4th September 2019
28th Anniversary of Allianz Business to Arts Awards see:
- Dublin Port Company, Farmgate Café, Grant Thornton, McGarrell Reilly Group among those honoured for their arts partnerships and enhancing the arts
- Avolon and Royal Hibernian Academy ‘Avolon Global Studio Award’ wins Best Long Term partnership
- Over €8.5m spent on arts partnerships with increased regional and art form spread
- Artists Catherine Creaney, SUBSET and Fishamble: The New Play Company share €20,000 of bursaries & prizes
- Performances from Ballet Ireland, Felispeaks, flautist Amy Gillen and RTE Choice Music Award winner Sorca McGrath with the Dowry Strings
Dublin Port Company, Grant Thornton, Farmgate Café and McGarrell Reilly were among the winners in 11 categories at the 28th annual Allianz Business to Arts Awards ceremony at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre tonight.
The 2019 Allianz Business to Arts Awards received significant levels of entries in its 28th year, showcasing a diverse range of creative partnerships incorporating architecture, dance, design, film, music, literature, theatre and visual art. This year saw increasing regional activity, community engagement and long-term partnerships that are evolving through diverse activation campaigns.
Over €8.5m was spent on arts sponsorships submitted. The Awards recognise businesses, artists and arts organisations that develop creative partnerships and bring businesses and the arts into mutually beneficial relationships across society. The evening was a celebration of the most innovative and creative partnerships in Ireland in 2018/2019.
The 2019 Allianz Business to Arts Awards Winners are:
Award Category County Winners
Best Use of Creativity in the Community Dublin Algorithm & James Earley with various businesses for ‘Perpetua’
Best Creative Staff Engagement National Axonista & Irish Film Institute for ‘IFI Player’
Jim McNaughton Perpetual Award for Best Commissioning Practice Dublin McGarrell Reilly Group & Alva Gallagher for ‘Rise’
Jim McNaughton / TileStyle €10,000 Artist’s Bursary Belfast Catherine Creaney
Allianz Community Art Award Dublin SUBSET for ‘Grey Area Project’
daa €5,000 Arts Award National Fishamble: The New Play Company
Best Small Sponsorship – under €15,000 value Cork Farmgate Café & the Munster Literature Centre for the ‘Farmgate Café National Poetry Award’
Best Long Term Partnership Dublin Avolon & Royal Hibernian Academy for ‘Avolon Global Studio Award’
Best Large Sponsorship – over €50,000 value National Grant Thornton & National Concert Hall for ‘Female Conductor Programme’
Best Mid-Size Sponsorship – over €15,000 - €50,000 value National Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards in association with TileStyle
Judges’ Special Recognition Award for Portfolio of Investment Dublin Dublin Port Company for ‘Starboard Home Documentary’ with Moira Sweeney, Spirit Level Productions and South Paw Pictures, ‘In Our Veins’ with Bitter Like A Lemon & Abbey Theatre and ‘Dublin City Public Art Programme’
Leading the congratulations among over 500 business and arts leaders at the theatre was Minister for Business, Enterprise, and Innovation, Cavan-Monaghan Heather Humphreys, TD.
Heather Humphreys TD, Minister for Business, Enterprise, and Innovation said:
“The relationship between business and the arts, demonstrated by these Business to Arts Awards, enables businesses to be more innovate, more creative, and ultimately deliver meaningful impact for society. Businesses increasingly understand that it is not just economic impact that matters. More and more are coming to understand that a sustainable and successful business is one that has a good CSR strategy at its core.
I want to congratulate all of the businesses and arts organisations that have participated in the Business to Arts Awards this year and hope that these wonderful partnerships will continue to grow and flourish in the future. My goal through Ireland’s National Plan on Corporate Social Responsibility is to make Ireland a Centre of Excellence for responsible and sustainable business practice. These Awards make a very important contribution to achieving that goal and I’m sure it will help to inspire more exciting collaborations between business and the arts.”
