I found it particularly difficult,though, to track down information regarding the specific names of artworks held in collections and how these were acquired, obviously corporations do not disclose this information. This was a little frustrating but could be overcome with an email to the appropriate person within the company. Such collecting strategies were discussed in art journals both on and offline including Artlink, Art Monthly and Art and Australia that offered several pieces on corporate collections in New South Wales and Western Australia. Finally gallery websites were of additional use by elaborating on projects and partnerships with certain corporations. The NGA's website returned a number of articles relating to their national sculpture prize, that was until recently a joint venture with Macquarie Bank. These articles are also indicative of Macquarie Bank's support of contemporary art, though it was the ABC's website that elaborated on the cancellation of the prize.

The internet is immediate, widely accessible and accommodating of change and flux. ARIs have increasingly shorter life spans in Sydney and these organisations are moving and becoming more transitory. Web sites cater to these changes and are able to provide up to date information about ARIs including details of current exhibitions and an archive of past shows. As a result, there has been a depth of information available through home pages of galleries, collectives and networks, government bodies and media coverage.

Some of the more successful galleries such as First Draft in Sydney and West Space in Melbourne provide useful information on their aims, history, artist information and interviews and current exhibitions. Some of the smaller or newer exhibition spaces are unable to provide such a depth of information on their web pages.

In order to gain an understanding of the broader ARI community, the collective web sites such as VIA-n and Crawl have been useful. VIA-n was especially significant in providing information on the ARIs in Victoria (when looking at them in comparison to those in Sydney). Also useful in understanding the funding available to these organisations were the government sites such as NAVA or the Australia Council, although it must be understood that these sites have a particular policy to support.

There is a lack of critical writing or reviewing of ARIs on the web, what there is limited to a couple of newspaper articles. There is definitely space available for a stronger local network in Sydney in order to both assist the local ARIs, but also provide information to the wider community.

Government web sites.
These sites are usually concerned with detailing government policy in relation to the funding of arts organisations and government initiatives. These sites include:

Nava (National Association for the Visual Arts ltd)
Nava administer grants and this site features information on grants and funding, as well as news from the arts sector and information on campaigns run by NAVA in support of artists and the issues confronting them.

The Australia Council for the Arts
Containing information about funding, grant options, ARI listings and alternative funding options. These include links to the Australia Business Arts Foundation

Australia Business Arts Foundation web site incorporating the Australia Cultural Fund. This organisation seeks to link cultural organisations with businesses, donors and volunteers, aiming to increase funding opportunities for non-profit cultural organisations.

The Program
An all-encompassing arts/culture site directed at a youth audience.

Gallery web sites.
Gallery home pages are generally useful for providing a history and mission statement of the gallery. They usually also provide information on current exhibitions and artists, as swell as an archive of past exhibitions. This archive enables one to garner an idea about the curatorial focus of the gallery through the exhibitions they have mounted. Some of the best are:

First Draft
This site feature history, archives, contemporary exhibitions, emerging curator program. Perhaps the most prolific ARI in Sydney.

Collective web sites.
The web sites that I’ve included in this group are usually run by non-profit organisations aiming to support ARIs and encourage the development of networks within this community.

VIA-n
Victoria-based organisation in support of ARIs. This organisation is supported by the Australia Council, Arts Victoria and the Victorian Tourist Board.

http://crawl.net.au
This site is still new, with a national focus.

Media.
I’ve found most of the reviews and editorials on media web sites. The best articles I’ve found have been published by the Sydney Morning Herald. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has also run a few stories on ARIs through their Arts arm. Vibewire is a new site that I’ve found that is aimed at a young audience and their focus is on encouraging their readers to submit reviews.

Last Chance to See? SMH January 13 2006
An article about the closing of Space 3 in Sydney.

More on the contracting ARI scene in Sydney.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/05/23/1085250867900.html?from=storyrhshttp://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/05/23/1085250867900.html?from=storyrhs

By searching Museum websites such as the Guggenheims I was able to find out present and past sponsors of various exhibitions and provide a base for my case study- 'The Art of the Motorcycle exhibition.' From there links to one of BMW's many websites was included.

My search unearthed a couple of interesting sites related to sponsorship. Both sites provided me with information on BMW's sponsorship projects, neither of which were at prestigious art galleries but were at regional Art Collages (The Royal College of Art in the Uk and the University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia). These sites demonstrated the truly global nature of BMW's relationship with, and sponsorship of, the arts.

Many of the sites from my initial search, however, were quite unhelpful. They tended to be enthusiasts sites relating to the superior design and style of the BMW brand, whilst some did provide links to more suitable sites for my research I decided it was time to use findarticles.com and google scholar in order to narrow the search and find sites more specific to the case study. Whilst the internet provided me with a plethora of sites displaying information on BMW the global company, the Art Car collection, sponsorship of exhibitions and other arts media, it was often hard to find scolarly and more specific information related to the issue of blurring art and advertising. The online newspaper search did provide a number of articles that discussed art and product placement and the issues of co- branding. On a number of the issues I was able to find art critics views and relevant arguements to use in my case study.

