Remarks presented by Ralph P. Davidson at a luncheon hosted by the Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan, October 11, 1984.

Today, I want to make the case for corporate support of the arts - both as a matter of the public interest and our own self-interest. In 1982, the last year surveyed by the Business Committee for the Arts, U.S. corporations donated $506 million to the arts - up 32 percent from the year before. This year, a survey of BCA members showed that 41 percent of them were increasing their contributions to the arts.

Time Inc. last year earmarked roughly a quarter of its corporate contributions for the arts. We've increased total contributions this year to 2.4 percent of Time Inc. pre-tax profits and we plan increases to an eventual goal of 5 percent.

In great part because of corporate support, the country has scores of world-class symphonies, opera companies, ballet companies, museums and repertory theatres - many in some of our smaller cities.