Abstract
This study is the first to investigate the use of Aboriginal art for marketing purposes. Over 2000 major enterprises in Europe and North America collect art, but in Australia relatively few do. Research has established that art collections contribute to corporate identity, but this has not been studied in Australia. Using a qualitative case study approach, this exploratory study investigates how art collections are used to support the work of three Australian banking and law firms whose collections include Aboriginal art. We asked respondents from each firm how and why they collected Aboriginal art and their perception of the role of art in symbolizing their firm’s values and culture. Aboriginal art was found to contribute to a firm’s identity and corporate social responsibility, especially when collections included the work of emerging artists and more challenging political content. It also presented a friendly face to Aboriginal clients. For firms in overseas markets, Aboriginal art served to signal a firm’s Australianness.
Keywords
Introduction
Corporate organizations and their art collections have been growing, and they have been well researched in the US and Europe. Corporate art is increasingly being regarded as a marketing and organizational development tool with the capacity to contribute to a competitive edge, with firms using their collections to underpin their identity and reputation among employees and clients. However, none of the work in this area has been Australian, yet there is evidence that some Australian corporations have stopped holding art collections, suggesting that overseas research may not accurately describe what happens in Australia. Further, while researchers have established clear links between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the corporate art collection, less is known about a collection’s content and the genre of the art it contains, or the impact of particular artists’ work on the identity of the firm. This study used an in-depth case study approach to examine how Australian Aboriginal art in three corporate collections is used to represent and communicate a firm’s corporate identity among its employees and clients.
Background: Corporate Art Collections
Over the past century many of the world’s largest corporations have amassed significant art collections, with paintings, installations and sculptures gracing their boardrooms and global offices (Abbott, 1994; Harris & Reiff Howarth, 2012; Kottasz et al., 2007). These collections are not just about decoration or a display of prestige or investment; they have become an important part of corporate identity, brand image (Martorella, 1990), and a firm’s connection to a wider cultural world (Harris & Reiff Howarth, 2012; Jacobson, 1993).
Arguably the oldest corporate collection is that of IBM, which began collecting art for its pavilion at the World’s Fair in 1939 (Belk, 1995). However, the largest corporate art collection in the world today belongs to Deutsche Bank, which has a significant presence in Australia. The bank began collecting in 1979 with the goal of supporting young German artists. In a 2013 ABC radio program Alastair Hicks, senior curator of Deutsche Bank, explained the bank owned 60,000 works of art (mainly on paper), hung in 900 buildings in 40 countries. The collection was designed to engage with staff and culture, being associated with young emerging artists and their ideas. Hicks also agreed there was a strong element of branding and of promoting the firm’s image of corporate social responsibility (Ryan, 2013). The primary aim of Deutsche Bank—an organization whose corporate identity is based on the values of creativity, modernity and innovativeness—in building their collection was to generate images of the bank’s vision, energy and originality in the minds of its clients (Kottasz et al., 2007). In contrast with the above examples, however, some firms have disbanded their collections altogether, such as Australian Foster Group (brewers) and Wesfarmers (retailers), on the grounds that their collections no longer reflected their values (Robertson & Chong, 2008). This raises the question of whether art collections, particularly in Australia, have the effects intended by the companies and their curators.
The Purpose of Corporate Art
Beginning with evidence in the mid-1980s that workplace design had measurable effects on productivity and job satisfaction (Brill, 1985), researchers since the 1990s have investigated reasons given by corporations for collecting art. Further, researchers have attempted to give empirical support to the assumption that art collections are an effective part of the creation, development and maintenance of corporate identity. Key work in this area is listed in Table 1.
Summary of Previously Reported Perceived Benefits of Corporate Art Collections.
Note. ✓ = researchers reported companies having this reason for having a corporate art collection. Numbers 1 to 12 were enumerated by Kottasz et al. (2008), in order of importance as determined by respondents to their survey.
As is apparent from Table 1, Kottasz et al.’s study (2008), which surveyed 181 respondents in nine countries, is the most wide-ranging in reporting reasons given by firms for collecting art. The authors explain the corporate art collection’s power in communicating and symbolizing a company’s core values and influencing employees’ attitudes in positive directions. Effects they found include: stimulation of employees’ imaginations, communicating the prevailing company ethos, transmitting messages to employees about the organization’s values, and representing and symbolizing an enterprise’s internal culture. “The art hanging on the company walls or in its gallery is a message delivered to all who see or hear of it . . . a message that concerns how the company wishes to be perceived” (p. 245). The authors concluded that art collections were “routinely . . . employed in a marketing communications role” (p. 246) and established that art had a fundamental role in creating identity for firms and thus the firm’s cultural norms, though the tools and methods of more scientific measurement of many of these phenomena remains lacking.
