Accessibility and inclusion are defining characteristics of this year’s Business to Arts Award winners. Across Ireland, creative partnerships are widening participation in the arts, ensuring that geography, disability, age or circumstance are no longer barriers to cultural engagement.
This year’s winners demonstrate that meaningful participation begins by designing programmes around the needs of audiences. By bringing performances to new audiences, introducing children and young people to the arts, embedding creativity within the workplace or extending cultural opportunities into communities across the country, these partnerships demonstrate that meaningful access strengthens not only the arts sector but society as a whole. They show that participation begins by meeting people where they are and creating opportunities for everyone to engage with creativity.
The small arts partnership award recognised basis.point and The Gate Theatre for bringing a nationwide livestream of POOR, Katriona O’Sullivan’s acclaimed stage adaptation, directly into secondary school classrooms across Ireland. More than 22,000 students in 337 schools across 29 counties experienced the production, many encountering professional theatre for the first time.
By overcoming geographic, financial and social barriers, the partnership created a scalable model for widening access to theatre while supporting conversations around resilience, empathy and personal potential. It demonstrates how digital technology can extend the reach of live performance without compromising the shared experience at its heart.
The Irish Times long-term partnership award was presented to ESB and the National Concert Hall for Quavers to Quadratics, an innovative Steam (science, technology, engineering, arts and maths) programme that uses music to inspire curiosity and learning in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Since 2020 the programme has reached more than 10,000 students nationwide, with a particular focus on Deis schools and underserved communities, while workshops delivered through Irish have expanded participation in Gaeltacht regions.
By combining music and science in a shared learning experience, Quavers to Quadratics encourages creativity, confidence and critical thinking while opening new pathways into Steam subjects. The partnership demonstrates how collaboration between business, education and the arts can create opportunities that extend well beyond the classroom.
The creative access award recognised Specsavers Limerick and University Concert Hall for Panto for All, a programme developed to make live theatre more accessible to vulnerable and marginalised children and families across the midwest of Ireland. Between January 2025 and January 2026, more than 920 children and family members attended performances through the initiative, many experiencing live theatre for the first time.
Relaxed performances, Irish Sign Language interpretation, captioning, sensory supports and complimentary tickets created a more welcoming theatre experience for neurodiverse audiences, deaf communities and families facing barriers to participation. By embedding accessibility into every aspect of the production, the partnership demonstrates how inclusive design can enrich the experience for audiences of all ages.
The creativity in the workplace award recognised Connected Hubs and the Contemporary Irish Art Society for their project, Art in the Hubs, which brings contemporary Irish art into workplaces across Ireland while creating new opportunities for artists beyond traditional gallery settings. Since 2022 the programme has placed 70 artworks by 70 artists across 40 Connected Hubs, introducing new audiences to contemporary art while helping remote working hubs become more engaging cultural spaces.
The Irish Times €5,000 arts award was presented to Music Network for bringing migrant and local families together through music, creativity and cultural exchange in Clare and Kildare. Weekly workshops explored lullabies in English, Irish and 16 additional languages using a trauma-sensitive approach. Their programmes address isolation, language barriers and limited access to cultural opportunities while strengthening confidence, wellbeing and community connection, demonstrating the capacity of shared creative experiences to build stronger, more inclusive communities.
Across these partnerships, access takes many forms: digital innovation, interdisciplinary learning, inclusive performance, workplace engagement and community participation. Together, they demonstrate that widening participation depends not simply on opening doors, but on creating experiences that respond to the needs of different audiences and enable more people to engage meaningfully with the arts.
At Business to Arts, we work to build meaningful connections between the corporate and cultural sectors, creating opportunities for businesses to support the arts in ways that deliver lasting value. The partnerships recognised in this year’s awards show how collaboration can expand access, deepen participation and ensure that more people can experience the benefits of creativity in their everyday lives.
To learn more about developing a creative partnership or becoming a member of Business to Arts, please visit businesstoarts.ie