Winners of the 2021 Business to Arts Award for the Best Small Sponsorship, Aerogen and Druid Theatre Company, have shown how business-arts partnerships have the ability to adapt quickly to ensure continued success.

Thanks to Aerogen’s support, Druid Theatre Company was able to respond to Covid-19 by pivoting its 2020 commission DruidGregory to an outdoor format, bringing world-class theatre into the heart of Galway communities.

DruidGregory toured 13 outdoor venues in Co Galway during September and October of last year, incorporating a new Education and Community Programme. This involved engaging with schools and communities in all of these locations, making the work of two great Galway playwrights, Lady Augusta Gregory and Tom Murphy, accessible to audiences of all ages and backgrounds.

“This partnership works because both organisations value and are inspired by their locality and the people who live and work there,” says John McEvoy, Development and Marketing Executive at Druid.

“When Covid-19 hit, Aerogen was confident that Druid would continue to focus on the original aspirations of the programme and work to ensure that as many aspects of the community and schools engagement would be completed.”

In fact, the partners agreed to bolster the programme with a deeper level of engagement with primary schools than was originally envisioned.

“While, due to Covid-19, it wasn’t possible to live in local communities while creating the performances as originally planned, the programme still achieved an enhanced level of community engagement that will be replicated and developed in the future,” says McEvoy.

This included: free performances and post-show discussion in five post-primary schools; teacher resource packs and educational activities; and performances and workshops in local communities around Co Galway.

“In Aerogen, we place a high level of importance on corporate social responsibility. We have a role to play in supporting the local community and as such actively look out for partnerships that are aligned with our values,” says Ciara Power, Global Corporate Communications Manager at Aerogen.

“Druid’s Education and Community Programme was a great fit for us as it was bringing something positive to the community during a very challenging time. It was also great to be able to offer something to staff to get involved in, particularly at a time when there wasn’t much going on. We found it uplifting to support a programme that brought so much to the local community.”

Druid ensured that Aerogen was kept up to date on all necessary changes to the original DruidGregory programme and was very involved in the process.

“Working with John McEvoy and the rest of the team at Druid made this partnership much easier than we could have imagined,” says Power. “They embraced the challenges presented by Covid-19 and came up with a great programme of events that could go ahead in line with restrictions at the time.”