The Content of Corporate Art Collections
Hoeken and Ruikes (2005) explored the possibility that certain artworks could reflect a more or less pronounced corporate identity. They found that people did relate certain works of art to a specific corporate identity and, as these works functioned as symbols of the company’s personality, certain works could be selected to project a specific identity. Glynn et al. (1996) found that individual pieces could be used to convey the organization’s integral values, while financial institutions can favor art that alludes to wealth or money: “as a portfolio, including famous names, some fast-rising stars and some emerging artists, relating this to [a firm’s] investment strategy” (Harris & Reiff Howarth, 2014, p. 12).
Other authors take the view that contemporary art is both more dynamic and more intellectual and can be aligned with innovation or creativity (Abbott, 1994; Glynn et al., 1996; Moureau & Sagot-Duvauroux, 2012; Schroeder & Borgerson, 2002). Work by the contemporary Australian artist Patricia Piccinini and “haunting” photography by Bill Henson were employed to differentiate the Australian law firm Minter Ellison from its competitors (Gibson, 2006). Similarly, financiers Goldman Sachs Australia, wanting something “different and groovy,” but also “smart and sharp,” chose the work of Aboriginal light installation specialist Jonathan Jones (Gibson, 2006). Deloitte Australia saw more contemporary artwork as making an impact among clients and visitors, and installed a multi-screen video display of artwork in their reception area (Gibson, 2006). In marketing the identity of their art collections, Deloitte facilitated access to their art by creating an app which included a search function, a QR-code reader and a social media sharing function (Harris & Reiff Howarth, 2014, p. 54), enhancing employee understanding, and through them, greater client appreciation; an important organizational function. In contrast Wu (2003) revealed that despite senior managers’ enthusiasm for their corporate collections, some employees felt indifferent to the artworks, while others found particular artworks confronting or confusing.
While firms believe that art can be used to represent a company’s identity, the corporate art collection clearly has varying effects among employees, clients, and the public. The idea of the collection projecting a specific identity rests on the assumption that people will associate certain works of art with the firm’s values and culture (Hoeken & Ruikes, 2005); this may spill over into association with a country’s heritage (Balmer, 2013, 2017).
Australian Aboriginal Art: What Makes It Different?
Indigenous art is centered on story telling. Australian Aboriginal people had no written language, so their art was used as a chronicle to convey knowledge of the land, events, and beliefs, and to pass on information to preserve their culture. The contemporary Aboriginal genre of “dot painting” originated in Papunya in 1971 when acrylic paint was introduced to artists. The symbolism and cultural significance of their stories, formerly represented in art on rocks and bark, and in body painting, was transferred to canvas and became what is now known as “desert art” (Myers, 2006). The movement developed rapidly in the 1980s (Johnson, 2010), and spread to the Northern Territory and Western Australia (McCulloch & McCulloch Childs, 2008), giving rise to a dynamic style of painting often distinguished by brilliant colors, bold forms, and lush textural surfaces (Dussart, 2006). As collector and expert Carnegie has described, “The paintings are mystical, spiritual art, deriving as they do from the very land we live in and are nurtured by. They are the heritage of every Australian of whatever ethnic background or skin color” (Myers, 2006, p. 123).
In the 1970s, Australian Aboriginal artworks began to gain recognition in art worlds overseas (Becker, 1982) as well as in Australia (Michaels, 1988; Myers, 2002). Prices of Aboriginal painting began to rise and, in some cases, exceeded US$100,000 (Day, 2014), while paintings comparable with those sold by a local Papunya community for $25 or $30 in the mid-1970s would fetch A$2,000 to A$15,000 in 1987 (Anderson & Dussart, 1988). In May 2007, Emily Kngwarreye’s Earth Creation sold for A$1.056 million, while Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri’s Warlugulong fetched A$2,400,000. Along with price escalation, there has been widespread unregulated production of Aboriginal art. In an ABC radio program Quentin McDermott (2008) documented the extent of problems surrounding the production of Aboriginal art and its sale. He explored two ends of the art industry, the “big money” auction rooms and the “production chain” of Aboriginal art, finding abuse in both. One dealer reported that the Aboriginal art market was manipulated in many ways and had problems with provenance as well as about ownership of works. Companies and their curatorial staff have had to take these perceived malpractices into account.
It could also be asked why Australian firms consider Indigenous Aboriginal art appropriate for their corporate identity, when it is widely understood many Aboriginal people consider their painting to be a political act (Lowish, 2006, p. 124).
This Study
While corporate identities refer to the ‘engaging and influential conceptualizations of the organization, which are relatively shared by members and/or upheld by its leaders, and often emphasized in formal corporate statements (mission, vision etc) and expressions found in organizational artefacts (logos, uniforms, buildings, visuals, logos, symbols, etc)’ (Keyton, 2005; Lerpool et al., 2007; Olins, 1989). Kottasz et al.’s (2008) specific research into the role of corporate art collections in the management of corporate identity recommended undertaking further case studies in different industries and with different kinds of collections, with exploration as to why some of the variables they examined in their survey study appeared not to be significant. Our study aims to address this gap in the research. We also ask, in the light of overseas research on the topic, whether Australian firms seem to be using art collections in the same way as companies presented in the research cited in Table 1.
The extent to which Aboriginal art, and indeed indigenous art in general, as a component of a corporate collection, can be used to express and communicate a company’s identity among its employees has not yet been researched. This study set out, focusing on three selected companies as case studies, to explain the processes and mechanisms that inform the corporate sector’s interest in collecting and curating Indigenous Australian art, and addressing the question: To what extent and in what way do works of Aboriginal Australian artists contribute to a firm’s corporate identity?
Methods
Whereas a company’s actual behavior is a composite of the actions of all its employees, at managerial and all other levels, Keyton (2005) describes the organization as a dynamic system of organizational members, influenced by external stakeholders, who communicate within and across organizational structures in a purposeful and ordered way to achieve a superordinate goal. Hence, in drawing out the experiences of employees we adopted the case study as the most appropriate method for studying relational and network contexts (Halinen & Törnroos, 2005). Case studies, where boundaries between the phenomenon and context are blurred, enable inductive and rich description, as well as understanding of the dynamics. To achieve comprehensive understanding of the phenomena we used a variety of techniques, as recommended by Woodside and Wilson (2003). These include use of multiple data sources including interviews and participant observation (Kawulich, 2005) as well as company websites, catalogues and documentation.
We conducted five in-depth interviews in two high-profile Australian based global organizations, a bank and a law firm contrasted with a third Australian law firm, all with significant corporate art collections. One-to-one interviews were carried out with permanent curators of two organizations in situ, and with two senior managers of the third organization who were instrumental in its establishment and art management. The choice of firms was made on the basis of their long-standing leadership in their markets, where their art collections had been established by specific partners of the firm, within living memory. In the third firm, a senior partner had significant influence and though it did not employ a permanent curator, it was chosen for the high proportion of Aboriginal art in its collection. Interview topics were drawn from the literature and the firm’s websites. The interviews were based on open-ended but semi-structured questions of experiences surrounding the collections and their meaning, with alternative probes according to responses. Depending on responses, the interviewer encouraged informants to continue building on the topic and, if required, gave example words to illustrate the questions, but only as a last resort, so as not to over-direct the interview. This interview format encouraged participants to speak freely and spontaneously about their experiences and about what was significant for them (Esterberg, 2002). In taking a grounded theory approach as researchers we erred towards Corbin and Strauss’s (1990) unbiased position in collecting data and letting the participants have their own voice (Glaser, 1992), representing participants “as accurately as possible, discovering and acknowledging how respondents’ view of reality conflict with their own” (Charmaz, 2000, p. 510). Interviews lasted between 60 and 90 minutes and were digitally audio-recorded and fully transcribed for analysis, with NVivo used as a data repository and tool for analysis. The transcripts were returned to respondents for comment; the only changes requested were that in two cases responses about the value of artworks should be removed.
Publications, catalogues, art journals and websites were examined from each of the three sites. These included Company 1’s art journals and catalogues, also available online, with content written by art experts and academics, emphasizing featured artists, and exhibition themes. Company 2’s signal publication of its collection The land and its psyche was examined for content, incidence of emerging artists and Aboriginal artists, as well as depth of editorial content. Company 3 had a 32-page color catalog devoted to its collection and artists and to promotion of its Aboriginal Reconciliation Action Plan, giving clear messages about the firm’s corporate social stance. The firms’ annual reports and websites and mentions of the collections in the media were also noted. This data was compared with the interviews, which helped triangulate our findings.
For data analysis, thematic networks, a robust tool for analyzing qualitative data, was employed (Attride-Stirling, 2001). The process consisted of coding materials, on a within-case (Miles & Huberman, 1994) basis, identifying themes from each interview. The coding process involved six phases: data familiarization, generating initial codes, searching for themes and thematic networks among codes, of which three elements are important (global themes, organizing themes and basic themes). The lowest-order (basic) themes were derived from textual data, and middle-order (organizing) themes allowed basic themes to be organized when clustered. The global themes such as employee participation in art selection, employee art knowledge and employee art education embraced the principal content of the whole data set and with iterations and constant comparison established meaningful patterns with each case which could be compared inter case. A function of this reflexivity occurred through continuous iterations of the data, which allowed for deeper understanding surrounding choice of artists, as distinct from their artwork. In one instance of this, when meaning was unclear, a follow-up telephone interview gave answers that were built into the analysis. In parallel, data from catalogs and publications were also compared, so empirical data and existing theoretical propositions were systematically combined (Dubois & Gadde, 2002). These multiple sources of evidence added validation (Denzin, 1994), with triangulation serving to verify competing theories (Kadushin et al., 2008). Throughout our coding, full attention was paid to each data item to help identify repeated patterns. Coding was carried out for as many themes as possible, as well as being applied to individual aspects of the data which, due to unfamiliarity with Indigenous art sensibilities, may have been missed (Braun & Clarke, 2006).
Use of thematic networks enabled the researcher to look beyond the basic themes and identify those more deeply embedded in the data. After analyzing data from each of the three companies, the researchers compared the three cases, identifying patterns and exceptions within each of the datasets, then clarifying the resultant findings and drawing conclusions. Quotations were chosen to help illustrate and bring context to the main findings. Codes indicating the case, respondent and paragraph are shown below after each quotation.
For the purposes of this analysis we describe organizational identity as what “insiders” (i.e., employees) think about their organization (Hatch & Schultz, 1997). Some of the outcomes proposed by researchers listed in Table 1 concern the demonstrable effects on the company’s image in the eyes of existing and potential clients. Corporate image is outside the scope of our investigation, as we did not interview clients or other outsiders.
Results and Discussion
Topics discussed in the interviews included the inception and history of the collections and the championing of art by certain individuals who saw an opportunity to enlighten and enliven the workplace and use art to reflect their firm’s values, commitment to society, and philanthropy in support of emerging artists. Business success and expansion and moves to offices in iconic modern buildings of well-respected architects were supported with internal color and modernization, where the firm’s identity and its beliefs, in impacting its employees internally, and its image externally, were paralleled by its art collection. The manner of collection and content of the collections and types of art, and the genres of the artists compared with Aboriginal works, were constant themes. For example, Case 3 sold its entire art collection in favor of collecting only aboriginal works when it moved to Sydney’s newest office tower complex with commanding views of Sydney harbor. Although the business enterprise and expertise were extolled, the topic of the value of the art collection over time as a whole (and thus the employees’ art expertise surrounding choice and collection of artists’ works that may have gained considerable financial value) was not taken up. Themes that emerged surrounded employee interaction with the collection and their progressive interest in it. For firms expanding overseas, Aboriginal art was used to portray a uniquely Australian identity for the firm. Further ideas emerged in discussion reflecting the actual business of the firms, for example Company 2 (a bank) attracting valuable prospects through its art expertise and art world associations, and Companies 1 and 3 (law firms) developing their relationships with Aboriginal communities. An unexpected theme was an indirect business benefit to the company through developing expertise in working with Aboriginal elders and the well-connected among these communities, albeit currently in a pro bono capacity.
Starting the Collections
In all three companies the corporate art collections had been initially guided by their chief executive officers, with the assistance of external art experts. Company 1’s was established in 1986, and Company 2’s in 1978. When the terms of these art collection initiators ended, the succeeding senior partners embraced the collection in a similar manner, thus driving support for the collection from the top tiers of corporate management. However, as collections expanded, decision-making processes were delegated to boards of employees interested in art, in tandem with highly qualified full-time internal curatorial staff and external advisors. Company 3’s acquisition strategy was much less involved, with unique works being acquired through referral amongst the networks of their Aboriginal art experts.
Each firm claimed their emphasis was placed on a philanthropic endeavor, collecting work from “emerging artists.” Company 2’s acquisitive Emerging Artist Prize and exhibition, held in Sydney, demonstrates support for a new generation of Australian visual artists, and reinforces the firm’s focus on “emerging artist” acquisition annually. Since 2017 its competition to attract emerging First Nation Australian curators has provided a new twist to the notion of emerging artist. Company 1 also supports emerging artists, stating “a core purpose is to support young unknown artists—we don’t buy work from artists who already have a high profile” (Company 1, Art Journal, Issue 1, p. 28). The collection is aimed at “supporting art school graduates in Australia and emerging artists during the early stages of their careers.” Company 3 also sees support for young artists; however, emerging Aboriginal artists can be relatively elderly. Though each collection has significant numbers of Aboriginal artworks, which have been collected since their inception, in Company 1, there was an interval when no Aboriginal work was acquired, due to its senior partner’s belief that Aboriginal work was being exploited. This precluded Company 1’s further collection of Aboriginal artworks until the 1990s. Company 3, as a younger law firm, established its art collection in 1993, and stimulated by its pro bono work amongst Aboriginal communities, and its move to modern office premises carried out a strategic relaunch of its art collection by collecting Aboriginal art exclusively.
