business committee for the arts

Financial Services Firm Supports Its Home State through Art Collection

Company: Emprise Bank
Headquarters: Wichita, Kansas
Industry: Financial Services
Company Size: Small (annual revenues of less than $50 million)

“At Emprise we’ve integrated our art into our ‘lifestyle’ and ‘workstyle.’ We like to show it, live it, and share it. Making our state the focus of our collection, and making the collection part of the landscape wherever we do business, that tells people something about our values.”

– M.D. Michaelis, Chairman

Objectives
To identify and catalogue the noteworthy artists of Kansas. To increase art appreciation by staff and community members. To raise employee awareness and receptivity to currents in artistic expression, and to spur innovation and creative thinking within the bank.

Process

• On office and conference room walls, in hallways and common areas, the bank routinely displays and rotates prints and original works from its collection: The Art of Emprise.
• The collection focuses on Kansas artists, many of whom are faculty and students from schools, colleges, and universities in the state. It represents a range of media including etchings, oils, photographs, woodcuts, watercolors, and pastels. It also reflects the evolution and changes in artistic styles, from Realism and Impressionism to Modern and Abstract art.
• The bank hosts regular tours of the collection for customers and includes images from the collection on bank materials like calendars, prints, and note cards. As part of the bank’s orientation process, new employees are given a history and overview of the collection. Art classes and interested students have been permitted access to the works for purposes of art education.

Results
The Art of Emprise collection serves as a constant visual reminder to customers and clients of the connection the bank and its people have with their state. The bank views the collection not as a financial investment, but as a cultural investment. In 2007 Emprise Chairman M.D. Michaelis received the 2007 Kansas Governor’s Award for Patron of the Arts.