The BCA provided the model for like-minded organizations in other countries: the
Council for Business and the Arts in Canada (CBAC) was established in 1974;
and, in the UK, the Association for Business Sponsorship in the Arts (ABSA) –
now called Arts & Business (A&B) – was established in 1976. Both the Canadian
and British organizations have missions and membership requirements that are
similar to those espoused by the BCA. Yet it is important to remember that CBAC,
though viewed as a Canadian version of BCA, was established after a conference
sponsored by the Canada Council. The founding director of ABSA, Luke Rittner,
based the British initiative on elements of BCA and CBAC, with some variation.
Unlike the American corporation which feels an obligation, almost a duty to
support the arts and cultural life, business firms in the UK were pitched the sound
commercial sense of supporting ABSA. Due to higher levels of state patronage,
arts organizations in the UK were less dependent on corporate sponsorship; indeed
the ACGB was highly suspicious that initiatives by ABSA would encroach on
public funding. ABSA distinguished itself through an interventionist role by
administering government schemes designed to increase the level of business
sponsorship. ABSA’s recent name change to Arts & Business reflected a desire to
signal that the organization was involved in promoting collaborations beyond
business sponsorship.
The most significant impact of the BCA, CBAC, and ABSA (A&B) in promot-
ing business alliances has been to inculcate the current ‘arts industry’ environ-
ment: big business feels comfortable supporting the arts; arts organizations deem
support by big business as an essential ingredient for financial success; and target
audiences are made aware of the corporate contribution to cultural life. For exam-
ple, the BCA estimated total American business sponsorship of the arts in 1967 at
$22 million; thirty years later the figure was $1.2 billion.
At its inception, the BCA articulated to Fortune 500 firms, the advantages of
closer business dealings with the arts: improving corporate image, increasing
sales, aiding recruitment, and attracting industry to an area were cited as direct
benefits; at the same time, indirect business benefits to employees, the community,
and society as a whole were also perceived. Social benefits came under the broad
banner of corporate responsibility (e.g. helping to alleviate the problems of the
under-privileged and the plight of the inner city). The seemingly diverse range of
benefits reflected concerns being voiced during the 1960s and the US Business
corporations, like many established institutions, were criticized for being removed
from the economic and social crises plaguing larger urban cities. Equally, there
was a conspicuous wane in the confidence in American business. Arts sponsorship
was presented as one relatively inexpensive way of regaining public support. Fur-
thermore there are often undisclosed personal benefits to the senior executives
who make decisions about business support to the arts such as accumulating social
prestige and displaying ‘good taste’ (e.g. Bourdieu and Haacke 1995).
Altruism and enlightened self-interest are two general positions that may be
discerned in statements made by the BCA. The altruistic stance addresses social
benefits by recognizing that corporations have ‘assumed a central role in industrial
society that the military organization or the religious community has occupied at
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