Speaking at the announcement of the winners, Sean McGrath, CEO of Allianz Ireland, said:
“For the last 19 years, the Allianz Business to Arts Awards have remained a source of inspiration to us all at Allianz and the 2019 awards have lived up to the high standards set across the many years of their existence. Yet again we are impressed by the significant mutual benefits derived by both business and arts organisations through their innovative collaborations. Of growing importance within this powerful initiative are the community and wider societal benefits enjoyed by us all when business and arts organisations partner to achieve some truly amazing results. By showcasing what is achieved, the annual Allianz Business to Arts Awards remind us that we are all winners of this truly extraordinary process of collaboration”
Andrew Hetherington, Chief Executive of Business to Arts, said:
‘With our partners Allianz, we are delighted to celebrate the 2019 Allianz Business to Arts Awards wining partnerships. These relationships are proof that businesses in Ireland are increasingly looking to arts and culture to address business opportunities and societal challenges. Encouraging creativity is at the core of many of the winning projects. Business to Arts’ flagship event continues to enable, develop and support creative partnerships. We call on businesses across Ireland to engage with their arts and cultural neighbours.’
The awards recognise large, mid-sized, small and long-term sponsorships, staff engagement activities, commissioning, corporate social responsibility programme, community engagement and portfolio-based partnerships.
For the 28th anniversary of the Allianz Business to Arts Awards, the awards sculpture once again has been commissioned by daa. This year’s sculpture ‘Symbiotic’ was created by Mayo based artist Emma Bourke.
Ends
For Further Information, please contact:
Helen Carroll
Head of Communications & Partnerships
Tel: 0862325060
E-mail: helen@businesstoarts.ie
Appendix – Overview information on winners for the Allianz Business to Arts 2019 Awards
Best Large Sponsorship – over €50,000 value
Grant Thornton & National Concert Hall for ‘Female Conductor Programme’
Grant Thornton and The National Concert Hall have developed an innovative partnership to tackle the imbalance of women as conductors in classical music, employing the unique expertise of both organisations. Over the course of the programme, twelve hand-picked participants were given the opportunity to work closely with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, the acclaimed British conductor Alice Farnham and a host of other world-renowned conductors.
Best Mid-Size Sponsorship – between €15,000 - €50,000 value
Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards in association with TileStyle
2018 celebrated TileStyle’s second year as associate partner of the Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards. This annual event recognises inventive, innovative and creative theatre practice, celebrating the best performances and productions in the Irish theatre sector throughout 2018. Through Tilestyle's collaboration with the Irish Times, TileStyle and its stakeholders aim to build on their support of the arts and hope to further engage with theatre practitioners and artists.
Best Small Sponsorship – under €15,000 value
Farmgate Café & the Munster Literature Centre for the ‘Farmgate Café National Poetry Award’
The Farmgate Café and the Munster Literature Centre have a shared love of poetry. This has allowed a simpatico relationship to develop which has led to this partnership. The Farmgate National Poetry Award is an award of €2,500 for the poet of the best new collection of poetry published in the previous calendar year. The Award is presented at the opening of the Cork International Poetry Festival which is Ireland's largest, annual, dedicated poetry festival.
Best Long-Term Partnership
Avolon & Royal Hibernian Academy for ‘Avolon Global Studio Award’
Avolon and the RHA have enjoyed a strong working relationship over the last four years collaborating on the Avolon Youthreach art programme and Avolon Global Studio Award. Avolon’s patronage is attributed to bolstering gallery attendance, while the Studios – which host the Avolon Global Studio Award recipient – now count three of four studio spaces as fully sponsored. The Avolon Youthreach art programme has seen 17 talented students from marginalised backgrounds come through a series of workshops aimed at developing art skills and basic tools of criticism, while providing an introduction to gallery spaces and art colleges.
