Big business is perceived as the primary commercial supporter of the arts in the United States. However, more and more small and medium-sized companies—many of them family owned—are developing innovative strategies that not only serve the arts but improve a company’s visibility in the community and build customer loyalty.
Family businesses are helping the arts by making cash grants, supplying volunteers, and donating products and services. Such benevolence has grown steadily among family businesses in recent years, particularly smaller companies, according to Judith A. Jedlicka, president of the Business Committee for the Arts Inc. in New York City, a national not-for-profit organization founded in 1967 by David Rockefeller. The committee helps companies develop philanthropic strategies that can advance business objectives.
What follows are profiles of five family companies that support the arts in creative ways.
Festival of Jubilation
Compos-It Inc.
Montgomery, Alabama
“As a widow with three sons, starting a new business in a new town, it became painfully clear that a woman would not get credibility unless she could show publicly she could get things done,” says Margaret Carpenter, looking back on her founding of Compos-It Inc. in 1961. Compos-It is a graphic arts and printing business that now employs 18. “Involvement in the arts gave me the opportunity to prove myself to the business establishment,” she says. “It enhanced my customer base and banking relations.”
Carpenter spearheaded the creation of the Jubilee Arts Festival by working with the Chamber of Commerce and the Arts Council of Montgomery. Her company also provided pro bono design and printing services to create promotional materials for the festival, a service that continues today. The festival, now called Jubilee Citifest, is in its 16th year. “I can honestly say I would not be in business today if I had not taken the lead in running the festival,” Carpenter notes.
Carpenter also has become a board member and major contributor to the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, held in Montgomery. The Shakespeare and Jubilee festivals both now attract national attention. Together, they have become an economic force in Montgomery by increasing tourism and attracting new businesses to the area. That, Carpenter says, has increased business-to-business orders for many of her services.
Compos-It also donates design and printing for brochures and programs to local arts groups, and conducts workshops to help them produce more effective promotional and fund-raising materials, which creates orders.
All this work has improved Compos-It’s bottom line, according to Carpenter. “The best promotion for us is to donate beautiful programs for local events, and put our name on them. Instead of taking out ads saying we can do fantastic things, potential customers see that we have done fantastic things—they hold the evidence right in their hands. My work for the arts has led to a lot of business for my company.”
Mural of fire
D.D. Bean & Sons
Jaffrey, New Hampshire
There are many projects that can enhance a company’s image, but few offer the added benefit of conveying the company’s prominence in its industry. Delcie D. Bean, president of D.D. Bean & Sons, found such a project in 1991.
D.D. Bean & Sons, with 250 employees, is the country’s largest manufacturer of paper matches. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the invention of the product, Delcie commissioned two artists to create two portable murals, each measuring 8 feet high by 40 feet long. The first, “The History of Jaffrey,” depicts influential figures and important events in the history of the town—population 5,000—which grew hand in hand with the company. All townspeople were invited to assist in the planning, construction, and painting of the mural, conceived by artist Karen Becker. The company donated it to the Jaffrey Historical Society, which displays the mural at city events.
The second work, “The History of Fire,” depicts images of fire throughout history, from the Egyptian and Greek gods and goddesses of fire to the invention of the match. Fifteen artistically gifted high school students helped paint it with artist Christina Schlesinger.
Iain Walton, D.D. Bean’s manager of public relations and Delcie’s son-in-law, says the first mural was done purely to show the company’s commitment to the town, which enhanced its image as a premier place to work.
The second mural had a more strategic intent. Demand for paper matches has been decreasing, because fewer people are smoking and because of a continuing influx of cheap lighters from the Far East. Walton says it was becoming clear that not all of the five U.S. match makers would survive. He and Delcie felt the company had to do as much as possible to solidify its reputation as the nation’s oldest and largest supplier. D.D. Bean hangs or props the huge mural behind and above its booths at trade and industry shows, where deals are made, creating an impressive presence.
There is a second factor. Walton says the public will choose paper matches over lighters if the match books sport attractive four-color art. The mural sends a signal to distributors that D.D. Bean knows how to create bold art.
Two of the five companies no longer exist. Of course there are major business factors, but Walton says the murals played a role in the company’s program to maintain its image as industry leader.
