REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE AT THE 16TH ANNUAL ALLIANZ BUSINESS2ARTS AWARDS MANSION HOUSE
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE AT THE 16TH ANNUAL ALLIANZ BUSINESS2ARTS AWARDS MANSION HOUSE, DUBLIN WEDNESDAY, 30 MAY, 2007
Tá an-áthas orm bheith anseo libh inniu agus ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a chur in iúl daoibh as an gcuireadh agus as fáilte a bhí caoin, cneasta agus croíúil.
Thank you for inviting me back to the Allianz Business2Arts Awards and thank you for the many ways in which this collaboration enhances and enriches Irish life, stretching the reach and depth of the Arts, stretching the reach and depth of the business world. I am particularly proud to be the patron of Business2Arts, because in a world that tends to simplistically slice and dice us into adjacent or parallel spheres, here is one place which sees us as community, as human beings whose love affair with balance sheets or laptops doesn’t remove us from love of theatre, film, dance, poetry or literature. It sees us as complex creatures with interests, resources, skills and passions that can be applied to good use across all those things that go to make up a strong and intellectually engaged civic society.
The arts flourish where patronage is strong and we are very lucky that there is a growing culture of State and corporate patronage with the latter engaged in a lively, contemporary debate about the role of corporate social responsibility. At this event we get a clear view of what corporate social responsibility can accomplish when it allies itself to the Arts. It becomes obvious that the benefits cascade in many directions, some measurable, some intangible but all manifestly enhancing everyday life, building us up humanly, helping to transform us into a prosperous and a caring society – a place where our young people are as comfortable in the world of metaphysics as they are in the virtual world, a place where we are harnessing and harvesting all the talent we have.
The first night I attended this award almost ten years ago, I made a great and good friend in the late Jim McNaughton whose company TileStyle was a former sponsor of this event. So it gives me great pleasure to announce that, in honour of Jim, Business2Arts and TyleStyle have decided to establish two new awards from 2008. They are the Jim McNaughton Perpetual Award for Best Commissioning Practice to award good practice in the commissioning process by companies and the Jim McNaughton/TileStyle Bursary which will offer a €10,000 annual bursary for a commissioned artist. This bursary will not be confined just to visual artists but will include choreographers, writers, composers and all who engage in the commissioning process with companies.
I remember also tonight all those who are no longer with us but who were champions of a practical patriotism that made them both generous in helping the talent of others to blossom and curious about all that as yet untapped genius just waiting for its chance to shine.
Business2Arts just keeps going from strength to strength - a vindication of the rightness of the concept, a credit to all its champions and its ambassadors. It has always been led by energetic and enthusiastic chief executives and I wish Stuart McLaughlin every success in his new role. To the judges – thank you for doing the hard work, to the sponsors and the beneficiaries, thank you for investing so enthusiastically and so successfully in our country, its people, its heart and its soul.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh.