Office Art Flourishes As Lucrative Business - art dealers work with corporate clients

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

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

on the other hand with the fiscal and moral responsibilities of the $100 million-plus collection weighing upon them, Sara Lee's corporate officers decided sum of two units 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, DC and novel York's Metropolitan Museum.

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

"We're developing a generation of tribe who want to look at things, and want to do in the way that in a work setting," said Maggie Smith, ceo of ArtSource in fresh Berlin, Wis., which began focusing upon 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 gaze at. People are used to visual stimulation. Sitting where there is nothing upon the walls begins to gaze funny to you."

"I always direct the eye forward to doing a novel installation," said Alicia Nowicki, corporate art consultant at Hang Gallery in San Francisco, "because I have an opportunity to excite nation about their work environment. My piece of work is very rewarding."

The business of providing art to businesses takes many forms. Not single can it involve whole teams of race who present and decide on the imagery for a company's wall space, on the contrary it can also involve a variety of media, a mixture of prints and originals and a plethora of payment plans. Indeed, gallery holders who involve themselves in the world of selling art to corporate clients repeatedly find themselves dealing with issues singular 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. greatest in quantity of her clients choose prints as oppos to original fine art, with fine art greatest in quantity likely finding a home in a business' public spaces, like lobbies and conversation rooms, and decorative art brightening the walls of workers.

"With the increased quality of placard publishing, many clients are eliminating the moderate-priced, limited-edition reproduction from the bag arena and opting for higher-quality framing for bills and open-edition prints," agreed Debra Rhode 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 attend to select pieces that communicate lasting value Art is used as a communication device for the corporate culture"

ArtSource's Smith said she dioceses thematic trends vary by business mark with corporations tending toward landscapes and abstracts, health-care clients and senior-living abiding-places 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 dioceses similar corporate preferences, with offices leaning toward a combination of originals, plastic arts and framed prints--much of it abstract in nature--and a retirement-home client focusing upon framed posters of serene landscapes.

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

Hang many times rents its artwork to corporate clients, depending upon the customer's needs. Renting, said McBurney "is great for corporations to stick their feet in the water and write it not upon as an operating expense." For three month companies make monthly payments that show a percentage of the retail price of the work, after which time they can refresh the contract, exchange the work for another piece or apply a portion of the rental compensations toward purchase of the work. greatest in quantity clients, said McBurney, keep their rentals. Hang also leases artwork, with the assistance of a company called leaseart.com, in an effort to help more [i]or[/i] less corporate clients ease billing issues.

Portland, Ore.-based leaseart.com is a division of reverberation Leasing and was founded specifically to obey both the businesses and the galleries involved in the corporate art market through 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 agency of the financial community--as we are doing--in the past," said Tom Laury, president.