Gerald Eve sponsorship makes hat-trick for Artes Mundi and wins further investment from Arts & Business

5 July, 2007

Hot on the heels of major new sponsorships from Merrill Lynch and the St David’s 2 Cardiff development in the last month, Artes Mundi has today announced that Gerald Eve, chartered surveyors and property consultants, will be a third major sponsor for Artes Mundi 3. This brings the total sponsorship to date to nearly £150,000. In an additional development Arts & Business has awarded Artes Mundi 3 an important grant of £25,000 to help drive the considerable momentum being built for the 2007 and 2008 activities. This significant support will enable Artes Mundi to present its exciting international and emerging artists to an even wider public.

Artes Mundi is a relatively new international initiative launched in 2004 and designed to showcase some of the world’s best emerging contemporary artists. Every two years it presents the Artes Mundi Exhibition and Prize at the National Museum Cardiff. The Artes Mundi 3 Exhibition and Prize will run March 15th to June 8th 2008, with the winning artist announced at the end of April.

Gerald Eve will sponsor two special events in London and in Cardiff at the end of September 2007, when the Shortlist of eight international artists for the Exhibition and Prize will be announced. The three new sponsorships have triggered the further strategic investment of £25,000 from Arts & Business, which will be used to support the Artes Mundi Public Engagement Programme and events in London.

Lucy Stout, Artes Mundi’s new Head of Development (Stout has previously directed Development at the National Theatre and for Welsh National Opera) said “ Achieving major sponsorship for Artes Mundi 3 was an early goal. It is important to us at this stage in our artistic development and also good to see in Wales, where the lack of corporate HQs makes it hard to secure corporate support. It goes to show that, if you have a strong, inspiring project that captures the public’s attention as powerfully and as quickly as Artes Mundi has done, you can speak up boldly for a creative initiative in front of business and they will respond. This wonderful hat-trick of sponsorships brings a serious level of corporate support to Artes Mundi for the first time and we are particularly delighted that Arts & Business has recognised this with a significant grant from its new INVEST programme.”

Fiona O’Callaghan, Head of Marketing at Gerald Eve said “We are very proud to be sponsoring Artes Mundi, marking our first major investment in the visual arts. For us, it’s a great opportunity to provide our staff and clients – not just in Wales but all across the UK – with access to some of the world’s most innovative creative talent”.

Rachel Jones, Director of Arts & Business Cymru, said “Artes Mundi is an important, ambitious visual arts initiative for the UK in Wales. We congratulate them, Gerald Eve, Merrill Lynch and St David’s 2 for negotiating significant, new partnerships that take Artes Mundi forward and are delighted that we too are now in support through INVEST. This gives particular, strategic support to arts projects that are successfully activating business sponsorship and, in this case, we will be helping Artes Mundi to raise its profile in London, deepen its already successful engagement with schools and to mount a special public event during the Exhibition next year.”