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The Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Josepha Madigan, officiated at the 27th Allianz Business to Arts Awards Ceremony which took place at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre.

The Awards is Business to Arts’ highest profile Flagship Project and is one of the highlights of the cultural calendar. Annually the awards event attracts a wide variety of leaders from both the corporate and cultural communities.

Speaking at the event Minister Madigan said:

I strongly believe that we need to encourage much more public art in Ireland. We have a good tradition of supporting such art through the Percent for Arts scheme. However, the financial limits on that programme are now well out of date so I intend to carry out a comprehensive review of the scheme so that the artistic possibilities of the Government’s investment in our infrastructure under Project 2040 can be fully realised.

The Minister commented that she was pleased to announce that her Department, under the Creative Ireland Programme Scheme, is giving €52,000 to the Business to Arts Artists-in-Residence programme. The programme will see three Artists-in-Residence partnering with three businesses and three community organisations over an 18 month period. Both the businesses and the Artists-in-Residence will be recruited through a nationwide open call. The community organisations will be determined by geographic location once the initial partners are appointed.

Minister Madigan also announced that she would further examine the Percent for Arts Scheme to further encourage public art and public art spaces to fully realise the artistic possibilities of the Government’s investment in our infrastructure under Project 2040

The Allianz Business to Arts Awards have been celebrating creative partnerships between business and the arts for 27 years – seeking out and recognising businesses, artists and organisations in mutually beneficial relationships across society. The Awards reward the best examples of sponsorship relationships, commissioning, mentoring, training, staff engagement, CSR initiatives and community engagement through creativity.