[a-n] Magazine for Artists, January 2003

Big business?

Brigid Howarth investigates the multifaceted business of buying and selling in the corporate art market.

...What does become clear is that there are good and bad businesses ­ some company directors know more about art that the average curator, whilst others use art as a space filler. Bloomberg are an obvious example of the ‘good guy’. Scarlet Projects, run by Claire Catterall and Sarah Gaventa, have an ongoing relationship with them. In a piece in The Tastemakers: UK Art Now by Rosie Millard (Thames & Hudson) Lex Fenwick of Bloomberg describes three reasons for bringing art and design into his building: the morality of putting money where it is needed (the arts); the fashion statement that Bloomberg is making by buying new design, and the closer relationship their young staff feel for the company as a result of it being so ‘fashionable’.

There are many organisations that want the arts and business relationship to work, with as many different routes in mind. And there are examples that do work, and are exciting. But finally, business are just one other type of buyer and consumer of art, and are less financially important that the private buyer that walks in off the street.