artist-in-residence in industry

As an employer with office staff, production people, break rooms, reception areas, offices and conference rooms do you think it's possible art acquisition would be more economical, of greater investment benefit, and more fun for you and the rest of your company if you had an artist on payroll? If you’ve seen previous posts – most particularly ‘art and the private sector’ and ‘reasons to own art’, all of them really, you might consider answering ‘yes’. Yes, it would be a practical, business-wise and publically responsible decision to hire an artist to be an artist.

In terms of community benefit, the ultimate objective is to nurture a functional art market capable of sustaining dedicated area artists, and distributing original art to homes, offices, and public areas in the central KY area. The first step would be to support the development of individual artists, allowing them the studio time to find their own voices, and in a mutually beneficial exchange with the members of your very grounded, purpose-driven enterprise. This private initiative to jump start a latent art awareness in the community is necessary since years of publicly funded, non-profit efforts on behalf of art have left art weaker, less accessible, and ever more in need of public support – predictable really. By shifting the responsibility of finding, funding, and displaying art from career bureaucrats to the private sector, in this case you, an organic connection is reestablished between the artist and patron, and everything changes – most of all, the art.

The artist, as your employee, feels an urge to connect with staff and production personnel, and their art will be influenced by your support. A working artist benefits from the positive and negative feedback of a varied, unbiased audience, and would welcome the opportunity to explain their objectives in common terms, all in addition to essential time in the studio. Regular employees would have something to talk and think about directly connected with their workplace, and might soon begin to realize art’s values are something like their own. You would acquire original art, a worthy vessel of company tradition in years to come, would be presenting a progressive public image, and by way of your patronage the community you live in might become known nation-wide as a nice place to live and a good place to buy art.