Art Art Resources for Teachers Featured Nonprofits

How We Turn Corporate Art Rentals Into Local Impact

Written by:

Evan La Ruffa

Jul 15, 2019

When it comes down to it, at our core, we are a conduit. Our corporate art rentals has been an incredible driver of the impact we make in our communities. It’s been vital in creating connections between communities that might not otherwise interact to coffer value & service that benefits everyone.

That ideal is at the heart of IPaintMyMind.

We believe in the equitable distribution of cultural resources, but also an incredible opportunity to engage a wider audience in visual art, creating spaces and relationships that move us forward, together.

When artists started sending us prints as thank you’s for featuring them on our website beginning in 2011, we started to think about a way to innovate as it pertained to providing value and funding our mission.

We knew we wanted to be a vehicle for collaboration, creativity, and equality, but we also believed there could be an innovative path to getting there.

In 2012 and into 2013 the model solidified, making corporate art rentals the focal point. After all, most of us work hard week after week to be able to afford cultural and artistic experiences: dance, theatre, culinary, travel, films, concerts, and the list goes on.

SIGN UP FOR THE IPMM NEWSLETTER - ART + MISSION, NEVER SPAM

Group 1
Group 2
Group 3

We believed that by growing a diverse and accessible permanent collection of art prints, that we could mobilize it as a service to support artists, engage cool businesses, give back to local communities, and rally our backers to keep turning that wheel of impact.

So we: purchase art from artists, lease it to businesses, fund free art programs with that revenue, and galvanize our supporters by connecting us all around the power of art.

The reality is that forward-thinking businesses want cool ways to give back, and we’ve loved how renting art for offices, retail, food halls, and venues has become an engine for funding the free and reduced cost art programs we provide to local schools, parks, libraries, and youth centers.

And in September 2019, we’ll be expanding our cohort of Shared Walls rotating art program participating locations from 13 to 23, activating a significant portion of the IPaintMyMind Permanent Collection.

By mobilizing a service to fund our mission, we’ve turned artwork for office walls into local impact.