The need to go off line
After spending an awfully long time sifting through the information on the website I decided that I would come off line and use journal articles and books to supplement my research. I found Rectanus and Chin Tao Wu particularly helpful, with Rectanus providing numerous BMW case studies and offering plenty of information on the issues relating to corporate sponsorship.

These articles prompted me to look into further issues related to the reasons for Corporate Sponsorship. Whereupon I located an article entitled Advertising & Art A Modern-Day Marriage - Industry Trend or Event, and an article from the Times Online entitled 'Sponsorship is a fine art: Having your brand associated with a prestigious cultural event can make business sense, that provided evidence for the arguement that linking the companies logo and name thorugh sponsorship of the arts enables companies to reinforce their corporate message and their image. A quote from the site maintained that 'HSBC Private Bank says that it looks at investment in the same way that designers look at everyday objects and reimagine them; Unilever says that the installations that bear its name are about vitality, and so are they.'

Coming to the end of my search I wanted to discuss further the relationship between art and advertising and what the ethical issues were that arose from museums accepting corporate sponsorship. The International Code of Ethics for museums provided a basis for the ethics research. Futher online news and Newspaper searches located
THE ART OF CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP-Does corporate sponsorship undermine the integrity of cultural exhibits? and an article in the Telegraph that discussed the recent UBS sponsorship of the Tate. The article entitled 'Tate breaks its own rules by hanging a sponsor's collection' highlighted the issue of cronyism amongst Art Galleries and its Corporate Sponsors. An important issue raised is how far Corporate Sponsors are influencing museum and art exhibitions. The article The Death of the Art Gallery from the arts section of The Guardian Unlimited poses the issue and question 'fine art is faced with a very real problem presented by a rapidly evolving technological world, which means, in effect, a rapidly changing commercial world. What actually distinguishes "fine" art from the advertising techniques that it parodies and appropriates?'

BMW set up their own art collection 'Gallery 71' in 1989 at BMW Munich, interestingly they do not own or display works of art by famous artists, but work produced by their own employees. This appears to be a unique approach and one which links BMW to the arts other than through the standard 'art' of sponsorship. BMW also has its own museum BMWzentrum that is dedicated to the history of BMW. The site describes the museum as 'part meeting and events center, part café, part gallery, and part time machine.' On the main page there are clickable icons that transport you to different areas of the site. The areas include information on the Feature Exhibit, an Interactive page to 'Discover the Zentrum', and a clickable icon that takes you on a virtual tour of the museum. The BMWZentrum site seemed to provide a comprehensive guide to the 'World of BMW', by providing information on current exhibitions through interactive pages, displaying numerous pictures and supplying a detailed history of the design of the exhibits, whether it be of motorcycles, the future and the Hydrogen Car, or even motorsports. The museum is an excellant way for BMW to exhibit their products as works of art. BMW is clearly saying that the design of the BMW motorcycles and cars are art themselves and deserve a place within the art world. The Art of the motorcycle exhibitions also demonstrate how BMW has associated itself with high art by displaying its product in renowned art museums (such as the Louvre) around the world.

‘The goal of Cultural Communication is to build lasting, exclusive partnerships as well as sustainable, challenging and innovative projects.’

This statement posted on the the official BMW Group website clearly demonstrates BMW’s wish to be seen at the forefront of Arts sponsorship and Cultural Partnership. The statement can be found by using the navigation bar at the top of the site and then clicking on 'Responsiblity' and using the drop down list that directs you to the culture pages . The pages provide an overview of all BMW’s ‘International Cultural commitments’. Access to the commitments is provided by way of a clickable map or navigation bar. Thus providing one with the opportunity to see a list of projects that BMW has sponsored and is currently sponsoring around the globe today. All the sections are easily accessed through clickable links on the main page which is laid out clearly. Each section has a drop down menu of options to choose from that relate to the section heading. The section of the site that I found particularly relevant to my case study was the Culture pages. The pages demonstrate BMW’s relationship with the arts, not just fine arts, but, Performing arts, Architecture and Design and music as well. One of the links directed me to BMW Art Car Collection. Whilst the official site does not provide a great deal of information on the subject there are numerous other sites that do. The collection began in 1975 and now 15 artists have added their own artistic mark to BMW car. According to BMW 'The Art Cars reflect the cultural and historical development of art, design, and technology.'
Whilst BMW is promoting the artistic and design value of their Art Cars, it has not gone unoticed that this idea is a fantastic way of advertising their cars and promoting them through the ties with 'high art'. Links with prominant international artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, David Hockney and Andy Warhol, and the World Tour that has the cars displayed in established institutions such as the Louvre in Paris and the Guggenheim Museums only goes to further the recognition of BMW's innovative designs and adveritse them to the world.

