Some artists are great at promoting themselves, finding buyers, and generating attention to their careers. Hats off to them. For many other artists, however, having a middleman speak on behalf of their work is vital to their careers.
That middleman can be an agent or dealer (or gallery). That person might also be an art consultant. At times, art consultants are gallery owners and even museum curators who advise individuals and companies in the area of decorating or building a collection on the side. Those who are free agents, only serving the interests of their clients, generally don’t have galleries and or represent particular artworks or artists; rather, they tend to work from their offices or homes, maintaining information (bios, slides, press clippings) on a variety of different artists whose work may be of interest to particular clients. Most focus exclusively on contemporary artworks created by living artists — while others will hunt through all styles and periods, depending upon the interests and budgets of their clients. “Our criteria for selection revolves around our clients’ tastes,” said Josetta Sbeglia, an art consultant in St. Louis, Missouri. “We hope we like it, too.”
These clients are a mix of private collectors, corporations, law firms, and health care facilities. “The healthcare industry is growing, and hospitals see the value of art and creating spaces that are more pleasant,” said Talley Fischer, a sculptor in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, who has been commissioned to create large installations for a variety of health care facilities through art consultants hired by these institutions, who usually are brought in to help these institutions find artworks when in the process of building new or renovating existing spaces. Fischer noted that she promotes herself directly to art consultants.
Many companies prefer using outside consultants — finding expertise through people who are members of the Association of Professional Art Advisors, for instance, although quite a few advisors who are not APAA members or work as gallery owners also offer their assistance to private and corporate clients – to hiring their own in-house curators as a cost-savings move. These companies look to acquire artwork, because “art in offices enriches the lives of the people who work there,” said Laura Solomon, an art advisor in New York City, who not only helps her clients purchase artwork, but will take charge of framing or installing pieces in the offices, rotating existing artworks around the offices from the collection and even putting together special exhibitions from it.
Consultants learn of artists in a variety of ways: They attend exhibitions at galleries, as well as at art fairs and juried competitions; they receive recommendations from other artists; they go to open studio events; and they are contacted directly by the artists, through the postal service, telephone or e-mail. Some consultants encourage artists to send them material, while others do not — it makes sense to inquire by telephone or letter what, if anything, a particular consultant is interested in seeing before mailing a portfolio. Lorinda Ash, a New York City art dealer, and consultant said that “I get phone calls, faxes and emails from artists all the time, but that’s not how I ever become interested in an artist. I find artists through going to galleries.”
On the other hand, Jennifer Wood-Patrick, an art consultant at the firm of Art Advisory Boston in Massachusetts, welcomes receiving material from artists but noted that “we have a limited amount of time for telephone conversations and sorting through packages sent by artists.” She prefers emails from artists that describe who they are and include images.
“Tom is very busy, so I try not to bother him with things he won’t be interested in.” The Tom in question is Tom James, executive chairman of Raymond James Financial, an investment and wealth management company, and he and his wife Mary select all of the artwork – 2,400 pieces and growing – that adorn the one million square feet of office space at its St. Petersburg, Florida headquarters. The person trying not to bother him too much is Emily Kapes, curator of the art collection, who identifies the type of artwork (80 percent two-dimensional and the rest sculptural works in bronze, glass, and stone) that often represent images of the American West and wildlife. She receives telephone calls, postal mail, and email from artists and galleries around the country, all offering their artwork for purchase. “I can filter out the artists that usually wouldn’t be collected,” she said, “and, otherwise, pass things along to Tom. Tom is known for supporting living artists.”
Emily Nixon, a Chicago-based art advisor, too, receives numerous communications from artists, but she tends to rely less on submissions from people she has never heard of (“I find that artists may not know what corporations want, and many are unfamiliar with contracts and pricing,” she said) and more through visiting art gallery exhibitions, art fairs, auctions and receiving recommendations from people (artists, dealers, auctioneers) with whom she has had a long-time association. The artists who are of greatest interest to her “should be in a gallery and have had numerous sales.” It doesn’t hurt if these artists have sold work in the past to other corporations, although that is less significant than the fact that they are represented in a gallery.
Corporate Artworks is a premier art consulting firm, women-owned and in business since 1988. Our facility in Arlington Heights Illinois is a showroom, design gallery, and framing operation that staffs 20 creative individuals. Our newest facility is in Nashville, TN, and staffs 6. Collectively we have over 200 years of experience and have a client base that spans the globe.
As professional art consultants, we’re experts at creating unique, eye-catching, and productive corporate environments.
Whether you want to project an image or enhance your work environment…. we will help you every step of the way.
Please peruse our site. Explore our services and portfolio. Then contact us to discuss how best to use quality art to help accomplish your corporate goals.
