At a dinner held in early December at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Morgan Stanley was presented with an award by Arts & Business, for its sponsorship of the John Singer Sargent exhibition at the Tate Gallery in London (October 1998 – January 1999). These prestigious annual awards, sponsored by the Financial Times, give recognition to businesses and individuals that have leveraged their partnership with an arts organization in the most successful and creative manner. Morgan Stanley was one of sixty-eight firms nominated for one of the seven business awards, and other winning firms included Barclays Bank, Bank of Scotland and Royal Bank of Scotland.

"Constructing Identities" enabled 600 children from Morgan Stanley's local community in the East End of London to visit the exhibition and participate in workshops that produced a wide variety of work, including portraits, poems and puppets. This innovative project sought to challenge the children to explore their own identities and cultures within the context of the multi-ethnic and multi-cultural community in which they live. At the same time, the programme focused on addressing the literacy issues faced by most of these children, many of whom speak English as a second language.

A selection of the children's work was exhibited at the Tate following the closure of the exhibition. It was considered appropriate to choose some of these images for this season's Morgan Stanley European holiday card, as it provides an opportunity to bring some of the children's work to a wider audience, as well as highlighting another example of how the Firm supports projects that seek to find innovative solutions to complex problems.