The pARTnership Movement demonstrates how arts partnerships help businesses enhance the critical thinking and creative skills of their workforce. It also prepares arts organizations to partner with businesses in new and innovative ways.

• Have you heard about the hotel in Portland that has found ways to showcase local arts organizations in its suites, raising critical dollars for local art nonprofits while attracting visitors from around the world?
• Have you heard about the energy company that puts on a talent show with its employees each year, teaching them to work together better while having fun?
• Have you heard about the financial institution that hosts a corporate art collection and exhibitions of its employees’ artwork, encouraging and promoting creativity in the workplace?
• Have you heard about the healthcare company that developed a series of puppet shows for children, addressing issues of health and wellness?
• Have you heard about the aerospace corporation that created a grant program which funds local arts organizations, engaging people to become lifelong arts participants, patrons, and practitioners?

These are just a few of the many success stories inspired by the pARTnership Movement, which serve as replicable models to be re-imagined in your own community. Visit the pARTnership Movement to learn how to create your own partnerships and send us your stories so we can continue to spread the word about the great partnerships already happening across the country!

Be sure to read and share our 8 Reasons to Partner with the Arts, explore our many tool-kits designed to assist you in building strategic arts and business alliances, and explore the BCA National Survey of Business Support for the Arts, which details the many reasons small, midsize and large businesses are motivated to partner with the arts.

Need a pARTner?

We’re here to help! The pARTnership Movement can connect businesses with Americans for the Arts organizational members in their community. (Not a member of Americans for the Arts? Join us today to get started! It's a good investment.)

Bring the pARTnership Movement to Your Community

Want to help your local arts community build its capacity to partner with the business community? Through our local pARTnership Movement workshop program, Americans for the Arts can come directly to you and your community to help you get started.

Our 1 and 3 hour workshops are customizable depending on the audience and its interests, covering a range of topics including arts and business 101, relationship building, employee engagement, and program building. We can also focus on a group’s special interest area, such as partnering with businesses to further public art, arts education, arts advocacy, or economic development efforts in a community.

Whether your audience is artists, arts administrators, local business leaders, or a combination of all three, Americans for the Arts is ready and willing to lead a workshop in your community! For more information contact the Private Sector Initiatives team.

Do Your pART!

Ads for the pARTnership Movement have run in Forbes Magazine, The Conference Board Review, the MTV Screen in Times Square, and local business journals. Spread the word about the value of arts to business by placing ads in local periodicals, chamber of commerce newsletters, business intranets, and company newsletters. Additionally, you can host forums for your region’s arts and business leaders or hold meetings with your local chambers of commerce to speak of the benefits of arts and business partnerships.

Ideas of How to Incorporate the Arts into Business

Invite the Arts In: Businesses can bring artists into the workplace to inspire and motivate employees, in turn giving artists a new forum through which to showcase their work. Or businesses can bring the arts out in their employees, encouraging them to demonstrate their artistic skills in the office by participating in an employee art show or battle of the bands.

Engage with the Community: Arts organizations can work with businesses, encouraging employees to volunteer with arts organizations on a Board of Directors, an after-school program or through a Business Volunteer for the Arts program.

Experiment with Marketing: Encourage businesses to work with artists to tell the company’s story to its customers.

For more ideas, check out our Success Stories to learn how other businesses around the country have partnered with the arts. For more information on the campaign and how you can get involved, email [email protected]