Corporate arts sponsorship in crisis

Corporate sponsorship of the arts is in "mid-crisis", according to the businessman with the biggest arts budget in the country.

Rodger Broad, head of British Telecom's sponsorship programme, which will give pounds 1.5m to the arts this year, said the Thatcherite dream of corporate backing was "faltering". There was a "mis-match between what the arts need and what they're getting".

"The amount of cash sponsorship of the arts has been decreasing over the years ... If you cover up the problem for too long, the problem becomes quite a substantial one." Louise Jury