Individuals who have made significant contributions to the region’s cultural offering have been recognised at a special ceremony in the city.

More than 200 guests attended the Jaguar Land Rover Cultural Champions for Arts & Business event that saw 23 people honoured for going above and beyond the call of duty to enrich their organisation or others.

Those honoured included Lee Humphreys of JCDecaux, who has been actively involved in bringing EC-Arts’ high profile 48-Sheet project, which involves turning Birmingham’s billboards into works of art, to fruition and can now be seen all over the city.

The event, which was hosted by ITV’s Bob Warman, saw performances from international dance group Scarabeus and a surprise performance from opera singer Ronald Samm, who appeared courtesy of the Birmingham Opera Company.

Nadia Dooner, regional manager of Arts & Business in Birmingham, said: “I am grateful to our long-term partners Jaguar Land Rover for their sponsorship and the Birmingham Post for being our media partner. We have been working with both sponsors for over 10 years on our regional awards and we are delighted that they are supporting this new community-focused celebration. We simply couldn’t do it without them.”

Philip Spedding, director of Arts & Business, added: ‘‘Arts & Business is delighted to be able to recognise and say thank you to those individuals who make such a difference to arts and culture. The last twelve months have been exceptionally difficult in the sector, and it’s wonderful to see that despite budget cuts people’s passion for arts and culture is still as strong as ever, proving that they are as vital and relevant as ever.

"After 30 years Arts & Business is still leading the way in championing this cause, forging connections between the cultural and private sectors to invigorate both.”