From the Chronicle journal.com

Arts, business make sweet music

September 27, 2006

By SARAH ELIZABETH BROWN


	Nicole Anderson of the Council for Business and the Arts in Canada was guest speaker Tuesday at the Port Arthur Rotary Club meeting.

If a creative soul knocks on your business door in the next few weeks, it's not a starving artist.

Instead, arts and cultural organizations will be approaching Thunder Bay companies armed with business plans and cash of their own.

ArtsVest project manager Nichole Anderson told the Port Arthur Rotary Club on Tuesday that after Oct. 3, arts groups with pre-approved projects will be looking for partners in the business sector.

They will be splitting $50,000 from the Council for Business and the Arts in Canada, and looking for companies willing to match those funds, she said.

Thunder Bay is one of three communities selected for ArtsVest in this second year of a three-year pilot project.

“It's not just the money that is impressive, it's the relationships that were built,” she said of last year's projects in four Ontario communities.

The hope, said Anderson, is that once ArtsVest funding is gone, connections made between non-profit arts groups and local businesses remain.

For businesses, it's a way to tap into niche markets and drive up retail sales traffic, said Anderson.

A restaurant across from a theatre is a natural destination for supper after a show, so why not offer package deals or coupons to theatre patrons, she said.

Businesses interested can register with the council rather than waiting to be approached.

Last year, businesses more than matched the $200,000 the arts organizations approached them with.

With that total $470,000 in the four cities, 44 arts groups partnered with 128 businesses. Of those, 86 businesses had never joined forces with the arts before.

Almost half matched the arts funding with in-kind services or products, rather than cash, which may be easier for small businesses, said Anderson.

In Waterloo, a farm equipment company provided heavy lifting equipment and staff to run it during a theatre's renovation, garnering a higher profile in the community.

In another Waterloo project, a theatre company performed each week in a mall which had been struggling. The company theatre increased its audience and the mall's foot traffic went up significantly, Anderson said.

Not only did businesses learn about the opportunities created by pairing up with an arts group, but the artistic and cultural people had their eyes opened about their own value, she said, noting the groups come attached with niche markets attractive to some businesses.

The project is funded through Anderson's council, the Trillium Foundation and the Ministry of Culture.

More information is available online at www.businessforarts.org, or by contacting Anderson at (416) 869-3016.