A League of Extraordinary Citizens
Every year a Art in the Park, 12,000 people wind through aisles of tents and thousands of pieces of art in Stephens Lake Park. The majority of Art in the Park attendees have a college degree and a household income of $55,000 or more, and one-third of the event’s crowd includes people visiting from outside Columbia. It’s estimated that $170,000 is spent annually at Art in the Park.
In 2014, Missouri’s nonprofit arts and culture organizations generated $1.1 billion in statewide economic activity, which translates to more than 14,000 jobs and more than $110.7 million in revenue for local and state governments, according to the Missouri Arts Council.
Only two other sectors in the United States’ economy — health care and retail — outperform the arts each year. However, statewide financial support for the arts is 30 percent below the national average. Missouri spends 79 cents per capita on the arts, with a national average of $1.15. So events such as art in the Park help the local art community continue to thrive.
The Columbia art League was founded in 1959, the same year Art in the Park, then known as The Art Fair, began.
“Most people don’t even know that we run Art in the Park,” says CAL Executive Director Diana Moxon. “They just expect it to be there each summer, like mushrooms in spring. But Art in the Park isn’t a guarantee.
“With so many other competing art festivals in the surrounding states, the artists chose those events where they can maximize their returns,” Moxon says, “so supporting the festival by buying art is crucial to its survival.”
In fact, about a decade ago, the existence of CAL wasn’t even a guarantee. After decades of success, the Art League fell on hard times before a series of significant changes began in the late 2000s, including CAL finding a permanent home in the Missouri Theatre in 2008.
Now the group’s membership exceeds 500, about 300 of whom are artists; the others are art patrons. and in 2015, the group became the first arts organization in Columbia to win Arts Organization of the Year from the Missouri Arts Council. In fact, the city proclaimed April 25, 2015, “CAL Day.”
Moxon says local businesses can help continue the success of Art in the Park by taking a note from the companies featured in this story that have supported the local arts by buying original artwork and turning their places of business into mini museums.
“Art in the Park is a huge undertaking for CAL,” Moxon says. “We rely on our friends in the business community to partner with us, through event sponsorships and the purchase of art.
“There is a lot of wall space in Columbia’s businesses that could benefit from art,” Moxon says. “Even if you can only afford to buy a few handmade coffee mugs for your office, local businesses can always support the local arts.”
Here, the CBT features a few local businesses’ art collections, from the small and funky collection at True Media to the robust and widely recognized collection of Boone County National Bank and more.
Boone County National Bank’s Art Collection
One of Boone County National Bank’s founders, R.B. Price, was an artist. “He was a draftsman and produced a lot of architectural drawings and other pen-and-ink work,” says Mary Wilkerson, senior vice president of marketing. “So we’ve been buying art since day one.”
The bank’s art collection includes between 800 and 1,000 pieces of original artwork from local, national and international artists, with only a few prints and photos in the collection. The exact number in the collection is difficult to know; many of the works acquired in the bank’s early days weren’t documented.
Although most of the work is on display, some is currently in the bank’s art storage facility, along with all the art’s documentation. Most of those pieces, Wilkerson says, need repairs or are old fashioned. Some they simply don’t have room for, despite trying to display as much art as possible. “We even have art in the stairwells,” she adds.
If the bank doesn’t want to display a piece, it donates the art for fundraisers or gives it away. Wilkerson remembers a series of duck-related art that was slowly eliminated from the collection in this way.
Anyone in the bank can suggest a piece of art for the bank to purchase. And though facilities management usually chooses where each piece will be displayed, bank employees can have a say about what is displayed in their offices. “If they really don’t like something, we try to accommodate that,” Wilkerson says. “I picked all the pieces in my office.”
From day one to now, the test to determine whether the bank buys a piece is the same. “We don’t man- age our art as an investment like many other corporate art collections,” Wilkerson says. “We buy what we like.”
