When the Royal Scottish National Orchestra boarded an Emirates airlines plane to fly to China for concerts at the start of 2013, the musicians' transport was just some of the fruit of a liaison with Glasgow Airport that has been developing over the past four years.

The partnership between Glasgow Airport and the RSNO has blossomed since the airport first approached the orchestra to be part of its Best of Scotland festival back in 2011, and this year it is one of a shortlist of seven projects vying for an Arts & Business Award in the new Placemaking category.

The awards, due to be presented in the new foyer extension of Glasgow's Theatre Royal on October 24, are recognition for the most productive and adventurous links between commercial businesses and the arts. The Placemaking award focuses specifically on benefits to a particular geographical area either locally or in terms of cultural tourism.

RSNO head of development Sarah Modley says: "This is a partnership that has gone from strength to strength since its launch when, with the help of the National Theatre of Scotland, we transformed the main check-in hall into a performance space for Ravel's Bolero."

That flashmob of musicians surprising travellers with one of classical music's best-loved pieces set the tone for a series of logistically-challenging events.

In 2012, en route for a Classic FM Live show, the orchestra played airside, serving up Mendelssohn's Hebrides and Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overtures in the departure lounge. In 2013 there was an extension of the orchestra's Pops season in the airport concourse with the biggest audience yet for a programme of film music. This year there was a sporting theme when Commonwealth Games judo gold medallist Sarah Clark picked up the baton to conduct Flower of Scotland and the theme music from Chariots of Fire.

The relationship has gone much further than those events, however, if only once as far as China. It has introduced the orchestra to other partners, including the Citizens' Theatre Young Company as well as the NTS. The airport's Flightpath Fund supports events in the surrounding area, including Paisley's Spree festival, and that led to the RSNO's acclaimed Paisley Abbey collaboration with groups Admiral Fallow and The Twilight Sad with special orchestrations of their music by John Logan.

The collaboration comes with marketing support in and around the airport which Modley estimates is worth £25,000, and the musicians help make the airport - and Scotland - a more welcoming place to arrive at.

She says: "By animating a public space we have a new way of promoting what we do, reaching potential new audiences. We have linked all our appearances to specific offers for tickets for concerts."

If the RSNO and Glasgow Airport have been operating at one of Scotland's gateways, the Scottish Ensemble and solicitors are an example of commercial support making something happen in a specific locality.

Lawyer Brian Inkster trained in Edinburgh and practices in Glasgow, although his company has branches as distant as Portree. A long time Friend and follower of the string group, he is a Shetlander by birth and upbringing and still often returns there, so was understandably enthusiastic about the Ensemble's commission from composer Sally Beamish, Seavaigers, already one of the most successful in its history.

It tells the story of a voyage from Dundee to Shetland and was written for the classical musicians to play with traditional duo harper Catriona McKay and Shetland fiddler Chris Stout.

The ensemble's general manager Fraser Anderson explains that Inkster approached the group after the piece was premiered at Celtic Connections in 2012 insisting that it had to be heard in Lerwick. He was told that if he was prepared to pay for it, the band was keen to go.

What happened went rather further that, with the law firm's financial support being recognised as a first venture and rewarded with matching Scottish Government funding through Arts & Business. The concert at Lerwick's new Mareel venue became a four-day residency with a programme of other music tailored to the local community. It is a practice that paralleled the Ensemble's development of city residencies and chimes with the ideas behind the Placemaking award. The group now has ambitions to return to Shetland every second year, alternating with a similar residency on the Isle of Mull.

The Herald is media partner with Arts & Business for this year's awards. The other shortlisted projects in the Placemaking category are Scottish Opera and Accenture, Greyfriars Concerts and Cavens Hotel, National Trust for Scotland and Clydesdale Bank, Create Forty Eight, Scottimage and The Glad Cafe, and Theatre Modo and Shell UK.