LAWFUEL – The Legal Newswire – Last night Buddle Findlay was declared Overall Winner at the National Business Review 2007 Awards for Sponsorship of the Arts.
The award was extra special for the firm, marking 10 years of sponsorship of the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship and was presented by Prime Minister Rt Hon Helen Clark at a glittering black tie gala evening at the Auckland Town Hall. Fittingly the event also was a celebration of the 10th year of the NBR Sponsorship of the Arts Awards.
The night included performances by Dame Malvina Major, the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, the New Zealand String Quartet, Southern Symphonic Brass – players from Christchurch Symphony, and an excerpt from Massive Company’s acclaimed show ‘Up Close. Out Loud’.
Buddle Findlay’s award-winning entry consisted of a retrospective of the firm’s decade-long commitment to supporting new and emerging New Zealand writers, a relationship described in the words and voices of the Fellows and Trustees themselves in a visual presentation from a DVD “This Magical Solitude”.
Extracts from the DVD were played on two giant screens either side of the stage as the Prime Minister announced the Award.
In making the award, the judges said: “This is the 10th anniversary of a major arts partnership in which the name of Buddle Findlay has become synonymous with the Sargeson Fellowship and literary arts in general.
“The law firm is a partnership whose members are personally involved and committed in this very close relationship.”
Buddle Findlay National Chairman Peter Chemis said the Award was a huge acknowledgement of a partnership that has delivered huge dividends for all involved, not only the writers, poets and playwrights who have taken up the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship, but also the Trustees of the Sargeson Trust, Buddle Findlay partners, staff and clients.
“We are extremely proud, not only of the Award we received last night, but also of the successes our Fellows have enjoyed after the opportunity to live and work at the Sargeson Centre.”
