the application form.

#ABtoAAwards

Pictured above are Charlie Murphy, Dublin Port, Gary Sheehan, National Concert Hall, Simon Taylor, National Concert Hall, Eamonn O’Reilly, Dublin Port, Lucy McCaffrey, Paul Noonan, Andrew Hetherington, Business to Arts and Matthew King, National Concert Hall. Picture by Conor McCabe Photography.

Dublin Port has recently announced details of ‘Starboard Home’, a unique collaboration featuring 12 of Ireland’s foremost songwriters. Presented in association with the National Concert Hall, ‘Starboard Home’ has been commissioned by Dublin Port as part of the Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme. Twelve leading names in contemporary music have been invited to compose and perform new songs inspired by the relationship of the Port with the City. These include: Paul Noonan (BellX1), James Vincent McMorrow, Cathy Davey, Duke Special, Gemma Hayes, Jape, Colm Mac Con Iomaire, Lisa O’Neill, Declan O’Rourke, John Sheahan (The Dubliners) Paul Cleary (The Blades) and novelist Caitriona Lally.

Produced by acclaimed Irish songwriter Paul Noonan (Bell X1 and Printer Clips) and Gary Sheehan at the National Concert Hall, ‘Starboard Home’ reflects on the complex relationships between the Port, the City and the Liffey through song, ranging from elegant electronic pop to sublime trad inspired moments and crafted song-writing. This remarkable set of songs presents a contemporary and panoramic view of Dublin as a port city.

The artists gathered at Sun Studios in Dublin during February 2016 to collaborate and record ‘Starboard Home’. Bringing together a new band featuring Nick Seymour (Crowded House), Brian Crosby (formerly of BellX1 and The Cake Sale) and Glenn Keating (I Am The Cosmos and Jape), the artists have recorded all the new works for an album to be released in June 2016. Starboard Home Premiere Concert will take place 22nd June 2016 at the National Concert Hall.

Commenting on the initiative, Eamonn O’Reilly, Chief Executive, Dublin Port said: “Dublin Port is delighted to announce that we have commissioned new contemporary music for 2016 from leading Irish artists in association with the National Concert Hall. Inspired by the Port and the Liffey, Starboard Home is a major addition to Ireland’s musical heritage which Dublin Port hopes will help rebuild the connection between the Port and the City which was so strong a century ago but which has waned in recent decades.”

“Over the last three years, Dublin Port has looked to the arts to find a voice to help bridge the false dichotomy between Port and City and to remake the link of centuries. The Port’s support for culture and the arts builds on a long tradition of engagement with local communities in a way that engages new audiences.”

“Where the languages of statistics, finance and commerce fail to convey the importance and relevance of Dublin Port, we have found that the arts succeed. We are confident that Starboard Home will help us to continue to communicate with the widest audience.”

Simon Taylor, CEO of the National Concert Hall, said: “As the home of music in Ireland and an iconic landmark in the city, the National Concert Hall is proud to partner with Dublin Port on their ambitious investment in commissioning and presenting this unique and exciting creative project. It represents a significant and imaginative contribution by Dublin Port to the Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme and continues the development of the National Concert Hall’s commitment and support of Irish musicians and composers across the musical spectrum.”

‘Starboard Home’ is the latest in a series of cultural and heritage initiatives by Dublin Port designed to present Dublin’s rich maritime heritage in new and thought-provoking ways.

Dublin Port’s recent initiatives encompass fine art, digital installation, modern sculpture and architectural revival:

• Dublin Port has created a modern interpretation for the Diving Bell on Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, part industrial heritage, part sculpture.
• Cliona Harmey’s Dublin Ships installation graced the Scherzer Bridge on North Wall Quay for nine months during 2015 intriguing passers-by with ever-changing couplets of ship names.
• Artist Feargal McCarthy created a replica installation of Dublin Port’s Northbank Lighthouse as part of the Science Gallery’s HOME\SICK 2015 exhibition with support from Dublin Port.
• The Port has more recently commissioned artist and NCAD graduate Eimear Murphy to create a new sculpture that will provide a focal point for Port Centre on East Wall Road, fashioned from contemporary materials which are the language of building and industry.
• Dublin Port is currently co-operating with Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane to bring an exhibition of the works of Antwerp’s port artist Eugeen van Mieghem to Dublin in 2017.

Business to Arts is delighted to announce the appointment of Helen Carroll to the position of Senior Manager – Marketing & Strategic Partnerships. Helen joins our team to develop and implement strategies that enhance the visibility and impact of our many programs, partnerships, services and events.

Prior to joining Business to Arts, she was Assistant Manager of the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, overseeing all operational, contractual, and financial aspects of productions, events and conferences. Having worked as Senior Marketing and Press Officer prior to this, Helen developed and implemented strategic marketing campaigns and sponsorship opportunities for international and national productions. In the past she has also worked for Dance Theatre of Ireland, EventHaus Ltd. and IMG Artists, London.

Helen graduated with a Masters in Cultural Policy & Arts Management from University College Dublin in 2011 having previously obtained a Bachelor in Laws (LL.B) from Trinity College Dublin. She is an Associate of the Royal Irish Academy of Music (ARIAM, 2006) and received a piano performance diploma from the London College of Music (Dip,LCM 2004). She is also an Associate and full teaching member of the Royal Academy of Dance, London.

Pictured above are Prof. Aoife McLysaght, Laura Mahoney, Royal Irish Academy, Alistair Blair, Accenture, Prof. Lydia Lynch, Eithne Harley, Accenture, Pauric Dempsey, Royal Irish Academy, Dr. Aoife Gowen, Prof. Sarah McCormack, and Andrew Hetherington, Business to Arts. Picture by Shane O’Neill Photography.

Women on Walls is a campaign by Accenture in partnership with the Royal Irish Academy that seeks to make women leaders visible through a series of commissioned portraits that will create a lasting cultural legacy for Ireland in 2016.

Accenture is commissioning five portraits of leading female academics to recognise their achievements and inspire future generations. The finished artworks will be on public display in the Royal Irish Academy, the first portraits of female subjects to grace the walls in the Academy’s 230 year history.

The five portraits will consist of four individual portraits of the first four female Members of the Royal Irish Academy, elected in 1949. The fifth portrait will be a group portrait of eight female scientists, who are recipients of the European Research Council Starter Grants 2012 – 2015 and have been chosen as representatives of a generation of outstanding young female scientists working in Ireland today.

Business to Arts, working in partnership with Accenture, are now inviting Irish artists and artists based in Ireland for three years or more to submit previous work for consideration by the panel of local experts for this unique commission. Deadline for submissions: Wednesday 20 April 2016 (5.00pm)

For more information, please download the Submission Criteria & FAQ and click here to complete your Entry Form.

For all queries relating to this project or the Open Call to Artists please contact womenonwalls@businesstoarts.ie