Walk into most corporate lobbies or hotel restaurants and you'll see the same thing: art chosen to fill wall space rather than say anything. It's inoffensive, forgettable, and usually purchased in bulk from a catalog. That's not a knock on the buyer — most companies don't have anyone on staff whose job is to think about art. But it's a missed opportunity, because the art in a space does real work, whether anyone's paying attention to it or not. It signals what a brand values, gives visitors and employees something to notice, and can turn a functional space into a memorable one.
Art as part of the brand, not an afterthought
The projects that work best start early, not as a last-minute decorating decision after the architecture and interiors are locked in. When we curated the art program for Atlas Restaurant at The St. Regis Hotel in Atlanta, the goal wasn't just to hang paintings — it was to build a visual identity for the space. We paired original work from mid-career artists across the Southeast with pieces on loan from the Tavistock Group's collection, including works by Picasso, Matisse, Lucian Freud, and Francis Bacon. The result reads as one considered program instead of two disconnected sets of art, because the pairing was intentional from the start.
Cody Hudson’s artwork installed at the Breakthrough Collaboration Hub.
The same logic applied on a much larger scale at the Breakthrough Collaboration Hub, developed with U.S. Venture and the Green Bay Packers organization at the U.S. Venture Center in Titletown. More than 200 original artworks were installed across the space, featuring artists including Michelle Grabner, Cody Hudson, Sarah Leuchtner, and Shir Ende. A project at that scale isn't about picking pretty pictures — it's a coordination exercise: matching the volume of art needed to the size and function of the space, sourcing enough strong regional and national artists to fill it without diluting quality, and making sure the final program feels cohesive room to room rather than assembled piece by piece.
What the process actually looks like
A corporate or hospitality art program generally involves a few consistent steps, regardless of scale: understanding the brand and the space first, before a single piece is chosen; sourcing original work from artists whose practice fits the project, often emerging or regional talent rather than only established names; coordinating with existing collections or stakeholders when a client already owns work worth incorporating, as with the Tavistock Group pairing at Atlas; and managing the unglamorous but critical logistics — framing, sizing, shipping, and installation — that determine whether a great concept actually makes it onto the wall intact and on schedule.
Why it's worth the effort
Original art is one of the few elements of a commercial space that visitors will actually stop and look at. Done well, it becomes part of how people remember the space — and part of how they remember the brand behind it. Done as an afterthought, it just becomes wallpaper.
If you're planning a renovation, a new build-out, or a rebrand and art hasn't come up yet, it's worth bringing into the conversation earlier than most people do. Book a consultation to talk through what a program could look like for your space.