Arts & Business has launched a Private Policy for art “to ensure the British mixed economy model is not damaged by the recession”, said CEO Colin Tweedy. He said the significance of private giving was too often overlooked, but needs to be recognised and encouraged to help arts organisations through the economic downturn.

The initiative will include a council of leaders in both business and arts communities to act as a task force to advise on policy and practice; pushing for the reintroduction of the for the matching grant scheme that ran from 1984-2008; more philanthropists being honoured through The Prince of Wales Medal for Arts Philanthropy across the country to highlight giving of all sorts and sizes; and Leading On, joining Futurecity Arts to help develop the government’s initiatives to revitalise our high streets hit by the recession by filing empty spaces with art.

The new policy follows the results of a survey reported on in AI 230, which showed that while the majority of arts organisations had so far experienced no ill effects from the recession, others were seeing important finding sources falling away and were preparing for a bigger impact.

“Many in the arts are facing real difficulties - our own new research figures show over 60% of smaller arts bodies experiencing a fall in business investment” Tweedy said. “The private sector’s contribution to culture will recover more quickly than the public sector. And we believe that arts sponsorship will pick up faster than sport – 56% of decision makers now ranked the arts first choice.”