Best Use of Creativity in the Community
Algorithm & James Earley with various businesses for ‘Perpetua’
Perpetua is a collaboration between Algorithm and the renowned artist James Earley, supported by The Linders Group. Together they created Ireland's first ever-interactive 3D Projection mapped mural in Smithfield. The main theme explored by the piece was the repetitive, cyclical nature of history through the lens of the life of an artistic work. James designed and painted the mural while the team at Algorithm created a series of animations that explored the themes of the piece. A pane of glass facing the mural was turned into an interactive touchscreen, which participants used to manipulate the visuals within the scenes.
Best Creative Staff Engagement
Axonista & Irish Film Institute for ‘IFI Player’
In 2016, the Irish Film Institute launched a ground-breaking new initiative to bring Irish film heritage to audiences worldwide for free via the IFI Player web platform. In 2017, IFI partnered with Axonista – a leading Irish video technology company – to greatly increase public accessibility using Axonista’s video technology platform, bringing the IFI Irish Film Archive collections to phone, tablet and TV-connected devices for the first time. This culture-meets-tech partnership ensures the two organisations work symbiotically and passionately together in order to bring a shared vision of interactivity and heritage, by co-developing features within the suite of apps.
Jim McNaughton Perpetual Award for Best Commissioning Practice
McGarrell Reilly Group & Alva Gallagher for ‘Rise’
McGarrell Reilly Group commissioned Artist Alva Gallagher to create a unique artwork to enhance the new Sharp Building at Hogan Place in Dublin's core business area. The aim was to improve the environment for staff, commuters and passers-by. Alva's piece 'Rise' creates an original and innovative sculpture installation in response to the environmental, architectural, historical and cultural references associated with the building and its location in Dublin’s South Docklands. The 6-metre double-height glass and stainless steel sculpture that ascends through The Sharp Building assumes a whole new character by night.
Judges’ Special Recognition Award for Portfolio of Investment
Dublin Port Company
Dublin Port shares a unique connection with the city of Dublin. It is a bond that is not just physical – it’s a shared history, culture and community between the port and our capital city. To strengthen, continue and encourage this connection Dublin Port has commissioned a series of cultural and heritage initiatives, designed to present Dublin’s rich maritime heritage in new and thought-provoking ways. These recognise the importance of Dublin Port and its integration with the city, and celebrate this unique connection. Dublin Port Company are recognised for their partnerships on ‘Starboard Home Documentary’ with Moira Sweeney, Spirit Level Productions and South Paw Pictures, ‘In Our Veins’ with Bitter Like A Lemon & Abbey Theatre and ‘Dublin City Public Art Programme’
Allianz Community Art Award
Subset for ‘Grey Area Project’
SUBSET’s ongoing Grey Area Project wishes to make artwork accessible to all by turning the city into an open-air gallery. The project seeks to give street artists from the collective, outside the collective and all over Ireland the opportunity to creatively engage with the public through the creation of their artwork around the city. The primary objective is to transform the concrete landscape of Dublin City into a freely-accessible gallery to encourage art appreciation for the entire community.
daa Arts Award €5,000
Fishamble: The New Play Company
Fishamble is an Olivier Award-winning, internationally-acclaimed Irish theatre company, which discovers, develops and produces new work. In 2018 Fishamble celebrated 30 years of new plays through its productions and extensive development programme. Fishamble typically supports over 50% of all new plays on the island of Ireland every year.
Jim McNaughton/TileStyle Bursary
Catherine Creaney
Catherine Creaney is a Northern Irish self-taught artist working primarily in portraiture in the mediums of oil, pastel and pencil in a realist style. Her work focuses on subtle expressions and lighting to convey the inner world and story of the sitter. Most recently she won the People’s Choice Award at The Royal Ulster Academy, Belfast and the Portrait Prize at the National Open Art, London (2018). Catherine looks to create
a series of five realist oil portraits of people who work as care givers, drawing attention to people who otherwise may not get the recognition they deserve. Catherine aims to exhibit this series of paintings as a collective in exhibitions in both the North and South of Ireland and individually in competitions and
exhibitions at home and abroad.
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