Our history
1976 Association for Business Sponsorship of the Arts (ABSA) founded, based on a model developed in New York by David Rockefeller. The first organisation of its kind, ABSA pioneered business sponsorship of the arts in UK, which in 1976 was worth £600,000. By 2009 that figure had risen to £686 million
1978 Created the Arts and Business Awards in seven categories
1987 HRH The Prince of Wales becomes Patron, now President
1988 Develops UK-wide coverage, with offices in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
1988 Launches new programme to bring business skills into the arts
1991 Develops the largest national network for information, knowledge and skills sharing for fundraisers
1991 Co-launches CEREC (the Comité Européen pour le Rapprochement de l’Economie et de la Culture) a pan-European body to develop national and cross-border business support of the arts
1999 ABSA changes name to Arts & Business, and includes nine offices across the UK
2002 Creates The Prince of Wales Arts & Kids Foundation and raises over £1m to support it (now called The Prince of Wales Foundation for Children and the Arts)
2004 Creates Mission, Money and Models to explore organisational and financial sustainability in the non-profit cultural sector
2006 In its 30th anniversary year, Arts & Business has offices across six English regions and the three other UK nations, as well as 500 business members and more than 1000 arts members. It is now part of an international network of 26 organisations, many of which have been founded with its help. By 2006, Arts & Business has placed more than 5500 business people as advisors or board members in arts organisations
2008 Creates The Prince of Wales Medal for Arts Philanthropy to honour five leading philanthropists
2008 Launches Visual, an inspiring and flexible contemporary art service for business and business people
2009 Arts & Business has worked with many of the UK’s leading cultural businesses, including BP, Deutsche Bank, Ernst & Young, Prudential, PWC, Sky, Land Securities, Bank of Scotland, HSBC, Channel 4, UBS and Unilever, to strengthen their arts engagement
2009 Launches Young Professionals On Boards, a placement and mentoring service for under 30- year-olds mirroring its Board Bank service
2010 Publishes PICs with online interactive map showing regional distribution and trends of Private Investment for 2008/09. Pubishes A Private Sector Policy for the Arts, our compelling framework of action to reboot and rewire the mixed arts funding economy being revised following extensive consultation. Runs the #BigArtsGive with the Big Give, an online matchfunding project, that ran througout the UK during the autumn.
2011 Celebrates the European Year of Volunteering, running a series of match-making events between volunteers (primarily from the business sector) and arts organisations seeking help. Six events took place throughout the UK with approx 100 volunteers at each event. In addition, online voluteering listings and requests were available from our site.
2012 Arts & Business becomes a campaign of Business in the Community. It is constituted as a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity.