By Lara Scolari, Leading Australian Contemporary Visual Artist
Choosing artwork is something that doesn’t cross many people’s minds when designing a workplace, as it’s functionality that’s normally at the forefront of any considerations. Often, if anything, it’s a simple canvas print that goes up on the walls.
But choosing a genuine piece of art for the workplace has so many benefits. Studies have proven that art in the workplace has a real tangible effect on the employees inside it.
Art can help to lower stress, improve creativity and work-ethic, and well as simply promoting general well-being when it really resonates with those who spend their days looking at it.
Make sure it’s not bland
Colour and energy within an artwork in an office or meeting room can really alter the moods of the people inside it.
Positive mood inducing art is almost always colourful, and often chooses green/blues as its colours of choice.
Art that features representations of water, or even just multiple tones of blues, is particularly calming, so might be good for a highly charged environment.
Choose well
Choosing an artwork can be a daunting choice – for the office, it’s probably best to avoid anything too divisive!
Your art choice can help communicate key messages. Statement abstract or modern artworks will help communicate that the business works in a non-traditional way, is disruptive and challenges the status quo. Art that’s imposing or traditional, like marble sculptures, will fit an office where there is an institutional presence – a solicitor’s office, for example.
Get input from your employees and colleagues
~Business Game Changer Special Promotion~
If it’s you who’s deciding what’s to go in the office, get the opinion of those around you. The same studies referenced above have shown that it’s good for productivity for people to have a say at the art they’ll be viewing and enjoying all day – which is no real surprise!
My last piece of advice is to remember that the art you choose speaks volumes about your company. When you have visitors to the office, that’s what they’ll see. So as always be conscious of picking something you’re proud of and that resonates with your ethos – in a way, it will come to represent you.
