Nichole Anderson: Joining business with the arts. 

Nichole Anderson is an artist who began to think about her craft and found herself as fascinated with the practical applications of it as with the art itself.

At 32, Nichole is president and CEO of Business for the Arts (BftA), a non-profit business association that connects businesses to artistic ventures.

See a video interview with Nichole Anderson here

Nichole learned to play the violin before she could read. Her mother would sing Nichole melodies and Nichole would play them back. Today, Nichole is adamant about the need for better arts education in schools: “Kids are often dealing with questions like ‘do I look okay?’ or ‘am I cool?’ If you have a child focus on developing a skill, it helps them develop self-confidence in something other than the superficial.”

At the University of Toronto, Nichole earned her Masters degree in art history, and began work with the Heritage group at Hbc, keeping tabs on one of Canada’s largest collections. “I found myself in an office right smack among the Krieghoff voyageur scenes, the Harris mountain-scapes, Emily Carr’s wild forests,” says Nichole.

Nichole toyed with the idea of getting a PhD, to research business investment in the arts as part of a study on arts patronage through history. “For every great artist, there has usually been a powerful backer,” Nichole explains, “whether it was the church, royalty, powerful families, and now more and more the corporate world and philanthropists.”

Instead, she found BftA, and realized that she would not be forced to log lonely library hours to investigate where curiosity was leading her. “I grew up studying the life of artists, through playing music, then studying art history,” says Nichole. “Business for the Arts gives me the other side ... an idea of how the arts come to life, practically speaking.”

In Nichole, BftA found a manager who would implement a new granting program called artsVest. “Here was an opportunity to dive right into the heart of what I was interested in researching and actually be part of the process rather than an observer,” says Nichole of traversing Ontario to launch the program city-by-city with then-CEO Billie Bridgman. After three years and 370 businesses on board, Bridgman moved back to a position with Artscape and Nichole got the interim job. “A few months later, with one massive awards gala under my belt, the role became permanent.”

OF a CEO’s roles, one of the most important is to be the voice of the organization’s raison d’être. Nichole has a convincing pitch: I sense that she could get a Pittsburgh Steelers fan to support a small ballet production. So with all the causes out there, why invest in the arts?

Nichole offer many reasons: demographic matches provide niche marketing opportunities, for example, and the emotional nature of the arts can provide connection on a very magnetic level.

If Canadians want their economy to move forward, it’s time to prepare for competition. Voicing this reality is Nichole’s most persuasive reasoning. “Right now, we’re competing for talent,” says Nichole. “If people are going to choose Toronto over London or New York City, we need to have something exciting to offer them. ... When businesses are trying to recruit people to the city, arts are essential. It doesn’t matter how much you pay people if you’re in some barren land. What they want to know is — yes — what schools and hospitals are like, but also ‘what does this city offer me in terms of pleasure and creativity?’”

At the end of the day, Nichole’s favourite activity is simple: “I cuddle up with my husband and a book ... this is probably my favourite part of any day.” Hoping to start a family soon, Nichole won’t be giving up her day job. “Balance, balance,” she says. “This will be my motto for the next few years.”

Justine Connelly can be reached at editor@womenspost.ca.

What does Business for the Arts do? A sample of initiatives:

1) BftA advocates for tax incentives — currently to make gifts of real estate and private company shares to the arts tax exempt.

2) Nichole got her feet wet with the Ontario roll-out of the artsVest matching program. Says Nichole: “[Outside Toronto] many smaller to mid-sized arts organizations haven't had the experience of going out to establish partnerships with the private sector. We provide them with the sponsorship training, which is perhaps even more valuable than the matching dollars because these organizations learn how to establish new revenue streams that take them well into the future.”

3) artsScene connects young professionals to the arts and potential mentors.

4) boardLink matches business professionals with arts boards. “I find that business executives are more interested in talking about the opera and the theatre than their jobs,” says Nichole. “Roger Garland [former vice chair of the Four Seasons Hotels and chair of the Soulpepper Theatre Company] carries around the Soulpepper brochure in his briefcase.”

5) A recognition program for those whose efforts are essential: Business for the Arts Awards Gala, the Edmund C. Bovey Award, the Arnold Edinborough Award...

Go to www.businessforthearts.org to find out more.

Nichole's photo by www.yanka.ca