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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Toronto, ON – Nov. 10, 2009 – Nichole Anderson, President of Business for the Arts, is delighted to announce the first five of fifteen Ontario communities to be awarded the artsVest matching grant opportunity over the next four years, thanks to funding support from business members of Business for the Arts, as well as the Ontario Trillium Foundation and the Ontario Ministry of Culture.  Business for the Arts is planning to launch the artsVest program in London, Chatham-Kent, Stratford/Perth County, Brantford and Dysart/Haliburton early next year, sparking new relationships between local cultural organizations and businesses, while engaging their municipal leadership in helping to further municipal cultural plans. 

BftA’s artsVest program has already seen 370 businesses partner with 130 arts organizations in eleven communities over the past three years.  Remarkably, 222 of these businesses had never sponsored the arts before.  The investment dollars have also been significant with $535K matching funds stimulating $925K in business dollars, generating $1,46M in total for arts and culture in eleven Ontario communities - representing a 142% increase over the matching funds.  

The key to artsVest has been the matching opportunity provided through artsVest matching grants to businesses who invest in the arts as well as the training given to arts organizations on how to approach the business community with a partnership plan.  Another crucial element to artsVest’s success has been the commitment of municipalities to make culture an integral part of their city planning, thereby creating a wonderful foundation from which to build upon. 

“The artsVest experience has been transformative for entire communities as businesses enter into partnerships with the cultural sector with a mind to bolstering their community’s cultural assets while achieving their business objectives.  I’ve also seen the growth arts organizations have achieved through new understandings gleaned through the artsVest training and the strong business relationships they have fostered as a result of this training.  I’m looking forward to seeing hundreds more relationships develop between arts and business in the years to come through our artsVest program.” – Nichole Anderson, President, Business for the Arts.

For more information about Business for the Arts and the artsVest program, please contact us or visit www.businessforthearts.org

For more information:

Éilis Karry                                                                    

Program Manager

Business for the Arts                                                    

416-869-3016 x222                                                        

e_karry@businessforthearts.org

artsVest is run by Business for the Arts with funding support from business members of Business for the Arts,

 The Ontario Trillium Foundation and The Ontario Ministry of Culture.