Can Big Corporations Really Show They Care?

The answer: Yes, and No. Depends.

I spoke recently with a former employee of the Gap Corporate Headquarters about their art collection and it’s impact on employees. He said that he felt very inspired being around such creative expression and working for a company that valued sharing these works with their employees. He even sent a thank you note to CEO of the Gap expressing this, and ended up getting the gift of an artbook of one of the artists in the collection on his desk the following week with a note that said he was thankful for knowing the art was so inspirational.

The Gap’s collection is a 1,100-piece assortment of works by 185 contemporary artists with many fine pieces from Alexander Calder, Roy Lichtenstein, Chuck Close and Andy Warhol and could be worth nearly $1 billion. A portion of which is now on loan to SF Museum of Modern Art.

I also attended some meetings at the ‘GooglePlex; Google’s sprawling Corporate campus in Northern CA. This company is definitely not conventional – from the gourmet restaurants which serve up free food all day/night and full laundry and dry cleaning facilities to even being able to bring your pet to work! Wow.
In addition, they also have invested in installation art pieces all around the campus. There are some pix of the sculpture garden at one of the campus’ courtyard.


(note: We had to delete the portion about Wells Fargo Bank, for now, but stay tuned. We are not finished with that at all).

I hope the large corporations in the NoHo Arts District in Los Angeles take the lead from the Gap Corporate Headquarters and GooglePlex. Our theatres, galleries, dance complexes and other arts groups make NoHo a very attractive place to live and work. Maybe, our corporations should give a little back to our arts community which is bringing them financial success.