A pioneering art-in-the-workplace experiment is over
Apparently a social experiment started in the 1950s is coming to an end. The experiment, meant to expose corporate and factory workers, was a big hit among workers and staff alike. BAT (British American Tobacco), the world’s second largest tobacco company employs 55,000 people in 180 countries. Workers lobbied to keep the art collection but management seemed sure to sell it off. They have contracted the auction through Sotheby’s auction house
The collection was started as a social and industrial experiment in the late 1950s, with works acquired for exhibition in the production halls of the Turkish and Macedonian Tobacco Company (Turmac) cigarette factory, the town’s largest employer with as many as 1,400 workers making 25% of Holland’s cigarettes. The experiment was a success on every level: factory staff enjoyed the paintings, while the collection won critical plaudits, with works regularly loaned for exhibition in public galleries, from the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (1962 and 1991) to the Fundación Miró in Barcelona (1992).
The Art Newspapers story on this is very good.
3 years ago | Tags: art museum auction sothebys art newspaper BAT
