Bloomberg Newswire, October 6, 2005
October 6, 2005, Bloomberg - When out-of-town job candidates visit Kansas City, Missouri, to interview with American Century Investments, executives like to take them to lunch in the Crossroads district. The once-industrial zone is now a magnet for artists, many subsidized by annual grants from American Century and others.
"We're trying to say, 'this is not a flat, dusty prairie,'"American Century Chief Executive Officer.
William Lyons said last night at New York's Rubin Museum of Art, where he and other arts-loving CEOs were feted. "The creative class is alive and well in Kansas City. It establishes a level of comfort."
The Business Committee for the Arts lauded American Century, Meredith Corp., Norfolk Southern Corp. and eight other U.S. companies for their enterprising support of culture. The non-profit organization, which banker and philanthropist David Rockefeller Sr. founded in 1967, announced
its first-ever top 10 list of the best companies supporting the arts in America.
"We as a country love these lists," Business Committee for the Arts President Judith Jedlicka said. "The top 10, the top 20. The companies are models, encouraging others to follow their lead."
Billions in Support
Businesses spent $3.3 billion supporting the arts in 2003, up from $22 million in 1967, according to the BCA. Arts organizations have become more professional and adept at fundraising, Jedlicka said, and businesses are more open to supporting them. Today, corporate support dwarfs that of
the U.S. government. The U.S. National Endowment for the Arts, founded in 1965, distributed $102.9 million in grants in the 12 months ending Sept. 30, up from $99.3 million a year earlier.
American Century, a privately held mutual fund company that invests $100 billion for clients, sees arts support as almost pure philanthropy, albeit with recruiting benefits. "We don't do it for marketing," said Lyons, 49. "We do it to build a community to attract the kind of people we want to hire."
American Century contributes to visual artists in Kansas City through the Charlotte Street Foundation. As of 2004, the foundation has handed out $225,000 to 46 artists,
according to its Web site. Its director, David Hughes Jr., is a former American Century executive.
UBS AG, Europe's biggest bank by assets, each year invites more than 16,000 of its clients to attend visual and performing arts it sponsors. Earlier this year, New York's Museum of Modern Art displayed "Contemporary Voices: The UBS Art Collection."
"Supporting the arts is good business," said Mark Sutton, CEO of the Americas for UBS, which was inducted into the Business Committee for the Arts Hall of Fame. Supporting the arts "gives us a competitive edge," he said.
Getting the Name Out
Some shareholder advocates say corporate support of the arts is appropriate as long as it gets the company's name in front of potential customers.
"Whether it's a tennis tournament or a museum, it should be closely tied to the company's marketing strategy," said Nell Minow, editor of the Corporate Library and Yahoo.com's movie reviewer. "It should not be tied to something the CEO's wife wants to be on the board of."
Some executives at last night's dinner counter that they feel bound by tradition and their communities to help the arts, even if there's no direct link to net income.
"It's not an advertisement for us," said David Goode, chairman and CEO of Norfolk Southern, a Norfolk, Virginia-based railroad. "As it enhances the quality of life in communities we serve, it makes them better places to do business."
Dean Thorp, who manages California giving for the Wells Fargo Foundation, said arts philanthropy changed his life four decades ago. He was a child of a single mother on public assistance in Tacoma, Washington, and attended the Seattle Symphony as a fifth grader through a corporate program.
"If some company hadn't bought tickets for low-income
kids, I never would've had that opportunity," said Thorp, 48. "That opened up an interest that has endured."
Wells Fargo & Co. was among the companies named in the "BCA Ten," co-sponsored by Forbes magazine. The others are AMR Corp.'s American Airlines, Deere & Co., Shugoll Research, First American Corp., United Technologies Corp. and Vinson & Elkins LLP. Leonard Slatkin, music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, and Trisha Brown of the Trish Brown Dance Company, handed out those awards.
Goode, who is 64 and scheduled to retire from Norfolk Southern next year, was given the BCA Leadership Award.
-Editor Todd, Schatz