THE celebration of Western Australia’s top business-arts partnerships this week revealed the increasingly important contribution small and medium-sized businesses are making to the state’s creative industries.
The announcement of the eight state winners and two finalists in national-only award categories of the Australia Business Arts Foundation’s 2011 awards showcased the wide range of businesses engaging with cultural organisations Ð from BHP Billiton Iron Ore to Little Creatures Brewing and Azimuth Financial Advisers.
It’s a significant shift that has been driven by AbaF WA director Henry Boston in the decade since he opened the state office.
Mr Boston’s work in breaking down the old sponsorship paradigm, under which big companies wrote cheques in exchange for free tickets and their name on a program, has paid significant dividends for both arts organisations and the business community.
Pushing businesses to expand their interaction with creative organisations and extend it beyond a simple marketing exercise has provided much-needed support for WA’s arts sector and provided some protection against the hard times.
Mr Boston said this was most evident in the wash-up of the GFC, when only a small number of businesses reviewed their partnerships.
“I was pleased how little dropped off (post-GFC) but if anything there has been a shift from some of the larger and more established arts organisations É to increased investment by the small to medium businesses into the small to medium arts organisations,” he said.
“This is probably where we have done more of our work than anywhere, because these are the organisations that are poorly resourced in that process and don’t necessarily have the ability to hire consultants.
“A lot of that professional development work we have done with their staff has resulted in increased investment and sometimes first investments by the corporate sector.”
The Woodside Better Business Award went to Peter Zissiadis for his work finding AWESOME Arts Australia and the Australian Writers’ Guild new office accommodation in the Perth CBD.
Broad business support for the arts
AWESOME and the guild were in dire need of new city office space but lacked the resources or experience to negotiate the CBD’s increasingly expensive office market.
Mr Zissiadis, who was working for Bankwest’s property division at the time, advocated and negotiated on behalf of the two organisations and ended up securing them new premises in the William Street redevelopment in Northbridge.
Mr Boston said this award recognised individuals who provided pro-bono help to arts organisations.
“In this case it was a very specialist skill that Peter provided to a couple of organisations that would never be able to afford to buy that sort of expertise,” he said.
“Peter was brought in initially to just provide a bit of advice but got very engaged in helping them to understand the process and advocating on their behalf to the people handling the lease for the East Perth Redevelopment Authority.”
Despite historically tough retail conditions, Little Creatures Brewing was also recognised in the awards for its partnership with fellow port city resident, Fremantle Arts Centre.
Perhaps the most powerful aspect of this partnership is the shared values between these two iconic Fremantle organisations.
They are the partners for the high-profile print awards but they have also collaborated on a number of community projects, including the annual fund-raising concert, Gimme Shelter.
BHP Billiton Iron Ore flew the flag for big mining, picking up an award for its partnership with FORM and Freehills on The Canning Stock Route Project Alliance.
This legacy-building project has provided Aboriginal communities with the chance to share their history, preserve their traditional cultural knowledge systems and develop new vocational and economic pathways.