AbaF Business Arts Partnership Awards

Prime Minister John Howard presented the Australia Business Arts Foundation’s (AbaF) top business arts partnership awards in Melbourne this month in a climate of renewed business support for the arts – recently reported figures show it has increased substantially over the last five years.

AbaF’s new research report Business Support for the Arts in Australia: Recent Developments and Future Directions compares various surveys conducted over the last five years. The results show that private sector support for the arts may have increased by as much as 80 per cent since 1997.

As Pro Bono Australia reported last month, the Generosity of Australian Businesses survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated that business gave $46.7M in arts and cultural sponsorships in 2001.

The glittering awards night in front of 800 invited guests saw two leadership honours going to a Sydney businessman and the General Manager of the Australia Ballet.

Tony Berg, Director of the investment company Gresham Partners is the winner of AbaF’s Richard Pratt Business Leadership Award. The winner of the Dame Elisabeth Murdoch Cultural Leadership Award is Ian McRae, who is stepping down as General Manager of the Australian Ballet.

Network Seven and Opera Australia won the AbaF 2002 Partnership of the Year Award and the Australia Council Media Arts Award. Other winners were:

Penfolds Commitment Award
Transfield and Biennale of Sydney.

Bytecraft Innovation Award
The Fremantle Football Club and Deckchair Theatre.

ANZ Community Award
Telstra and Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art.

QantasLink Regional Award
Launceston’s Examiner newspaper and Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery.

City of Melbourne Open Award
Wesfarmers Limited and various arts organisations in Western Australia

The Australia Business Arts Foundation (AbaF) is a Commonwealth company that works to increase private sector support for the arts. A copy of its latest research project can be downloaded at www.abaf.org.au.