Arts & Business is launching a new service for the region's business community to help them gain maximum advantage from the burgeoning contemporary art market.
The Visual programme launches with a high-profile exhibition at Targetfollow's newly regenerated Baskerville House from March 13.
Visual: The FlexibleArtGalleryfor Business, offers a response to research conducted by Arts & Business which found that the business community could benefit more from bringing quality contemporary art into the workplace.
Visual will launch an online gallery website, www.VISUALforBUSINESS.com with an exhibition of 45 artists whose work is featured in the gallery. Artists include award-winning photographer Stuart Whipps, figurative and portrait artist Stephen Earl Rogers and sculptor Jo Naden.
"Our research has shown that there is a thirst for visual art in the workplace, both from employers and employees," says Arts & Business regional director Gavin Buckley.
"More than three quarters of workers would prefer to work in an environment where there is art on the walls, and in turn successful companies are more likely to invest in visual art than unsuccessful ones.
"The artists available through Visual have all been selected by industry experts ensuring the work on offer is of the highest quality, and goes to prove the astounding crop of visual artists we have working right here in our region. By investing in them, not only are we enriching our corporate environments, but also we're enriching the visual art market in the West Midlands, a market that is increasingly becoming a force to be reckoned with."
A number of businesses, including City Inn and Ernst & Young have already benefited from the Visual programme, and both Crosby Lend Lease and Aston Business School will install major works from Visual artists this spring.
The exhibition of Visual artists at Baskerville House is free and open to the public from March 12-29.
The full portfolio of Visual artists can be viewed VISUALforBUSINESS.com from March 13, alongside a range of information about art collecting and commissioning art for the work place.
Visual is supported by Business Link, Arts Council England and EDS. For more information contact Arts & Business, West Midlands on 0121 248 1200 or visual@AandB.org.uk.
