Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Why business schools collect art?

Is it reasonable to link business education with the tangible and rational? If the answer is mostly in affirmative, it’s intriguing that several business schools in the West greatly emphasize and in certain cases tend to devote sizable resources, to their art collections. Like most schools’ compilations, that at the University of Chicago Booth School does not have any investment angle in mind. According to the collection’s development in-charge, Canice Prendergast, they see themselves as educators, and not investors.

Reflecting its core aim of embracing conceptual challenges, the collection is largely abstract and contemporary. Simply because a subject matter seems removed from how you learn doesn’t mean you should completely ignore it - often it’s exactly what you should actually embrace partly as perhaps no one else is, feels the professor, who adds that their interest is that of opening student’s minds to the thought that one can make a statement in a way that’s not always literal and not necessarily obvious”, says Prof Prendergast.

Challenging photography work - incorporating an evocative series by artist Wolfgang Tillmans – is well highlighted within the collection. It’s not only at University of Chicago Booth School that challenging artworks are understood as suitable complements to a challenging curriculum. Clearly motivated by a lack of artistic inspiration during his time at Harvard, MBA alumnus Gerald Schwartz is one who has been procuring eclectic and thought-provoking works for his alma mater for more than two decades.

The renowned Schwartz Art Collection has expanded to over 200 pieces that the benefactor insists should be displayed in public arena, well-frequented by students. Curator Sharon Black states, the key for them is impact, and not posterity. While revealing that many artworks could easily fetch handsome amounts at auction, she maintains that they are not in any way a pure financial investment. Procured on basis of merit and donated in trust for MBA students, the collection is not something they would ever want to sell.

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