WIESBADEN, GERMANY.- "Culture needs Business! Business needs culture!" Economist Tobias Bartenbach, president of the Marketing Club Mainz-Wiesbaden, expressed a thought which has entered the consciousness of the business community: sponsoring of cultural events is an integral part of effective business communication and positive image transfer. 

In order to offer both Art and business a platform, the first Corporate Art Fair will take place in the 15.000 sqm-sized Rhein-Main-Hallen in the Hessian capital Wiesbaden from 7th to 11th of July 2004. 

The Art fair is based on a three-fold concept: a Corporate Art congress, a classical sales fair for contemporary art and a specialised topical exhibition of the highest calibre. Sponsors of the ARTforum Wiesbaden 2004 are the Marketing Club Mainz-Wiesbaden and the European Business School Schloss Reichartshausen in Oestrich Winkel. 

The ARTforum Wiesbaden is not another classical Art fair but attempts to bring Art and Business together in a forum which allows both to exchange opinions in a focused manner. Prof. Dr. Manfred Schwaiger, head of the Institute for Business Development and Organisation at the Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich and author of various studies regarding cultural sponsoring, explains the purpose of the ARTforum Wiesbaden: "I believe that you create a platform during the ARTforum Wiesbaden which will benefit both business and cultural representatives. This event will contribute to both parties understanding each other. Without such an understanding, effective cooperation is impossible."

The corporateARTcongress® taking place on the 8th of July 2004, one day after the Professional Preview, will offer an important contribution to encourage and strengthen communication between Art and Business: presentations, lectures, discussion forums and events supported and attended by leading business representatives, scientists, established gallery owners and exhibitors will examine various topics in three categories: Art as medium; Art as instrument of communication in businesses; Synergies of Art Sponsoring and Economy. 

The following speakers and topics for the corporateARTcongress® have been confirmed: Dr. Alexandra Kankeleit, Union Investment: "Art as internal medium of communication in companies such as Union Investment"; Dr. Uwe Böhlke, SCHOTT GLAS: "Fascination Innovation - how Art can function as intermediary of Science, Technology and every day business (case study). Art as external medium of Communication"; Prof. Dr. Manfred Schwaiger, Institute for Business Development and Organisation at the Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich: "Measuring of the effectiveness of sponsoring activities in the Art environment"; Alexandra Duda, ArtRat Marketing and Management Consultancy GmbH: "Successful sponsoring is no coincidence! Attempts to manage professional sponsoring in business"; Dr. Stefan Lüddemann, Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung:

"How can Art be evaluated, was does art critique achieve?"

As well as bringing together Art and Business, ARTforum Wiesbaden aims to support and establish contemporary Art in the areas of painting, object, sculpture, photography, light and multimedia. Established as well as new galleries present "Young Art" by artists born after 1945 within the framework of a classic art and sales fair. Furthermore, art societies as representatives and exhibitors of top-class artists who are not yet represented by a gallery will be involved in the fair. This broad spectrum of exhibitors offers a broad overview of the contemporary Art market.

At the same time an area is offered to museums, art galleries and for the first time, to progressive companies exhibiting part of their collection and/or who are represented through an information stand. Here KunstWerk GmbH will be able to talk to potential applicants.

Furthermore, a large number of themes will be exhibited in a particularly prevalent manner which allows art patrons or managers, museums or companies to concentrate on a particularly important art period/art collection and to substantiate the meaning of "Young Art". A presentation of exhibits of the artists’ group ZERO, organised by gallery KunstWerk, will kick off the event. This presentation will be shown after the fair until end of August in the gallery KunstWerk Wiesbaden. 

The great response received by the organisers of ARTforum Wiesbaden from representatives of business, science and art shows the importance placed on the first institutionalised consolidation of Art and Business by both parties. Leander Rubrecht, manager of KunstWerk GmbH, feels affirmed by the positive feedback not only in his undertaking, but also in his choice of his novel Art fair location. Frank Siemes of the European Business School lists the advantages of the location as follows: "The region’s cultural flair, Wiesbaden’s exclusivity together with the city’s infrastructure as well as the vicinity to the financial centre Frankfurt and the potential of ARTforum Wiesbaden’s whole concept will most likely lead to a successful establishing of the corporateARTcongress®."

So how is the Art community’s feedback to the ARTforum Wiesbaden with its corporateARTcongress® so far? Rubrecht, business manager of KunstWerk GmbH summarises as follows: "The art scene is certainly very different. It can maybe be compared with the first Art fair in Cologne which is the largest German Art fair today. There have been some supporters from the start and other, rather more careful voices who need to be convinced. It is our intention to create a forum for serious culture work in companies and so to give the art community an important instrument - naturally preserving the integrity of art! Obviously we won’t be able to convince the last sceptics until the Preview, but that’s how it should be!"