The Role of the Corporate Art Collection in Building Company Identity
All the respondents stressed that the most important role for the corporate art collection was to enhance the identity of the firm among its employees. The collection was seen to communicate the firm’s ethos, its corporate culture, and in doing so symbolize its values. In addition, an art collection was seen as setting the firm apart in the market, giving it a competitive advantage by creating market differentiation. In intensely competitive situations the firms employed their art collections to symbolize their distinct characteristics, to create a unique identity among employees and clients, and also to build an outstanding image amongst prospects and competitors. Within the public sphere, the collections demonstrate community involvement. However, a direct relationship between the art collection and promotion of CSR effects in websites and documentation is less evident.
The employee art committees, drawing on the curatorial knowledge of staff, in their careful acquisition of works, strongly associate their work with the professionalism and acumen reflected in their business activities. Company 1’s curator stated: the members . . . have together researched emerging artists, developed relationships with galleries, a teamwork process that exemplifies the firm’s skills and insights and on which the firm’s success is based (C2.1.6).
Despite processes like these being less evident in Company 3, our findings reflected many of the findings of Kottasz et al. (2008) and other authors. A summary comparison is shown in Table 2.
Reasons Given by Three Australian Companies for Collecting Art, Case by Case, Compared with Kottasz et al. (2008).
Note. ✓ = respondents reported this reason for having a corporate art collection.
Company in overseas market.
Also seen to further community relationships.
Since its inception, the fundamental assumption in Company 1 was that the collection would reflect the firm’s core values. The instigating senior partner stated in a 1993 introduction to an exhibition of its collection, “artists encourage us to confront the new, not only through color and vitality of their works, but also the messages they convey” (Art Journal, Issue 1). The curator, of a similar mind, stated that the original brief was to “make our collection reflect innovation, youthfulness and openness to new ideas” (C1.1.4). Company 2’s chief executive has endorsed their collection’s cultural relevance: in addition to the statement it makes about contemporary Australian landscape art, [our collection] is a visual representation of [our] culture and conveys this message daily to the staff and visitors who come into contact with it around the world (Beaumont et al., 2012).
In addition to published guides and catalogues, both firms conduct face-to-face educational programs, office art tours and regular intranet promotion, reinforcing awareness of the collection and its relevance to the firm and its employees.
Company 3 came late to collecting art and also wanted to create a market differentiation. A 100 percent Aboriginal art collection has assisted this goal, which, it says, stands it apart from other corporate art collections. For example, its director stated, “We’re 25 years old, we are very successful given our size and our age. And we’ve always regarded ourselves as an up-and-coming brand. We’re innovative always snatching at people’s ankles, so to speak . . . [our Aboriginal content] is a way of differentiating ourselves . . . it’s exactly what we should do because it’s consistent with who we are” (C3.1.76). This suggests that in terms of their art collections, other corporations, law firms, financial institutions and mining companies already had established collections, but that a focus on Aboriginal artists gave Company 3 a unique style that stood it apart. So already we recognize these firms’ intentions for their art collections to reflect “Australianness.”
Art Collection Content Strategy
In Company 1 and Company 2 the process of artwork acquisition was rigorous. Despite the relatively smaller budget required to purchase emerging artists, pressures of running the expanding collections had become significant. Company 2’s acquisitions were directed by an overall guiding theme, “the land and its psyche,” instigated by its curatorial advisor, Nick Waterlow, at the inception of the collection. The firm avoided art that might offend people or be thought controversial. Interestingly, Company 3, which selected work through trusted art experts such as Aboriginal elder Hetti Perkins, had no qualms about acquiring controversial artworks. In instances where employees had concerns, their arguments, sometimes strong, were overridden. The firm’s principal explained, “our partners won’t like those, and we decided, well, that was all the more reason that we should have them” (C3.2.12). He stressed that the Aboriginal collection closely identified the firm with its work, and pointed out a strong relationship with that and a certain employee ethic, that leads to productivity.
Company 1’s collection, like Company 3’s, had recently been influenced by the pro bono work being carried out in Aboriginal communities by its law practice. A recent review encouraged a re-evaluation of the collection of works, favoring a strategy of commissioning work from controversial Aboriginal artist Karla Dickins. Employees had decried the firm’s art collection as favoring male artists, and this was becoming a matter of corporate (identity) concern in a business world conscious of workplace diversity and equality where Company 1 had been named “Gender employer of the year” for the previous 13 years. In commissioning a female gay Aboriginal artist, the firm responded to the embarrassment of internal criticism of gender imbalance in the collection and complemented this with political activist content in the collection, in one move, that has also been productive in a business sense. The curator explained, that was a strategic move, representing all art forms and women’s representation. [We] have a strong reconciliation committee and doing a lot of pro bono, [has] strong links with the work. For example, Karla’s work was launched with [our] committee under the RAP, Reconciliation Action Plan [. . .] clients are interested in doing business and aligning with certain groups [such as Indigenous groups] (C1.1.001).
The Monetary Value of Art Collections
Questions surrounding financial investment were avoided by respondents, though costs of maintaining collections were mentioned as significant, and increasing. Companies were cautious in associating the art collection with its monetary value that could send negative signals. Many artists represented were, by now, well known. High valuations being made for their works in the marketplace, reflected in total dollar value of artworks had become a more sensitive topic. However, respondents attributed their reticence about giving value estimates to market fluctuations. The recent collapse of the Aboriginal paintings market was cited by Company 1 and Company 2 respondents as an indicator of how unreliable such estimations could be (Rothwell, 2013), while Company 3 claimed to be unconcerned about valuations of their Aboriginal works, and dismissed valuations as being irrelevant to them.
The Work of Aboriginal Artists in the Collections
Signal pieces are important for enhancing foyer decor and creating a symbiosis with the modern architecture of these firm’s head offices, in which Aboriginal works have significant placement. Company 2 has hung “yawkyawks 1 and woven fish traps [. . .] to considerable effect” (Edmund Capon in Beaumont et al., 2012, p. 9), while colorful larrakitj poles (hollow logs) dominate in Company 3. While artwork is located primarily on the walls, along corridors and in meeting rooms and office areas frequented by clients, it is part of the work environment for employees and clients alike, that stimulates discourse and reflection.
Aboriginal content is evident in publicity and promotion. For example, Company 2’s international traveling exhibition is accompanied by a 32-page publication entitled Concepts of place, with the frontispiece stating Today the Australian landscape and the idea of the bush is integral to Australian identity and lends itself with surprising ease to open-ended compositions and abstract patterns (of Aboriginal artworks) (C2.d.3).
Half of the Australian landscapes featured are Aboriginal artworks. Company 3’s 100 percent Aboriginal collection is cataloged in a more modest A5-size color brochure featuring the 32 Aboriginal artists and their work, with a double-page spread about the firm’s commitment to Aboriginal welfare and its Reconciliation Action Plan, reinforcing the strong association.
Corporate Art Collections and Overseas Business Expansion
Company 1’s and Company 2’s art collection strategy in Australia has been adopted in these firms’ overseas affiliations, so overseas business growth has also impacted their art collections in terms of size and management scope. Art from Company 2’s Australian collections has been employed as an integral part of the identity of the firm in its offices worldwide. Aboriginal works form about a fifth of the total collection, but about half of the works on display overseas are Aboriginal works. Thus, the collection is “a reflection of the organization’s Australian roots . . . its involvement in the community, as well as the pursuit of excellence” (Beaumont et al., 2012, p. 11). Company 1’s joint partnership with a large overseas law firm has opened up new Asian offices, that have embraced the company’s corporate art philosophy. In Case 2 their Australian collection has been shared between the overseas offices, specifically with Aboriginal works representing the firm’s Australian heritage thus promoting its identity among its overseas employees, its prospective clients and its public. The curator explains, [the collection] acknowledges our heritage . . . [our firm] has more staff offshore than we do in Australia, and we have Australian works of art on display in about 36 offices around the world. That to me is a very big statement about our pride and our heritage (C2.1.17).
The contents of Company 1’s Art Journal (Issue 2) unashamedly point towards the cross-cultural relationship between Australia and Asia, and the art hung in offices in Jakarta, Singapore, Hong Kong, Beijing and beyond underpins the firm’s long history throughout the continent. In fact, Art Journal (Issue 2) features a combination of Asian and Australian influences describing international dialogue and interconnections, and affinities created through Australian artists with Asian connections. The promotion copy features multicultural artists Linda Lee, Jiawei Shen, and Savanhdary Vongpoothorn, each of Asian heritage. However, recent acquisitions of work by Aboriginal artist and activist Lin Onus, with works of Clifton Mack and Rammey Ramsey, have underpinned a multicultural identity with a bias towards Aboriginal content.
The Roles of Art Collections in Corporate Client and Government Relationships
In Company 1 and Company 2, the main communication vehicles for the art collections and associated activities, beyond the firm’s own walls, foyers and display spaces, were the firms’ intranets and websites, incorporating videos and critical interviews featuring artists and their art, with access to downloadable material that transmits the firm’s values and corporate identity. Regular media exposure surrounded the extended art sponsorships and art competitions with attractive prize monies offered yearly to emerging artists and more recently, a First Nation curator’s prize. Around these curated corporate events, employees and clients were directly involved in significant educational activities, as well as customer relationship management (CRM) and corporate hospitality. The centrality of these firms’ clients in these activities reflects the significance of internal education, sponsorship and client relationship management programs that surround them, confirming the findings of Ryan and Fahy (2003) in Ireland, and those of Lindenberg and Oosterlinck (2010) in Belgium, that corporate art collections facilitate client hospitality and relationship building.
Deep relationships were also forged with universities, art schools, art institutions and gallery directors, with art lent to and borrowed from public galleries. Corporate relationships also occurred between major art institutions and among art committee members, employees and clients of the firm. This underpins the firm’s expertise in the “arts,” encouraging relationships with art philanthropists and art collectors, enhancing business and cultural opportunities and demonstrating deep community engagement, while fostering relationships with high-net-worth individuals, who may become clients of these firms.
Company 3’s policy is different. Here the Aboriginal works were seldom rotated, remaining as a static collection. As Company 3 had no full-time curator, connections were rarely made with the state capital, its art scenes or official arts bodies. Rather, Company 3 used its art collection to reinforce certain political associations. Relationship building was enhanced through network relationships with the Aboriginal community, primarily with the connections of the firm’s principal with Aboriginal elders such as Noel Pearson. The firm’s Aboriginal elder, curator and expert to the firm, Hetti Perkins, describes the firm’s senior partner as “the white fella whose phone number many Aboriginal leaders have” (C3.1.9).
In comparison with other collections discussed, Company 3’s collection is arguably a kind of “keeping place” or sanctuary for certain Aboriginal artworks, to which Aboriginal clients or their extended communities can gain access. When in Sydney preparing for business meetings, a friendly welcome and a sense of familiarity from the Aboriginal works on display, is extended; the city being an otherwise “foreign” environment for many clients. The firm’s principal explains: in the last six months we would have had various Indigenous groups working on different projects . . . somebody will ring me up and say, “can we have an office for the day in here?” I’ll give them lunch and morning tea and give them an office and access to our facilities. So, it’s a statement of friendship as well (C3.2.39).
Thus Company 3’s facilitation of special and close relationships within the Aboriginal community at its highest levels, and consequently within government circles, sets it apart.
Summary of the Roles of Corporate Art Collections: New Findings
In addition to the 12 reasons for collecting art reported in Kottasz et al. (2008), nine of which were reflected in our findings in all three of the firms we spoke to (see Table 2 above), we found a further five themes, that extend the ways the works of Aboriginal Australian artists, the artists themselves and their wider communities contribute to a firm’s corporate identity. These are listed in Table 3, which also shows the differences between the three companies in the roles of their art collections. It also became apparent that Aboriginal art acted as a signifier of a company’s “Australianness,” especially in overseas markets, though respondents did not necessarily offer that as a motivation for acquiring Aboriginal art in the first place.
New Reasons for Collecting Art Identified in This Study, Compared Case by Case.
Note. ✓ = respondents mentioned or agreed with this reason for collecting art; 0 = reason not mentioned or not agreed with.
Also felt collection signaled the company’s heritage.
Conclusions and Implications for Management
The case studies show that these corporate entities, through their art collections, created a recognizable differentiation of their corporate identities and that the internal education, sponsorship and client relationship management programs that surrounded them could be significant. Aboriginal artwork content was found to be an important contributor in this process, distinguishing these three companies clearly from their competitors. Two of the firms, when entering new overseas markets, made strategic use of their art collections to reinforce their Australian identity among their overseas employees, new business prospects, and the market at large. In this we find “Australianness” and Balmer’s (2013, 2017) notions of corporate heritage identity compelling, not only because these collections are imbued with corporate identity traits, but also because the artworks could be considered part of the Australian heritage as Carnegie extols in Myers (2006, p. 123). As such, the works improve the fortunes of these firms. This unique and valuable corporate heritage is an asset of considerable significance that other corporate marketing managers should consider.
More specifically, Companies 1 and 3 used their Aboriginal artists and their work, in physical spaces where the art is displayed and accessibility underlines its importance for all stakeholders and has sent clear signals about commitment to their pro bono work with Aboriginal communities, whilst communicating a certain political stance amongst employees and affiliated associates. Thus, in each case these firms used their art collection to challenge both political and corporate beliefs in reinforcement a certain point of view, supporting Hoeken and Ruikes’s (2005) contentions that a certain style of contemporary art affects workplace dynamics and impacts employees’ attitudes and behavior. We also come to conclusions similar to those of Kottasz et al. (2008) about the use of art collections to communicate core values, as well as giving the firm a competitive edge in its market. We also recognize that Companies 1 and 3, as law firms, have a business stake in the promotion of the Aboriginal component of their practice. Thus, these firms’ art collections now play an integral part and increasing role in promoting the firms’ knowledge and expertise in Aboriginal issues, giving them a competitive edge within an area of increasing concern for the government of Australia—and all while offering these firms potential financial gain.
Aboriginal artworks can also be “confronting,” which these firms’ art curators and senior management generally considered an essential element of the function of art and its role in creative stimulation of employees. However, Company 2, a bank, was risk averse, particularly about offending employees or clients, and actively avoided controversy, while Companies 1 and 3, as law firms, had no such issues. In fact, as a consequence of their pro bono activity within Aboriginal communities they acquired artworks from more politically charged, controversial Aboriginal artists. Company 3, in adopting a 100 percent Aboriginal content policy, embraced controversial works, while Company 1 had only recently adopted a strategy of being more controversial, commissioning an Aboriginal artist who is a political activist, a lesbian and a single mother. Selection of an activist artist and her work was designed to reinforce a more open attitude to communicating more egalitarian gender and sexuality attitudes in line with their corporate identity. This differs from Wu’s assertion (2003, p. 260) that “works that may be politically, socially, [and in the USA and UK] racially and religiously controversial are considered in corporate environments, inappropriate for display.” In Australia, this has not been found to be the case. The use of art within the law firms to reinforce a political stance, for instance, was marked.
Respondents from all three firms discussed their art collections as being an encouragement to emerging artists. Such activity is normally considered part of “corporate social responsibility,” so it is a significant contributor to the firm’s image, but these firms do not actively consider use of their corporate collections under CSR framework norms. Although the artists collected could originally be described as “emerging,” over the years many have become highly prized celebrity artists. So, maintaining an “emerging artist” theme in third-generation art collections (in Companies 1 and 2) is problematic. The issue is further complicated by the fact that Aboriginal artists can emerge relatively late in life. Thus, the chances of the corporate art collection being seen as a champion of young “up-and-coming” artists is arguably compromised. This may account for these firms promoting their collections less under a CSR framework.
In Australia, the work of emerging artists has largely been collected through the Australian art school system. Schools of fine art play the role of centers of innovation through which works emerge that will fill the exhibitions and collections of local institutions, often involving the mediation of a few influential professors (Moureau & Sagot-Duvauroux, 2012). If these firms intend to continue collecting Aboriginal art, employing these works to maintain a unique Australian identity, it would be interesting to investigate the representation of Aboriginal students within art schools. How this has impacted corporate collections? If there are few Aboriginal artists coming through the art school system, how can this paucity be addressed? Further, if Aboriginal artworks have been accumulated from outside the art school system, this would lead to the broader question of how a continuum of Aboriginal artist representation within collections might be achieved, especially as art communities tend to exist far from art centers and certainly out of reach of mainstream art professors and colleges and universities. It also raises the question of the responsibility of public institutions, state and territory and federal government in developing the Aboriginal art market and its values. Finally, although Aboriginal content in these collections is distinctive, it would be interesting to investigate whether a revolutionary move away from “dot and Dreaming” paintings towards work more in line with global contemporary art outputs (Burns Coleman, 2005; McLean, 2013) might result in these Australian corporate art collections having a less distinct Australian identity.
The prime threat to corporate art collections may paradoxically be their perceived overall value as artwork. Our evidence suggests that firms go to great lengths to keep valuations from the public. Budgets for curating and preserving the collections are significant and increasing. More recently, monies allocated to annual artwork acquisition have been diverted to other projects, for example, natural disaster relief in third world countries where the firm has financial interests, and where art collection is arguably less meaningful to clients and the public. This demonstrates awareness of the public’s view towards corporate obligations, where further investment in art may attract negative criticism. The long-term effects of global warming and the increasing incidence of natural disasters may, through budget diversion and lessening of the art collections and their CSR effects, signal a change of mood that affects corporate inclination to invest in Australian art. However, it is clear that “everything communicates” (Grönroos, 2000; Hatch & Schultz, 1997), so that in relation to corporate collections, corporate marketing managers have to be aware that gender equality and diversity are as important internally, as concerns over negative signaling about value maybe externally. Therefore, the question arises of importance of the art collection to the culture of the organization (Jukić & Dunković, 2018), versus external image affects. For example, under a theoretical examination by Keyton (2005) the question may arise; how, if at all, is culture or communication of the collection being leveraged positively for employee productivity or well-being, organizational success, or societal benefit? Thus, more scientific measurement of corporate art collections and their worth to internal values, compared to those of the community and thus its “social responsibility value,” in relation to possible alternative strategies, appears necessary.
This study investigated different kinds of corporate art collection, but even within the focus of Aboriginal artworks, limitations apply to the three case studies. Respondents (three curatorial employees, one principal, and one senior partner) could reasonably be expected to support the roles of these art collections and to minimize perceived disadvantages or problems. We recognize it would have been valuable to obtain views from other individuals, particularly the curator in Company 3, allowing a direct comparison of curators’ views. Increasing the sample size (both number of organizations and range of employees) would yield more robust data on aspects such as the relative importance of Aboriginal employees or clients and the firm’s image and identity within Aboriginal communities. Future research should explore whether the hoped-for effects on companies’ image as seen by outsiders are realized in practice.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