1. Your office walls are absolutely desolate or have sparse wall decor.
2. The artwork that is in your office is from in a decade that is not this one. (Classic reprints such as a Van Gogh aren’t included in this).
3. You catch your clients doing one of these faces
4. You have cheesy motivational posters and your employees secretly hate them. Motivational posters do nothing to actually motivate people or get a company growth. A company with a positive culture and strong core management values that actually entice employees to want to do their best will though.
5. You, your employees, and staff are bored mentally. As the old saying goes, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” There is no motivation or spark of creative energy when you are in the space. This one employee was so bored with the blank walls in his work environment he decided to do something about it – with his boss’s permission of course.
6. Your company mission statement is nowhere to be found. With a mission statement proudly mounted on your office walls, you can communicate to your team the qualities that mean most to your organization like fairness, diversity, respect for ideas and creativity, training, tools, empowerment, and more. These are themes that matter and resonate with your staff.
There are so many underrated benefits to displaying artwork in corporate environments. – Helps workers restore mental energy and reduce stress. Younger workers also see more positive benefits from having art. This includes increased productivity at 54% compared to 34%, reduces stress (58% to 45%), and increases happiness (60% to 49%). – According to the respondents in a survey, they also believe it positively affects new clients and potential employees. Almost half or 49% said artwork does this by giving a good impression. – Moreover, these offices saw fewer employee health complaints.
Contact Corporate Artworks today to start enhancing your workspace!
Whether you want to project an image or enhance your work environment, we will help you every step of the way. As professional art consultants, we’re experts at creating unique, eye-catching, and productive corporate environments. Please peruse our site. Explore our services and portfolio. Then contact us to discuss how best to use quality art to help accomplish your corporate goals.
Employees will typically spend more of their waking hours at work than at home during an average workweek. An employee’s environment can help or hinder their productivity.
Why Have Art in the Workplace?
A survey of more than 800 employees revealed that multiple companies have begun incorporating fine art in their workplaces. Why are businesses beginning to participate in this trend? It was revealed that this practice has increased creativity, elevated productivity, reduced stress, broadened employee appreciation, and enhanced morale. It not only improves the environment, but employees stated that it increases the quality of life, builds relationships, and leads to networking opportunities.
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How does it do all this? The purpose of fine art is for aesthetics or beautifying the space. Having a culture in the workplace can improve the workplace culture itself. Linda Cordair, the operator of the Quent Cordair Fine Art gallery, stresses the importance of fine art in the workplace. She says it helps “shape the company’s unique style, spirit, and character, and convey that character to employees, partners, clients, and prospective clients.” She states that the artwork chosen can either represent a positive and optimistic environment or a boring and drained atmosphere. It leaves a lasting impression both on the employees who see it day after day and on clients who visit either once or frequently. Art is important in the branding of a company’s image as well as creating a pleasant and inspiring environment.
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Not having art may represent a lack of permanence which translates into a troubling lack of dependability for employees and customers. This may give an impression of not putting down roots in the community or having stability for the employee.
Where to Acquire Fine Art
Using a professional Art Consultant to help set up your office or lobby will help to make the best use of the space and also make the kind of impression you prefer to cultivate. They can assist you with shipping, insurance, and installation details.
If your company is in the enviable position of purchasing fine art, it is highly advisable to have an appraisal done for insurance purposes. You’ll want you’re fine art collection to be protected and inventoried, storing information including artist name and date, acquisition cost, and current value. Fine art is an investment and will have enduring, long-term benefits.
Fine Art Placement
A great placement point for a prominent painting or sculpture would be the foyer or lobby by the front doors. This will set a precedent for all who enter the building, employees and clients alike. Keep in mind budgetary constraints as well as the type of image your business or service would like to convey.
It may also be beneficial to place particular pieces of art in meeting areas and boardrooms where employees can discuss ideas or clients can meet to converse about needs. An interesting piece of art can break the ice and stimulate conversation. This can also be the case in a private office. Other places that will benefit from fine art furnishings are lounge areas, well-traveled hallways, and even cafeterias/lunchrooms.
Lighting is also something to consider. Recessed lighting focusing on the artwork or sculptures is ideal, but if that isn’t possible then even lamplight or another soft lighting will work.
Types of Fine Art to Consider
Fine art can be paintings (whether original or tastefully done copies), print, watercolor, graphics, mosaics, sculpture, and photography. Some contemporary art caters to a particular taste, so it is best to choose artwork and sculptures that are a bit more mainstream. Decide on the ambiance that is needed in the work area to either calm and soothe or excite and inspire to create.
