BAWAG P.S.K. Culture Sponsoring - Eyes on the Prize (de) - a podcast by CastYourArt.com

BAWAG P.S.K. Culture Sponsoring - Eyes on the Prize

At a time when the economy has been taking a turn for the worse and funding for the arts has been cut all over the world, cultural sponsoring from the Austrian bank BAWAG PSK is thriving. They say that timing is everything, and the Viennese Jazz Club, Porgy and Bess, could not have asked for better timing when BAWAG PSK suddenly stepped up as their newest cultural sponsor. BAWAG PSK had been looking to change their image, and jazz as an art form fit the criteria for their own revamped identity perfectly: coming from a long tradition, but always innovative, creative, and contemporary.

BAWAG PSK’s bold move paid off in more ways than one, their collaboration with Porgy and Bess—the largest external undertaking in the bank’s history—landed them the 2009 Maecanas Prize for Best Overall Concept/Large-Scale Enterprise in Art Sponsoring. Through their collaboration, they have not only modernized their image, they have improved and solidified their overall reputation among both their customers, employees, and the economic and cultural world at large.

BAWAG PSK takes a three-pronged approach to their sponsoring concept, covering culture, education, and charities, and all three fields have been combined within the Porgy and Bess enterprise. Through a collaboration between Porgy and Bess and the new Galerie “BAWAG Contemporary”, the artist Stephen Mathewson installed a commissioned work in the art space located in the foyer of the club. Jazz legend Carla Bley put on a benefit concert for the charitable organization, Wiener Tafel.

BAWAG PSK not only receives prizes, they grant them as well. In the field of education, a winner was announced for the Fidelio Competition at Porgy and Bess, in which one young musician is recognized among three hundred from the Konservatorium Wien University and then given the privilege of performing later at the music salon at the BAWAG PSK.

Taking chances, making informed choices, forging new paths—the concept for BAWAG PSK’s culture sponsoring strategy seems to keep one particular goal in mind, perhaps learned after many ups and downs: Keep your eyes on the prize and your investments will pay off in the end. (jn)

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