Bank of America's Contemporary Art To Go On Display

Lately it seems that corporate art is spending less time in offices where only a few can delight and into museums where the art is on display for all. Bank of America's art will be on display at the new Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina this fall. October 1 will bring "New Visions: Contemporary Masterworks from the Bank of America Collection" to the museum. It will showcase more than more than 60 paintings, sculptures, works on paper and photographs by American artists such as Robert Rauschenberg and Frank Stella. Ed Ruscha's Clockspeed is shown at right. Pieces date from 1945 to the present.

"(Charlotte) is (Bank of America's) headquarters and the Mint is the flagship arts institution," said Allen Blevins, senior vice president and director of the bank's corporate art program in a quote in the Charlotte Observer. "It's going to be a phenomenal show."

The Bank of America Collection is said to be one of the largest and finest in the world although the size and value are not known. The collection is focused on contemporary American art. The bank did not set out to collect art but it did collect banks. The art was acquired by banks in different parts of the country which were later acquired by Bank of America and so it includes artists from a variety of U.S. cities. The exhibit includes many large pieces, some of which haven't been seen on the East Coast before. The Observer article says that while the Mint had pick of the litter in assembling the exhibit, it was Bank of America that picked up the tab when it came to the many costs of staging the exhibit including crating and shipping. The Mint will keep the money earned from ticket sales. The exhibit is part of Bank of America's Art in our Communities program. From 2008 to 2010, Bank of America will have loaned more than 30 exhibitions to museums internationally.