‘Arty cars’- The BMW Art Car collection

My Google search for ‘UBS Art Collection’ returned close to 30,000 hits, an obvious disadvantage, but as I was not ready to narrow the parameters I reviewed the first 50 sites. Although it was time-consuming to cull through irrelevant and/or unreliable information, Google did provide a range of art critic reviews and blogs. Questions of potential conflict of interest and of the influence of corporate collections on curatorial independence and public trust, were being widely discussed in the public arena in light of the type of arts ‘partnerships’ that UBS was developing, particularly with Tate Modern and MoMA. Although several of these articles were also available through Factiva.com and Findarticle.com, without Google I would not have found interviews with UBS executives justifying corporate involvement in the arts sector; nor art-blogs which provided a cross-section of public opinion on controversial aspects of these arrangements. Google proved to be particularly useful for identifying issues relevant to my case study.

To consolidate the media reviews, I then used newspaper, Findarticles.com and Factiva.com search engines. Newspaper sites tended to be limited to archival access to a specific publisher, charge a fee and/or require registration which virtually guarantees spam ads. Findarticles.com was a wider but not comprehensive search engine and had irritating advertising pop-ups. Factiva.com was excellent: comprehensive with quick and easy-to-use search, save, download and indexing functions; the only disadvantage is it requires an expensive subscription unless accessed through a subscriber like USyd.

Information not on the web related to financial and other specific details of UBS’s art partnerships. Also missing are archival records for UBS’s co-branded marketing campaigns. Although the bank’s site and its art partners' sites show co-branded web advertisements and press releases, print advertising campaigns are not on the web and so I have had to source hard copy samples from the current UBS/AGNSW newspaper campaigns. Similarly UBS banner campaigns for MoMA’s re-opening would have been useful in light of media criticism.

Notwithstanding all its faults, the web is a goldmine of readily accessible information. As with any source, there are advantages and disadvantages in web-based research both as to ease of access and use, as well as to quality and reliability of the information unearthed.

Although much is said about the project of the Louvre Abu Dhabi on the internet, most of the articles discuss only the basics of this topic. It would be interesting to read some sort of objective summary about the project, thereby focussing on the ethical questions which are raised and the discussions going on about this. One of the website on which this discussion forum could be held is the site of the French Ministry of Culture. Since they made the deal with Abu Dhabi, it should be fair to the French public to explain their choices and to keep them up-to-date. Although the French government received a lot of negative comments about this case, it is important to keep the discussion going about cultural issues such as this. Maybe that way the government can regain some from what is left from the public’s trust.

To investigate whose interests are being served by UBS's various forays into the arts world, I widened my on-line research on the UBS Art Collection by using Google, Findarticles.com and Factiva.com.

UBS activities in art banking are part of a new trend for investment banks to provide dedicated art-advisory departments. UBS's corporate sponsorship of art fairs such as Art Basel Miami Beach is not unusual in the art world and creates brand awareness and favourable opportunities for client entertaining, networking and buying by offering clients special access to artist presentations and the opportunity to mingle with dealers.

Art collecting as a vehicle for brand building is not a new corporate concept. Lending banking a new creativity discusses UBS art acquisition process and the value and risks of publicly exhibiting works from the collection. Further Google searches uncovered a series of interviews with the collection executive of the UBS Art Collection regarding the company's art collection strategy and the company’s strategy for making its collection accessible to the public.

Exhibitions of corporate collections in major museums are no longer a novelty. However the type of sponsorship partnerships that UBS has structured with MoMA, Tate Modern for 2006 and 2007 and now the AGNSW are a different story and my research has uncovered considerable press scrutiny of these arrangements. The issue of whether the public trust in the gallery’s independent curatorial judgment is being betrayed, is a recurrent theme.

Corporate Taste in Art, and the Art of Donation was the opinion of New York Times art critic Roberta Smith in her review of MoMA’s inauguration of its new home with a show of gifts and loans from UBS of ‘pre-approved and risk-free’ works from the last century. MoMA has inaugurated its exhibition program with an ‘appalling paean to a corporate sponsor’s blue-chip collection (which) gave … UBS an excuse to plaster the city with advertisements that made MoMA seem like its tool and minor subsidiary’ argued Michael Kimmelman in his article Art, Money and Power .

Tate Modern has sold its soul – and us – down the river suggests The Guardian in its recent review of the UBS arrangements. Transparency in arts funding? Don’t bank on it writes The Independent which is ‘far from thrilled that the precedent has been set’ by three rooms of the Tate Modern being given over to drawings from The UBS Collection. The government is leaving responsibility for funding to big business. Will the arts suffer for it? asks the New Statesman. More direct is the colourful review by art critic Brian Sewell in The Evening Standard So where are all the Masterpieces? which suggests ‘that Serota and his trustees – all of whom should at once have seen the menace in this sponsorship deal – have, with a very short spoon, supped with the devil’.

Whatever the verdict on the ethics and conflicts debate, one thing is clear: banks today fulfil the role once assumed by the Medicis and the Catholic Church... they are fast becoming the new masters of the arts universe.