Getting to know the art on your walls
As you may have seen in our recent newsletter, Artbank welcomed on board Sydney Water as one of our significant new clients. Having relocated its headquarters from the city to Parramatta, Sydney Water’s senior management worked closely with Artbank to select the 30 works which are now installed throughout the organisation’s public spaces.The works, which reflect themes of environment, technology, water and heritage, were selected to provide a more vibrant environment for staff as well as visitors.
On top of its role in supporting artists through the purchase of their work, Artbank also aims to have an educational function. To that end, as soon as the staff were moved in, Artbank began a program to speak to them about the art in their workplace. In recent weeks we’ve conducted a series of lunch time floor talks both more and less formal, and have had a ball doing so. Together we ‘unpacked’ the art and introduced the core themes of the artists to staff, increasing people’s enjoyment, interest and sense of ownership of the artworks.
We encourage our clients to engage with their Artbank works through informal talks as a way not only to bond and build relationships with colleagues but also to gain insight into the world of contemporary art and artists. We invite you to call us if you would like to know more about the works in your workplace and bring your staff together over art.
From a curatorial perspective, working with Sydney Water gave us opportunities to spend a bit more time in Western Sydney, checking out what’s happening in the greater metropolitan region. Lately we’ve caught some great shows at Blacktown Arts Centre; a visit to Parramatta Artists Studios, and are exploring better ways to build relationships with artists from Sydney’s true geographic and population centre.
Such relationships add greatly to our knowledge of what’s on around the country, allowing us to buy what’s new and exciting for you to rent.
Some of our most dynamic new purchases have ended up on display at Sydney Water; works such as Geoff Newton’s Finger Painting, Jemima Wyman’s Combat 08, and Tomsilav Nikolic’s colourful acrylic and marble dust on paper works seen here in the board room in their new building.
Nikolic’s pieces reference a Pet Shop Boys song in their various titles (Death, Religion, Life, Passion etc), inviting a subjective response both to each colour's effect, and the viewer’s own relationship to the emotion heralded by the title word. Even this sort of snippet of information was enough to get Sydney Water staff thinking about the artist’s thought processes, and that in itself is a great result for us.
Jackie Dunn
Senior Curator
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