Office Art Flourishes As Lucrative Business

Art Business News, August, 2000 by Maja Wolff

Several galleries and designers are finding a profitable niche in the world of corporate America and beyond

SPECIAL REPORT--For years, executives on the 47th floor of the Sara Lee Corp. spent their work days in a way usually reserved for museum docents and curators-- surrounded by Monet, Degas, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Matisse and Picasso, to name but a few of the artists whose originals graced the walls of the corporation's offices and dining rooms.

But with the fiscal and moral responsibilities of the $100 million-plus collection weighing on them, Sara Lee's corporate officers decided two years ago to give the prized pieces away. The works are now slated for distribution to more than 40 different institutions, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., and New York's Metropolitan Museum.

While few companies have Sara Lee's ability to purchase and display the masters, many are realizing the important role art plays in the corporate culture. And many gallery owners, architects, decorators and artists are finding a lucrative niche filling the space on stark white office walls.

"We're developing a generation of people who want to look at things, and want to do so in a work setting," said Maggie Smith, c.e.o, of ArtSource in New Berlin, Wis., which began focusing on business clients a decade ago. "In the last 10 to 20 years, there has been a burgeoning amount of what I call `visual imagery'--lots more to look at. People are used to visual stimulation. Sitting where there is nothing on the walls begins to look funny to you."

"I always look forward to doing a new installation," said Alicia Nowicki, corporate art consultant at Hang Gallery in San Francisco, "because I have an opportunity to excite people about their work environment. My job is very rewarding."

The business of providing art to businesses takes many forms. Not only can it involve whole teams of people who present and decide upon the imagery for a company's wall space, but it can also involve a variety of media, a mixture of prints and originals and a plethora of payment plans. Indeed, gallery owners who involve themselves in the world of selling art to corporate clients often find themselves dealing with issues uncommon in the general retail art sector.

For Smith of ArtSource, her customer may be an interior designer, an architect, an art dealer or a representative of the corporation itself. Most of her clients choose prints as opposed to original fine art, with fine art most likely finding a home in a business' public spaces, like lobbies and conference rooms, and decorative art brightening the walls of workers.

"With the increased quality of poster publishing, many clients are eliminating the moderate-priced, limited-edition reproduction from the budget arena and opting for higher-quality framing for posters and open-edition prints," agreed Debra Rhodes Smith, an independent representative of Bruce McGaw Graphics with nearly a quarter-century of art-industry experience. "With the savings, the public space art is able to be elevated in price point. Corporations tend to select pieces that communicate lasting value ... Art is used as a communication device for the corporate culture."

ArtSource's Smith said she sees thematic trends vary by business type, with corporations tending toward landscapes and abstracts, health-care clients and senior-living homes preferring traditional, non-abstract, uplifting imagery, and hospitality customers selecting art that is more more cutting edge.

Amy Wenk, gallery director at Artisimo in Scottsdale, Ariz., said she sees similar corporate preferences, with offices leaning toward a combination of originals, sculptures and framed prints--much of it abstract in nature--and a retirement-home client focusing on framed posters of serene landscapes.

Hang Gallery, meanwhile, supplies only original artwork to its corporate clients, which include restaurants, health clubs, law firms and dot-com companies. "It's been a booming business," said owner Shanna McBurney, whose two-year-old "ungallery" targets "emerging collectors" and strives to provide a fun, non-intimidating environment to purchase reasonably priced local art.

Hang often rents its artwork to corporate clients, depending on the customer's needs. Renting, said McBurney, "is great for corporations to stick their feet in the water and write it off as an operating expense." For three months, companies make monthly payments that represent a percentage of the retail price of the work, after which time they can renew the contract, exchange the work for another piece or apply a portion of the rental fees toward purchase of the work. Most clients, said McBurney, keep their rentals. Hang also leases artwork, with the assistance of a company called leaseart.com, in an effort to help some corporate clients ease billing issues.

Portland, Ore.-based leaseart.com is a division of Echo Leasing and was founded specifically to serve both the businesses and the galleries involved in the corporate art market by providing financing services that company representatives say enable member galleries to place more and higher quality works of art in commercial accounts. While fine art is not depreciable, lease payments are tax deductible, according to the company. "The art community was not embraced by the financial community--as we are doing--in the past," said Tom Laury, president.