THE mining industry may be well known for its support of the arts in WA, but a diverse range of companies has been recognised for contributing to the state’s growing cultural sector at this year’s Australia Business Arts Foundation’s WA awards.
Mining giant Woodside and engineering and environment services company URS were the only two business representatives from the mining sector out of the eight WA partnership awards.
URS won the AbaF partnering award for its support of Becks Music Box at the Perth International Arts Festival while Woodside was recognised for its involvement with the Film and Television Institute of WA, for which it won the Qantas Regional Award.
The government sector was well represented, with the WA Disability Services Commission winning the Arts and Health Foundation award for its partnership with Disability in the Arts, Disadvantage in the Arts Australia (DADAA).
The City of Gosnells was recognised for its community work with the Community Arts Network WA.
The Water Corporation won the Visy Arts and Environment award for its partnership with the Art Gallery of WA where it worked to generate greater water sustainability awareness across generations.
AbaF director WA Henry Boston said all the awards were of equal importance, with the breadth of organisations now supporting the arts an interesting aspect of this year’s awards.
“You have got a range when you look at the Community Arts Network and City of Gosnells partnership through to the Perth Festival and URS, so there are all sizes of organisations both business wise and arts organisation wise,” he said.
The property sector was well represented also, with Lester Group and ARTrinsic winning the SME award for the development of the Black Swan Prize for Portraiture.
Privately owned property developer Hawaiian was represented by its general manager marketing, Kate O’Hara, and performance company ThinIce were awarded for their partnership and Ms O’Hara’s involvement in the company’s brand development.
The national awards will be held in Sydney in October, where there will be three finalists in each of the three national categories.
WA partnerships feature heavily in the national finalists, with RAC and the Black Swan Theatre Company, WA Symphony Orchestra and ConocoPhillips and BHP Billiton and FORM all representing the state.
