A standing ovation for business arts partnerships

14 September 2009

The curtain was raised on some outstanding corporate-cultural partnerships at this year’s Australian Business Arts Foundation (ABAF) state awards. The awards recognise and celebrate best practise in arts and business volunteering, partnerships and giving programs.

In an encore worthy performance Rio Tinto and partners Disability in the Arts, Disadvantage in the Arts (DADAA) and the Michael Leslie Foundation for the Arts were recognised as outstanding collaborations.

DADAA and Rio Tinto won the Marsh Partnering Award for the Disseminate project, a seven year research project aimed at understanding the positive outcomes that participation in arts projects has on improving the quality of life for people with disabilities and mental health issues.  

The partnership has seen arts projects across the state evaluated and allowed the outcomes to be celebrated and shared through conferences, publications and a soon to be launched dedicated digital platform.

David Doyle, Executive Officer from DADAA said “This partnership has allowed the stories and learnings from community cultural projects from Derby to Esperance to be evaluated consistently and robustly. We are confident that by communicating the outcomes of these projects, we will inform and strengthen others working in the field, individual participants and have an influence on wider health policy.”

Rio Tinto’s second accolade was for its partnership with the Michael Leslie Foundation for the Arts, which won the Qantaslink Regional Award. 

The Pilbara performing arts program reaches up to 600 students a week through a number of extra curricula and school workshops. During these sessions an array of visiting professionals also share their experiences with young people in the far north. 

The philosophy of “Jinangu + Wanggangu” or “walking + talking” describes the Foundation’s goal to teach and inspire young people to express their goals and truth through drama and dance.

Both the partnerships will be in the running for National ABAF Awards, to be announced in Brisbane on October 15.

Long term partnerships with the State Library of Western Australia (Better Beginnings Early Childhood Literacy Programme) and the Black Swan State Theatre Company (Foundation Partnership) were also recognized as good practice.