Hugh James Solicitors & Valleys Kids clinch Champion of The Year title at National Arts & Business Awards
Last night, the partnership between Hugh James Solicitors & Valleys Kids was voted Champion of the Year at the 28th Arts & Business Awards. The awards celebrate best practice in arts and business working together. For the first time in the Awards' history, the audience was asked to vote for the overall Champion of the Year from the winners of the nine categories: Brand Identity, Creativity, Arts & Kids, Diversity, Sustainability, International, Communities, Employees and Individual of the Year.
Hugh James Solicitors & Valleys Kids set up The Imagination Generation Project which provided essential opportunities for local children in the Welsh Valleys to engage with the arts. The children were encouraged to express themselves, discover what excites them, develop new skills and experience a sense of pride and achievement in creating something special.
Gareth Williams, Senior Partner with Hugh James accepted the Award, he said: "We are very proud to have shared this award with Valleys Kids. For us it was a hugely rewarding experience to have been able to offer support and encouragement to Valleys Kids and to young people many of whom were from deprived backgrounds. It was also humbling to see just how creative and talented they were - they were a delight to work with!"
Margaret Jervis, Valleys Kids added: "I am absolutely thrilled that we have won this award. It has been a wonderful partnership and the young people who have created the art are going to be so pleased when I take this home to them."
Colin Tweedy, Chief Executive of Arts & Business said; "Hugh James Solicitors & Valleys Kids is a superb example of how business and the arts work so well together. By celebrating best practice we can mark a path for others to follow. With so many demands facing the arts and business communities in the future, the need for role models and champions is critical. These awards must act as a catalyst for others to develop powerful partnerships."
David Lammy, Minister for Culture, said; 'These Arts & Business partnerships make a huge difference to communities up and down the country. Private and commercial investment in the arts is now equal to public investment and Arts & Business helps to place creativity at the centre of our economy. It is wonderful to be here and to celebrate these partnerships and also 30 years of Arts & Business.'
Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, Chair, Arts & Business said; "Arts & Business is a crucial organisation in Britain. It does that magical thing of bringing the arts and business worlds together. There is a special alchemy in that and I like to think that we are the chemists bringing them together."
The winning partnerships are:
1. Unilever, Arts, Business & Brand Identity Award.
Winner: BT plc & Philharmonia Orchestra
BT's sponsorship of the Philharmonia's "Sound Exchange" climaxed in April 2005 with "Live and Online," the first interactive web cast of a classical music event. This project has been compared to Live 8 and Natasha Beddingfield's MobiCast as a true innovation in online music-making and has provided the catalyst for further exciting developments due to be unveiled soon.
2. BP, Arts, Business & Sustainability Award
Winner : Orange PCS (Personal Communications Services) & The Reading Agency
The highly productive partnership between public libraries and the Orange Prize for Fiction, run by The Reading Agency, is six years old. It has ignited interest in the Prize and reading in general in 1600 communities and has led to the development of the Orange Chatterbooks initiative - 320 library-based reading groups for 3000+ children.
3. RBS (The Royal Bank of Scotland Group), Arts, Business & Community Award
Winner: AstraZeneca & Bollington Festival 2005
AstraZeneca in Cheshire sponsored Bollington Festival 2005 to develop an artistic and cultural community celebration, bringing sustainable benefits. Attracting 20,700 visitors to 78 events over 17 days, this "Festival for All" enabled company employees and the local community to engage and participate in the arts.
4. EDF Energy, Arts & Kids Award
Winner: Hugh James Solicitors & Valleys Kids
Children and young people in the Valleys have enormous untapped talent and creativity with limited outlets and encouragement to realise it. The Imagination Generation Project provided essential opportunities for them to express themselves, discover what excites them, develop new skills and experience a sense of pride and achievement in creating something special.
5. Lehman Brothers, Arts, Business & Diversity Award
Winner: Clydesdale Bank & Artlink Central ltd
This partnership provided a rich opportunity for adults with learning disabilities to access mainstream education or activities in the community. 'Bank Notes' was a programme of music and drama workshops which created innovative ways to explore and understand day to day money management; a crucial part of achieving self-esteem, self advocacy and participation in society
6. Prudential, Arts, Business & Employees Award
Winner: Liverpool FC & Menagerie
Liverpool Football Club has long been recognised not just for its accomplishments on the pitch but also for innovative investment in the community, its staff and its supporters. Menagerie Theatre Company of Cambridge has been working with the club to create and deliver The FC Programme, a club wide arts based training initiative for staff development.
7. The Ogilvy Group, Arts, Business & Creativity Award
Unilever UK - Project Catalyst & Various, including The Map Consortium and The Dialogue Project
Catalyst is a unique, long term project in Unilever that uses artists to engage with its people to transform the way they work, through creative skills development and cultural change programmes. Its aim is to bring relevant challenge and external perspectives into an increasingly global business, in order to be a catalyst for desired change.
8. Gordon¡¦s Gin, Arts & Business Individual of the Year Award
Winner: William Powrie & Moray Art Centre
As Treasurer & Financial Director, William has supported the Moray Art Centre's artistic ambitions through viable financial strategies. During the past three years his work with funders in government and business has underpinned success and enabled the centre's Revitalising Beauty project to flourish.
9. The British Council, Arts & Business International Award
Winner: BP & The British Museum
The BP Special Exhibition Mummy: the inside story is a world first, combining cutting edge technology with the British Museum's world-class Egyptian collection. It was a tremendous success during its fourteen month run and has prompted a global tour to the USA, Asia, and Europe over the next two years.
For more detailed information on the awards please visit our web site www.AandB.org.uk or contact Rachel Balfour at Arts & Business on 0207 940 6692 or e-mail: Rachel.balfour@aandb.org.uk
Notes to Editors
- Colin Tweedy, Chief Executive, Arts & Business and Helena Kennedy, Chair, Arts & Business are available for interview.
- Arts & Business aspires to be the world's most successful & widespread creative network. We help business people support the arts & the arts inspire business people, because good business & great art together create a richer society.
- Arts & Business believes that the arts offer a unique, creative and proven means for businesses to achieve their individual, corporate and community goals.