Food that sounds good
Slightly North of Broad
Charleston, South Carolina
Having closed their old eatery, Richard Elliot and his wife, Dana, wanted to distinguish their new place, Slightly North of Broad, as a truly unique and casually elegant Southern-style restaurant. From its opening in 1993, Slightly North of Broad invited local musicians to play to the restaurant’s lunchtime crowd, and earn a free lunch as well as exposure. The sign-up sheet filled fast and has remained that way. Dana says customers regularly come to the restaurant because they know they will find free live music, and always something different.
Richard and Dana also commissioned local artists to fashion fixtures used throughout the restaurant, which created a distinctive interior. “It’s not more expensive than buying commercial fixtures,” Dana says. “And what you get is an original, artistic look.”
The couple learned the business value of supporting the arts when Richard ran a prior restaurant, Colonie House. “What brought people in the door there was when we turned the restaurant’s wall space into a gallery,” Dana explains. “We hung original art from vibrant, local artists. Residents would regularly come in to see the changing art, which was also available for purchase, and they would stay for lunch.” Each quarter Richard would host a modest reception for the artists who had been featured, so patrons could meet them. This enhanced the restaurant’s association with the arts.
Dana says such support, over time, also improves the business by distinguishing it from competitors. “There are way too many good restaurants in Charleston,” she says. “Because we have aligned ourselves with the arts and the community knows about it, local people refer visitors to us. They have a reason to send someone to our place.”
Masters of class
I.W. Marks Jewelers
Houston, Texas
Jewelry stores often compete on price and quality, but find it difficult to establish themselves as the premier place to shop. Irving W. Marks, president of I.W. Marks Jewelers, which employs 25, found a way to create such an image. His company underwrites the I.W. Marks Jewelers Master Class Series, which introduces children and adults to the performing arts through lectures and demonstrations presented by world-class artists visiting the Houston area.
The series, started in 1989, is coordinated by Houston’s Society for the Performing Arts and presented at the Jewish Community Center. Artists from organizations such as the Miami City Ballet, the Pickle Family Circus, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater work one-on-one with young artists and audience members. Nearly 250 children and adults participate each year, and every program is sold out. The series costs I.W. Marks about $4,000 annually.
The company also underwrites local opera and symphonic productions. Irving Marks says he and his wife didn’t begin these practices for business reasons. They chose to use their money to support the arts “because it gives us great satisfaction,” Marks says.
“At first we didn’t wave the flag,” he goes on to explain. “Then we realized it was okay to pat ourselves on the back.” As soon as they did, they discovered the business payoff philanthropy can create, because fine arts patrons started showing up at his store. “Now we wave the flag whenever we can.”
Marks says the benefit is indirect, but real. “Everything a company does that is positive pays off in small ways. You have to be a little more philosophical than pragmatic. Customers talk about our support of our community when they come into the store. It heightens our image and our profile. I can’t translate that into a dollar figure, but I can tell you this: Our business is doing better than our competitors’.”
A place to play
C.J. Segerstrom & Sons
Costa Mesa, California
Nothing can raise the profile of a real estate developer more than a noteworthy building project. But rather than pin his company’s name on a shopping mall or housing facility, Henry T. Segerstrom decided to put up a performing arts center.
The Segerstrom family, and their business C.J. Segerstrom & Sons, donated the land for the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Henry, managing partner and patriarch, led the $73 million private fund-raising effort for the center. Once it and its neighboring retail and office complexes were completed in September 1986, major works of art collected by the Segerstroms were put on public display there. The company continues to support numerous performing and visual arts organizations in the area, including the Bowers, Newport Harbor, and Laguna arts museums. It also sponsors community arts events held in its facilities.
Many of the company’s 60 employees participate in the arts as volunteers and donors, and Henry is active on the center’s board of trustees.
In part as a result of C.J. Segerstrom’s commitment, Orange County, California, has become a cultural center. The performing arts complex is now the home of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, Opera Pacific, Pacific Chorale, the South Coast Repertory Theatre, and the Orange County Philharmonic Society. Henry Segerstrom says the arts have had a positive impact on the local economy and have helped C.J. Segerstrom & Sons attract upscale retail and business tenants to its properties, which the firm had difficulty reaching before. “The arts build better communities and develop more broadly educated consumers,” he says. “They also create in employees a sense of pride in the social responsibility of their employer.”
Allison V. Malcolm is director of public affairs for the Business Committee for the Arts Inc. in New York City.