We Connect The Dots – a STEAM education program – joined with the Microsoft Corporation today to ring the opening bell of the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York City.

The ceremony celebrated the success of We Connect the Dots, its partnership with Microsoft and their collective work to close the opportunity divide in technology, education and STEAM education.

When arts and businesses partner, everyone profits. The arts help businesses foster critical thinking, engage employees, recruit and retain talent, and more.

“Each day is more wondrous and rewarding because I experience it through the arts.” When The Related Group Chairman and CEO Jorge Pérez said these words on October 6 at the BCA 10 gala at the Central Park Boathouse in New York City while accepting the 2015 BCA Leadership Award, he verbalized a sentiment which most of the business executives in the room shared.

Arts partnerships frequently offer companies effective and cost-efficient methods of achieving critical business goals. To explore and illustrate the different types of benefits that arts partnerships can bring to businesses, Americans for the Arts is producing a series of essays on pARTnershipMovement.org. Each essay includes case studies from some of America's most successful business and arts partnerships.

Throughout the country, some of America's top businesses are engaging with the arts to engage employees, foster innovation, and transform communities. Do you know of or work for a business that deserves to be honored for its support of and engagement with the arts? Nominate it for the 2016 BCA 10 Awards!

Launching today, the third essay in The pARTnership Movement essay series, Foster Critical Thinking, demonstrates how arts partnerships can help a company encourage critical thinking and thereby boost innovation among employees.

As part of its recently released Blueprint for Collective Action for the Arts initiative, Cincinnati-based United Arts Fund, ArtsWave, has announced its’ new strategy will allocate funding based on five community goals.

Americans for the Arts, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts and arts education, is proud to introduce this year’s BCA 10: Best Businesses Partnering with the Arts in America honorees. Presented every year by Americans for the Arts’ Business Committee for the Arts (BCA), the BCA 10 awards honor 10 U.S. companies for their exceptional commitment to the arts.

In recognition of the Arts & Business Council of New York’s 50^th Anniversary and its many accomplishments over decades of service to the arts and business communities in our city, Mayor Bill DeBlasio declared November 17th "Arts & Business Council of New York Day". Arts & Business Council of New York will hold its 3rd annual Arts Volunteer Fair the same evening, continuing its commitment to fostering arts and business partnerships in New York City.

Launching today, the second essay in The pARTnership Movement essay series, Put Your Company in the Spotlight, explores how engaging with the arts can help a business build market share, enhance its brand, and reach new customers.

Each year, Americans for the Arts honors the best businesses partnering with the arts in America through the BCA10 awards. This summer, two of our previous honorees, Golden Artist Colors, Inc. (BCA 10 2012) and Scholastic Inc. (BCA 10 2013) have partnered to provide an unprecedented opportunity for art educators. Teachers of students who received recognition in the 2015 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards were invited to submit painted art-pieces for a chance to participate in a weeklong artist residency through the Sam & Adele Golden Foundation.

On Wednesday, August 12, the Des Moines Register published an op-ed by John Pappajohn titled "The Arts Mean Business in Iowa." The op-ed comes several days ahead of the Iowa Arts Advocacy Caucus, held on August 14 and co-hosted with the Iowa Arts Council, Iowa Alliance for Arts Education, BRAVO Greater Des Moines, NAMM, and the United States Conference of Mayors. 

NV Energy(a 2015 BCA 10 honoree) employees have traveled across Nevada to share the story of their successful arts and business partnerships and celebrate their BCA 10 recognition. NV Energy has been supportive of the arts for nearly 30 years through the NV Energy Foundation, and in the past 10 years alone, the foundation has committed $3.4 million towards arts and culture initiatives in rural and urban Nevada.

The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) and Business for Culture & the Arts (BCA) announced last week that a few of BCA’s signature programs will be absorbed by RACC while BCA heads towards ceases operations in the next few months.

The Arts Partnership of Greater Spartanburg recently received a significant grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies to execute a public art project with a purpose as part of Bloomberg’s Public Art Challenge.