The article and photos below only strengthen our premise of how important artwork in office or corporate environments really is. This “bored” employee was driven to distraction due to the lack of color and creativity to enhance his workspace. Sitting for a minimum of 8 hours a day in a lifeless and colorless room all the while being expected to produce great work is unreasonable. There is nothing to inspire creativity or even to boost the energy in the room. This project that was planned by one employee and completed with the rest of the office staff as a team was beneficial to them in so many ways. It brought all of them together in a positive way and helped them complete a team-building project as well as these amazing murals to then enjoy together. In a few words, they made this office go from drab to fab! We commend them for this undertaking and see it through as a team for all to benefit from. If adding some artwork to your workspace is something you desperately want or need, we are here to help you. Going as far as using eight thousand Post-its is out of our norm (but that’s because no one has ever asked us to do that yet) BUT creating art programs with wall graphics or murals is something we specialize in! From ready to hang framed poster prints, canvas, custom wood panels, floating acrylic, metal fabrications, glass pieces, ceramic or cloth tapestries, – the possibilities are endless. Contact us today for more information!
Article by buzznick.com
When you work in an office, you’ll notice that sometimes it can be a complete life sucker. You clock in, stare at a computer for 8 hours, then clock out. You’re surrounded by bright white walls and bright fluorescent lights beating down on you. There’s no soothing music, no bright colors, no plants, just white walls, and bright lights. Unless of course, you are lucky enough to work for someone who cares about your overall well-being as an employee and lets you liven up your space a bit. From the looks of it, Imgur user bruck7 may have lucked out and gotten an employer who really cared about him. He ended up taking one weekend out of his mouth, along with some friends and other employees, and creating something that definitely brightened up the office!
This is Bruck7’s office. This wall is what inspired him to make a change. He got tired of looking at a plain white wall and decided to do something about it.
Here is another wall. They thought about painting the walls to liven it up but didn’t want to have to deal with the Building Facilities Department. They gave it some thought and decided that Post It Notes would be the best option because it’d be semi-cheap and only temporary.
After working with the creative director at his company, Bruck7 finally decided on a design to fill up the walls. They opted for superheroes, which would be laid out on a pixel grid and they got to work designing characters.
Here is Wonder Woman. They opted for superheroes because they are strong and inspiring figures. Plus they are easily recognized and they could design them on their own.
With the designs, they decided to make it a little comical by making the heads big and the bodies little. Obviously, this is Superman.
Here is Captain America. Once they designed the first character, it was a lot easier to design the rest.
The Scarlet Witch seemed, “like a good way to bring up the estrogen level.”
Here is Iron Man, as if you needed help with that one. It’s only 34 Post It Notes high, so they had to get creative with the sparks flying.
Good ol’ Spiderman will look like he’s hanging from the ceiling.
And they couldn’t forget about Batman.
Bruck7 decided to do a few mockups to make sure the proportions and placement would work. From the look of this, it’ll be amazing.
Here’s another mock-up just to make sure it’ll work. It’d be hard to get it all laid out, only to realize you didn’t measure it quite right.
And so it begins. They figured out that they would need a total of 8,024 Post It Notes. After figuring out the total number of Post It Notes needed for each color, he had to figure out how many packs he would need. Some of the colors only came in assortment packs, which made this tasks pretty difficult. To use up the colors they wouldn’t necessarily need, he used those for the background of the characters. He had a budget which was right around $300. He was able to purchase about 9,000 Post It Notes with that budget.
They started the project over the weekend, so they wouldn’t be wasting company time. A few of his co-workers volunteered to come in to help. To get it all started, they lined the top row of every panel, then the measured 2 foot vertical grids along the walls. Two feet of wall was the same as 8 Post It Notes. It did take what seemed like forever, but they were able to finish up the taping of the walls slowly but surely.
First up was Wonder Woman. As more and more Post It Notes were placed, you can really see her come together.
And here she is, all done.
Onto the next one, which was Superman. While they worked on Superman, others got started on Scarlet Witch and Captain America.
They started making some pretty good progress, as this wall is almost halfway done.
Some of the employees even brought their family and friends in to help, which was more than welcome.
And there’s Spiderman, hanging from the ceiling.
Another cute helper. I wonder how they kept her from tugging at all of the notes on the wall.
And now they are done!
I’m so glad he took a panoramic of the finished project. That’s quite the difference from the previous walls.
This will be his view from here on out, since this wall is closest to his desk.
He decided to stand up on his desk to get a really good view of the finished project. He was obviously very proud of how it turned out, which he should be.
It looks like Wonder Woman is mid-flight in this picture.
When you walk into the large room, this is the view that everyone will see. It’s a lot brighter than it was.
Someone’s work area just got a whole lot brighter.
Here is a view when walking out of the kitchen area.
They even did a good job going around the light switches and power outlets.
Another great view of the newly ‘painted’ office.
Bruck7 is obviously very proud of all of his hard work.
This is a picture of everyone who was there when the final project was complete. They had a lot more help, but people were in and out all day, so it was hard to get a group picture with them all.
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