If a prickly frisson of suspicion once defined the relationship between the worlds of business and arts, today the two are engaging in what looks more like a full-blown romance.
Just as managers are lining up to hear how Shakespeare, Chinese poets, classical orchestras and even traditional music can help them run their businesses better, artists are returning the compliment by reading management gurus and going to business school. And it's not just ideas that are flowing between onetime strangers - so is cash.
In the Republic, as in other Western countries, sponsorship of the arts is gathering pace - not surprising in this State, perhaps, given the small starting base. In 1987 Irish-based businesses spent a mere £1.5 million (€1.9 million) on arts sponsorships. By 1993 the figure had jumped to £5.2 million; by 1995 it was up to £7.4 million and in 1997, the last year for which figures are available, businesses were paying out £10.2 million to back arts activities.
"My guess is the figures for 1999 will show another large increase - possibly even double the 1997 number," said Ms Brigid Roden, chief executive of Cothu, the Business Council for the Arts. Cothu was set up a decade ago to promote relationships and counter the then-prevailing feeling, according to Cothu's Mr Kevin Kelly, that "sponsorship of the arts was anathema".
Today's different climate is particularly obvious every November, when Cothu hands out annual awards to arts-friendly businesses. Interesting sponsorship ideas are highlighted at the prize-fest as much as cash amounts - indeed one of this year's winners hands out no cash. Instead, south-east based Sam Hire scooped the small business award for providing heavy equipment free to the Red Kettle Theatre Company in Waterford. The deal means that the theatre group saves money on set building, while Sam Hire's local profile has been enhanced.
Other prize-winners at the TileStyle sponsored event included the ESB for its sponsorship of Opera Theatre Company's Cinderella, Hennessy Cognac for its continued backing for The Hennessy New Irish Writing Awards and PMPA for getting behind the Royal Irish Academy of Music/Comhaltas Ceolteori Eireann Traditional Music Syllabus.
Sligo's Blue Raincoat Theatre Company won the arts award for its "effective and imaginative" use of sponsorship from local architects Hamilton Young Lawlor Ellison. HYLE has been providing professional, financial and other support services to the theatre group since 1991, and its support helped the group secure major national and international capital grants.
Cothu has recently been evaluating and expanding its activities, following the appointment this year of Ms Roden, whose varied career combining arts and business includes stints in New York in the 1970s, London in the 1980s and Brussels in the early 1990s.
Ms Roden was the director of a pivotal event in the perception of Irish culture in the UK - the 1980 Sense of Ireland Festival. She has worked for the IDA in New York and London, and at one point was project director at Birr Castle in Co Offaly.
Although the relationship between arts and business is improving - or recovering, given that through history patronage has always been vital to the arts - there is potential for a lot more sponsorship and other links, she says. "Sports sponsorship is so overcrowded they're practically painting the grass. There is room for many more companies to see the value of arts sponsorship, particularly in relation to niche marketing," she says.
She would like to see the Republic move closer to the enviable situation in Austria, where arts account for 43 per cent of large business sponsorship, trailing only slightly behind sport, which receives 48 per cent.
The main reason given by Austrian firms for sponsoring art was improved public image, but many companies said arts sponsorship was an integral part of company philosophy. Others said it was a good way of reaching target markets.
"When a company adds its name to a theatre production, or a tour, the value for money in terms of public identification with the business are excellent," says Ms Roden. "The smart business will get involved in an early stage and make sure its identity is fully incorporated in the promotional material. There's so much more you can do besides just adding your logo on to a brochure."
In 1997, the leading arts sponsors in the Republic were banks and building societies, who contributed 18.9 per cent of the £10.2 million total sponsorship. Food and beverage businesses contributed 18.5 per cent and printing and publishing groups were third with 11.4 per cent. Among the recipients, visual arts and galleries received 13.6 per cent, classical and contemporary music got 13.5 per cent, theatre 12 per cent, traditional, folk and jazz music 10.5 per cent, opera 7 per cent and literature 5 per cent.
The spread of funding throughout the State shows a heavy weighting towards Dublin city and county, which received almost 48 per cent of the total sponsorship. In stark contrast, the east and southeast received 4.6 per cent, the south and southwest 13.5 per cent, the west and northwest 9.6 per cent and the midlands trailed at a mere 1.8 per cent. Statewide sponsorships, however, accounted for almost 23 per cent of the total.
In 2000, Cothu representatives will travel to cities around the State to encourage interest among businesses in the regions, says Ms Roden.
Among the examples of good practice she will be point to is Nortel, which has sponsored the International Theatre Programme at the Galway Arts Festival since 1992. Besides enjoying a high-profile brand boost during the festival, Nortel encourages its employees to help out at the festival, and operates a ticket booth on its premises. The festival involvement also offers the company an opportunity for "very attractive" corporate entertaining, says Ms Roden.
As well as sponsorships, Ms Roden is also setting her sights on building up other arts-businesses links, such as those being introduced by Cothu's UK counterpart, Arts & Business, which held its annual award ceremony in London in early December.
Business in the UK supports the arts with about £115 million sterling (€184 million) a year in sponsorship.
This year, for instance, a pilot programme in conjunction with Enterprise Ireland, links experienced business people with 10 arts organisations.
For chartered accountant Mr Vincent O'Neill, the role of mentor at the Irish National Youth Ballet, the National Youth Orchestra and the RHA Gallery is a way of "putting back into the arts something I have got out of it all my life".
Mentors, who are there to help out in the organisational, financial and business aspects of the arts groups, are primarily "friend, guide and philosopher - in that order", says Mr O'Neill. "Many arts organisations now are very skilled in their own sphere and operate very well on their own. They do sometimes have a feeling of isolation, and then the mentor can become a listening board and a sounding post for ideas."
For a number of years arts groups have also been offered free places, when space is available, on finance and business courses run by a variety of organisations such as the IMI, IBEC and The Irish Times. In 1998/99 the value of placements on up to 40 courses was £41,250.
"We're planning a troubleshooting service too, so for instance if a group is in trouble with its accounts, we can send in an accountant to help," says Ms Roden.
She is also encouraged by the increasing arts-business links in the traditional education sector. On top of existing courses in arts management and administration at UCD and UCC, the State's first MBA in arts management and cultural policy is in the advanced planning stage at the University of Limerick.
The MBA, to be offered jointly by UL's College of Business and the Irish World Music Centre in the College of Humanities, will address practical organisational training as well as "encouraging a critical, reflective and sensitive" approach to the development of cultural activity. "It will have a global focus, and a particular interest in examining the mediation of Irish culture abroad," said Prof Micheal O Suilleabhain, who holds the Chair of Music at UL, where activities at the Irish World Music Centre have benefited for many years from private sponsorships from companies such as Toyota.
Cothu provides a service putting companies in touch with arts groups looking for sponsorships. Arts organisations listed in a recent bulletin included theatre, music, opera, literary and dance groups. Interested businesses can phone 01 676 6966 for more information.
