Art in modern times has been promoted as luxury article, commodity or as medium for political
and critical statements. Times change. Markets change.
Regardless of communication technologies in business, one still needs natural interhuman
dialogue, for instance meeting in person. Throughout history artworks have always worked
well as intermediary paving the way for business oriented interhuman relations.
Target audiences are back into focus, not only for corporations, but also for art.
Artworks always had the capacity through natural appeal to visually offer experiences across
cultures. The Renaissance and Baroque are two western examples of times when art was
successfully applied for business (trade) purposes – in both directions over the (old) Silk
Roads and seas.
In the global market place, corporations have to be active in countries very different from
their own. For obvious reasons intercultural dialogue is a substantial part of any marketing
strategy.
Today artworks again may feature well in marketing strategies that build on mutual cultural
respect and pave the way for local acceptance. The social responsibility standard for
corporations operating in any part of the world has grown in significance, so far limited to
corporate environmental policies.
Corporate interests:
○ enhancing local acceptation in a broader audience by offering appealing artworks in
exhibitions and through commissions;
○ a custom-made and international selection of artworks demonstrates a corporate’s
interest
in other cultures and contributes significantly to the corporate social responsibility
standard.
○ the fast growing investments in infrastructure-connections like rails, highways or
waterways require local public outreach to motivate public approval; this applies to the new
infrastructure plans in the USA, Europe or “The New Silk Roads” (OBOR or BRI); well-chosen
art-projects give rise to free coverage by local news media and natural appeal by a broader
local public;
○ a corporation does not need to create a special art budget: the inclusion of art as
proposed can be viewed as part of the overall marketing strategy.
While it is crucial to engage the right intermediary for such an approach, neuroscience
offers pragmatic indications allowing to select kinds of artworks that naturally appeal to a
broad audience in all cultures. Obviously, one should not merely follow western standards
for contemporary art. Key is embracing natural appeal instead of the Western model of
avantgarde.
Inquiries: fre.ilgen(at)gmail.com
