bank of america

Museum of Fine Arts Boston Receives Major Donation From Bank of America

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) announced a major donation from Bank of America this week. The gift will be split between $5 million in funding and $5 million in art from the Bank of America collection, making the bank the MFA's largest corporate donor. Among the art gifts is Ellsworth Kelly's oil painting "Blue Green Yellow Orange Red," (1968) a 22-foot-long abstract work which will hang in the Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art set to in September 2011. The money gift will support museum exhibitions and programs as well as operating expenses, and capital improvements. The bank will also be supporting special events surrounding the November opening of the museum's new wing for the Art of the Americas and Ruth and Carl J. Shapiro Family Courtyard. Although many museums have struggled to raise money recently, between July 1, 2009, and June 30, 2010, the MFA received $57 million in funds and art. Bank of America has given a total of more than $15 million to the MFA. The bank's previous gift of $5 million to the Museum's Building the New MFA campaign (2001–2008) provided funding for the MFA's building project. The museum has named the plaza in front of its Huntington Avenue entrance the "Bank of America Plaza on the Avenue of the Arts."

[via ArtFix Daily]

Tags: art donation, bank of america, corporate art, ellsworth kelly, museum of fine arts

Bank Of America Showcases Western Art

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Events, Art

Last month I wrote about an exhibit featuring Bank of America's contemporary art holdings in Charlotte. Should you be interested in seeing the works of another artist in the B of A holdings you'll need to travel to Kansas City, Missouri. That's where the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art will be presenting Romancing the West: Alfred Jacob Miller in the Bank of America Collection from September 25, 2010-January 9, 2011. The exhibit showcase the work of the Baltimore portraitist who in 1837 was invited on the adventure of a lifetime, tagging along with Scottish nobleman Captain William Drummond Stewart and the American Fur Company expedition on a six-month adventure to the Rocky Mountains. They trekked along the Oregon Trail to the annual gathering of the fur trade and Miller was one of the first American artists to bring the images of the American West to vivid life.

The exhibit shows 30 works on paper not seen in the public since 1964. Miler made more than 100 field sketches during the expedition, sketches that became the inspiration for at least a thousand paintings and watercolors. The six-month journey set him up for the next three decades as he received commissions for albums of watercolors and full-sized oil paintings that he produced in his studio. The works from the Bank of America Collection represent intermediary work based on his field sketches and done in preparation for the commissioned work.

"We are thrilled to share Miller's work with the general public," said Margaret C. Conrads, Samuel Sosland Senior Curator, American Art, at the Nelson-Atkins and curator of the exhibition. "Viewers will find that fact mixes with fantasy to reflect life on the frontier both as it was and as it was imagined to be."

After debuting at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art the exhibition will head to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2011.

[via Art Fix Daily]

Tags: american west, art exhibit, Art Exhibition, art exhibits, bank of america, museum exhibit, museum exhibition, nelson-atkins museum, western art

Bank of America's Contemporary Art To Go On Display

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Events, Art

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.

Tags: art, bank of america, charlotte, corporate art, mint museum, museums, north carolina

Bank Of America's New Green Hotel

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Green

Guests visiting Bank of America's headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina will soon have a more luxurious place to stay. As USA Today's Hotel CheckIn reports, the nation's largest bank is opening up a new Ritz-Carlton hotel across the street from its corporate headquarters.

The 18-story building will have a 12,000 square-foot penthouse wellness center, a street-side BLT Steak restaurant and 147 rooms including a 2,900 square-foot Presidential Suite. It will be the first LEED-designed new hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina and is being built for LEED Gold Certification making it the first green hotel under the Ritz-Carlton umbrella. The Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte at Bank of America Center is scheduled for completion in October 2009.

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Tags: bank of america, BankOfAmerica, charlotte, green hotel, GreenHotel, leed, ritz-carlton

Bank Of America Buys Exec's Slow Selling Home

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

What happens when an executive gets a transfer and can't sell their house? In some cases, no need to worry, your company will buy your slow seller. Bloomberg tells the story of Barbara Desoer, who put her house in Charlotte, North Carolina, on the market in August for $1.675 million when she was named head of Bank of America Corp.'s real-estate unit, Countrywide Financial Corp., in Calabasas, California. She and her husband had bought the home in 2000 for $1.15 million. It sold in December, to Bank of America which has put the home up for sale for $1.295 million. A proxy statement reveals that Bank of America will cover costs associated with the sale of the Desoers' house, plus $1.5 million for costs on their new home in California and another $1.1 million for tax-related costs.
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The home is in one of Charlotte's priciest neighborhoods where the inventory of million-dollar homes on the market is very high. It would take years to sell just what is available now reports a local real estate agent. In Charlotte, which is home to Bank of America, home sales have been falling since June 2007. Wells Fargo & Co.'s purchase of Charlotte-based Wachovia, could mean more job cuts and more homes on the market.

Gallery: A Bank of America Exec's Charlotte Home

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Tags: bank of america, BankOfAmerica, barbara desoer, BarbaraDesoer, charlotte, north carolina, NorthCarolina

Bank Of America To Sell Off Jets

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wings

Bank of America has become the latest company to put its jets on the market. The Financial Times says that the beleaguered bank is selling three corporate jets plus a helicopter it got when it picked up Merrill Lynch. A New York City corporate apartment belonging to Bank of America may also be for sale. The bank's stock share prices have dipped to new lows amid questions of whether it might require more government cash to stay afloat. Bank of America is said to have nine corporate jets including four Gulfstreams registered to it as of December and the Merrill Lynch acquisition also brought along a Bombardier Global Express jet which is not up for sale.The news follows the fact that both Citigroup and Starbucks have put planes on the market recently. As I've said before, if you are in the market for a used private plane now is the time to start shopping.

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Tags: bank of america, BankOfAmerica, corporate jets, CorporateJets