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.”
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Notes for editors
Artes Mundi is an international contemporary visual arts initiative, committed to recognising and showing some of the most exciting, emerging artists from around the world and celebrating visual culture within an international context. It highlights how artists comment on the world from very different cultural perspectives and gathers work that speaks about humanity, the human form and the human condition.
The Artes Mundi exhibition features eight artists and is presented every two years in Cardiff after an international nomination process and further global research, undertaken by two independent selectors. A separate independent panel of five judges awards the £40,000 Artes Mundi Prize to one of the exhibiting artists. The Derek Williams Trust provides funding in order that works by some of the shortlisted artists can be purchased for the national collections of Wales.
The Artes Mundi 3 Exhibition opens at the National Museum Cardiff on March 15th 2008 and continues until June 8th 2008. The Prize will be awarded in April 2008.
Artes Mundi was founded by William Wilkins CBE (Chairman) and Tessa Jackson (Artistic Director) in 2002. It was established with the support of the Welsh Assembly Government, the City of Cardiff, Arts Council of Wales, BBC Wales and Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales, all of whom remain as partners.
Gerald Eve, chartered surveyors and property consultants, make or save money from property – acting for one third of the FTSE 100 on property asset management, agency and professional matters.
Arts & Business Cymru is part of the UK network of A&B, a membership organisation and charity which specialises in bringing business and the arts together for their mutual benefit. A&B Cymru works from two offices in Cardiff and Llandudno.
Merrill Lynch is sponsoring the global search for artists for Artes Mundi 3.
The St David’s 2 development, a £675 million retail-led development that will transform Cardiff city centre, is sponsoring the Artes Mundi Public Engagement Programme from Summer 2006 and the Prize awarding in April 2008.