P OW E R
A R T

BY JENNIFER LAMB-KORN

■

W

alk the corridors of cor-
porate America today
and you'll meet some
unexpected members of
the management team: Andy Warhol,
Helen Frankenthaler, Frank Stella,
Henry Moore and other artist-types.
Corporate art serves more than
aesthetic interests; it "works," like any
employee, to support company goals,
and art collecting by business is a
growing phenomenon. In fact, more
than 60 percent of Fortune 500 com-
panies have art collections according
to the Business Committee for the Arts,
a New York-based nonprofit organiza-
tion that encourages business partner-
ships with the arts.
To help a company make the correct
art choices for its needs, the manage-
ment team often acquires an art con-
sultant. The situation of AT&T in Hunt
Valley, Md. was typical. "We had just
done our offices over (in spring 1989)
vv;th nice traditional furniture, and we
needed some artwork for them,"
recalls Patricia Griffin, administrative
assistant to a top executive at AT&T's
Network Systems Engineering Center
East. The furniture supplier recom-

76

HOME

mended Laura Kaufman, a
Washington, D.C.-based corporate art
consultant.
Kaufman looked at the space in
question, and returned with several ar-
tists' portfolios. AT&T purchased a
dozen traditional and contemporary
prints that enhanced the offices' tradi-
tional cherry furniture. Kaufman also
reframed some of the firm's existing
artwork, which made a big difference
at a relatively small price. The result?
"We've had very many compliments,
and it creates a nicer atmosphere
that's more pleasant to work in," says
Griffin.
To Kaufman, those words signify a
job well done. "My philosophy is to
make people comfortable, and to
teach them to have confidence in what
they like," says Kaufman, owner of the
12-year old art consulting firm, The Art
Resource, Inc. (formerly known as The
Art Source, Inc).
In the East, Kaufman says, corporate
tastes — and budgets — lean toward
"decorator" not "investment-quality,"
art. "There are a lot of stereotypes that
simply are not true. They're very so-
phisticated," she says. In Washington,