One of the few consistent sources of good press for IBM over the last 20 years has been its high-profile sponsorship of the arts. The company has now announced its decision to go one step further, and has joined with seven others – specifically ADT, Arthur Andersen, British Petroleum, Marks & Spencer, the National Westminster Bank and W H Smith – to set up and finance the Business in the Arts or BiA initiative. Inspiration for the scheme, which will run as a separate unit within the London-based Association for Business Sponsorship of the Arts, came from the Business Committee for the Arts in New York. IBM’s additional contribution comes in the shape of senior manager Bob Butteriss, who has been released on a two year secondment from the personnel department in Port-smouth to act as BiA’s first director. On top of the – unspecified – financial support recieved from each of the BiA’s business sponsors, the scheme will receive UKP25,000 for each of the first two years from the government. Essentially, BiA aims to develop three specific, if related, areas of activity; business skills placement, arts management, and an enterprise advisory service. Within the business skills placement initiative, Mr Butteriss hopes to set up a database of professional volunteers who can be assigned on a voluntary basis to help arts organisations develop a range of business skills. Meanwhile, the arts management module aims to expand the managerial, financial and communication skills of arts administrators through developing and running a series of training courses, and the establishment of small BiA centres throughout the country; long-term Mr Butteriss expects to use the BiA’s facilities to help place and integrate arts people throughout industry and commerce – an arrangement he regards as beneficial for both parties. Finally, through the enterprise advisory service, the BiA aims to offer arts bodies advice on any aspect of the management of a small business, and hopes to harness support from a range of bodies including the London Enterprise Agency. As an admirer of the the visual arts particularly those hung in Paris galleries – and the father of an opera singer and an art historian, Mr Butterriss seems a well qualified choice of director; although delighted at being chosen for secondment, he tactfully expresses no qualms about redonning his IBM personnel cap in two years’ time.
