For the first time, the group's annual survey reports on business investment and individual giving together, showing an 8% rise in the former to £120m, and a £20m rise in the latter to £256m. The total is still dwarfed however by public support of the arts which stood at £957m in 2001/02.

Colin Tweedy, chief executive of Arts & Business, comments: "Arts & Business makes the UK the only country in the world to produce these figures on an annual basis and this is the first time we have consolidated the figures for private support of the arts.

"There are many artistic mouths to feed, but these new figures prove that the majority of arts organisations that seek private support are succeeding in difficult times. Arts organisations will only survive on a mixed economy.

"We will always stress that private sector funding should always be a supplement, never a substitute, for public funding. We must all work together to prove how business and individual investment in the arts can be good for business, good for the arts and good for the wider community."

Overall, the Business Investment in the Arts report reveals mixed results, both regionally and by sector. Investment in London, which still accounts for over half of the total business investment, dipped under £50m for the first time in six years, although 13 out of the 20 organisations receiving business investment of £1m or more are based in the capital.

However, significant regional increases in investment were reported in the North East (200%), East of England (87%), West Midlands (31%) and Wales (24%). Dance, drama/theatre, music and photography achieved the greatest increases in investment, while opera, museums and galleries and visual arts reported an overall drop in the level of business investment they received.

The individual giving figures show the continuing importance of individual and trust income to the arts, with these income sources, when combined, generate more than twice the amount of business support. The individual figures also show an increasing concentration of money raised going to London arts organisations (up from 75% to 78%).

Heritage remains a significant recipient of individual giving, receiving almost 60% of the total, with Museums & Galleries and Drama/Theatre a rather distant second and third. Three of the smaller art forms (Arts Centres, Dance and Festivals) more than doubled their income from individuals & trusts and only literature suffered a significant decline.

Tweedy adds: 'Major lottery and millennium projects began to generate big investment opportunities for business in 1998. However there has been a further natural fall in capital projects from the millennium peak of £45.7m to £6.6m as these lottery projects are completed. The market now looks to be performing above pre-1998 levels of between £96m to £115m, which bodes well for the future."