Five Ontario communties to receive artsVest grants

>> by Cynthia Brett

London, Chatham-Kent, Stratford/Perth County, Brantford and Dysart/Haliburton will benefit from artsVest funding in early 2010. Nichole Anderson, president of Business for the Arts, announced the first five of fifteen Ontario communities that will receive the artsVest matching grant opportunity over the next four years. The artsVest program provides cultural organizations with an opportunity to foster relationships with businesses as well as engage municipalities to make culture a part of city planning; over three years it has seen 370 businesses partner with 130 arts organizations in eleven different communities while raising $1.46 million for arts and culture. Thanks to funding from business members of Business for the Arts, as well as the Ontario Trillium Foundation and the Ontario Ministry of Culture, the artsVest program is able to launch in these communities.