Landmark Bank’s Art Collection
Even when Landmark Bank’s downtown location was only two stories, the bank’s late chairman emeritus Mark Landrum was already collecting art for the bank. He and his sister Brenda Bingham always had an interest in the arts; their mother, Ruth Walker Landrum, was an artist. Many of the works retained by the family include floral still life oil paintings “done in a futuristic method,” says art consultant Deborah Thompson.
Mark and Brenda were responsible for nearly all the purchases for the Landmark art collection, which totals nearly 800 in the bank’s 40 locations across three states. Even before Mark passed away in 2012, additions to the collection began to slow as the bank had fewer spaces to fill with art. Almost the entire collection is on display at any given time unless it’s on loan to a museum or gallery or in the process of being rotated to a new location.
“We want everyone in all of our banks to get to see a variety of different art,” says Kip Goodman, vice president and planning and project coordinator. “And if a piece is going to benefit from more light or in a different space, we try to do our best to make the pieces look their best.”
However, the people in each office do have some input. For example, Jeffrey Brinegar, Landmark vice president and real estate lending officer, made sure to bring down Wuli— Patterns of Organic Energy by Chris Ramsey when he changed offices. “It’s a great conversation piece.” The piece looks like a swirling vortex of items, including colored glass and chicken bones.
Goodman says acquiring art that was expected to increase in value was never a concern. “Most of the art we acquired we just thought would add beauty to a space,” he says.
“We also just wanted to expose visitors to all types of art,” Thompson says. The bank is sometimes asked to give tours of the art. For those who want to walk around on their own, the front desk has a catalog with one page for each piece.
Although the bank highlights a variety of local art in highly visible areas in the bank, the collection also includes internationally known artists, many of whom “have informed a lot of local work,” says Thompson, mentioning Jun Kaneko, Peter Voulkos and Rudy Autio, “the fathers of contemporary ceramics.”
True Media’s Art Collection
“Art has the ability to illicit certain feelings and emotions,” Jack Miller says when he begins talking about True Media’s art. Abstract art is Miller’s favorite because “it allows everyone to interpret it as they want to see it.”
Then he cracks a smile and asks if that sounded smart.
“Really, we just buy what we like,” he says. True Media owns about a dozen original works of art. “I love having unique pieces that no one else has. It means so much more than slapping a print in a frame and on your wall.” Miller says he thinks the uniqueness of his art also reflects the uniqueness of his company.
“Every company has its brand identity that they market to the public, but they also need to market that identity internally,” Miller says. Having unique art helps True Media’s unique brand identity. In fact, Miller is also currently populating True Media’s St. Louis office with original artwork.
The Broadway’s Art Collection
The Broadway Hotel is one of only 12 hotels of its kind: hotels that are part of a chain but retain a unique design. And so, when it was under construction, the hotel was already working with Jennifer Perlow, a former owner of PS Gallery, to help source local art.
“Columbia is an artistic city, and we wanted to be very tied to what Columbia is all about,” says Bob McDonald, general manager. “We wanted to be classy and chic but also bring out the best in Columbia.”
McDonald says this shows in the musicians performing at the hotel, the food prepared in its kitchens and the art on its walls. Mid-Missouri artists produced most of the hotel’s art.
Boone Hospital’s Art Collection
Boone Hospital’s art collection totals 455 pieces, with around one-third of those being original works. The goal to purchase more local art began in 2011, with new construction of the patient care tower. Only two pieces were produced outside of Missouri, and each piece was hand-selected by Boone Hospital’s artistic oversight committee.
“We’ve always had an interest in providing art for our patients; it’s part of taking care of people,” says Barbara Weaver, chair emeritus of the Boone Hospital Board of Trustees. Boone’s collection also features photos done by hospital employees who participated in a photo contest, and the Columbia Art League still has pieces by the cafeteria that are on rotation.
“There’s been this whole movement to bring nature indoors because it helps with the healing process,” says Rene Heider, Boone Hospital’s art consultant. “And Boone Hospital has done an awesome job of that.”