Fifty years ago, at the Conference Board’s 50th anniversary conference, David Rockefeller—former Chairman and CEO of Chase Manhattan Corporation—gave a speech titled “Culture and the Corporation”. The speech called for the creation of the Business Committee for the Arts to promote partnership between the arts and business communities. Rockefeller highlighted the public’s confidence in businesses and arts organizations to have “certain standards of good citizenship” and that these organizations “help shape our environment in a constructive way.”

—David Rockefeller, 1966

 

As a result of the speech, the Business Committee for the Arts was officially launched in 1967 and is now part of Americans for the Arts. The Business Committee for the Arts encourages, inspires, and stimulates businesses to support the arts in the workplace and in the community.

Another result of the speech was the inspiration for our David Rockefeller Lecture Series. Fifty years later David Rubenstein—co-founder and CEO of The Carlyle Group, one of the world’s largest private equity firms—revived the lecture series with a passionate speech of his own.

Read David Rockefeller’s original speech on arts and business, "Culture and the Corporation," and learn more about the David Rockefeller Lecture Series. If you are interested in finding an arts partner, visit the pARTnership movement website.