'The Practice of Sponsorship and Funding within the World of Art.'
I have chosen to research the concept of corporate sponsorship in relation to regional art galleries, in particular Hazlehurst Regional Art Gallery, located within the Sutherland Shire district of Sydney.
I will construct a case study that focuses on the ramifications of government finding favouring regional galleries over larger art institutions. The Art Gallery of New South Wales is an example of an established institution, i will compare the funding policies of this gallery with Hazlehurst Regional gallery.
Often Regional Galleries offer services such as seminars and presentations by successful artist's to educate and encourage aspiring artist's. Caloundra City Council are an example of a district offering education to artist's interested in exhibiting. It is evident that The New South Wales government are financially focusing on building awareness of the art world within Western districts.
Corporate Sponsorship is a major contributor in offering financial assistance to small regional galleries and larger artistic instituations, however this article produced by the Ministry of Arts describes in detail the financial assistance the government has granted art organisations in recent years.
'Under the City of the Arts Program, a local government is allocated $300,000 over two years to coordinate arts activities and strengthen arts services in its region. '
The importance of the Arts has increaced dramatically and been recognised in recent years as a valuable investment, therefore more funds have been made available through donation and government funding to strengthen arts programs within communities.
Most Corporate Companies within Australia invest there time and money into the area of sport.
An article found in Melbourne's newspaper The Age makes clear the similarities between Business and Sport. It is interesting to note that
"In 2000-01, the latest year for which figures are available, Australian business gave $628 million to sport. Arts and culture got only $70 million."In the article entitled 'Get Sponsorship Down to a Fine Art', the author describes the benefits of funding and supporting the Arts, these includes personal and artistic inspiration for employees by attending openings and cultural events, and suggest that knowledge of the Arts makes a manager/CEO/ employee more diverse and approachable in the Business world, and therefore equips them to be more relational and personable to clients.
This idea of improving on ones character through association with the Arts is also evident in the marketing campaigns aimed at companies interested in financially supporting both Regional and Government associated Galleries and Institutions. By offering employee benefits that funding and sponsorship of an Art Gallery allow a company access to, staff and Corporate Organisations recieve free lectures from Artist's, invitations to exhibition openings and private workshops and seminars. This will be explored in greater detail in my research on The Hazlehurst Regional Art Gallery in the following Blog.