Last week proved an interesting one for me and it definitely re-invigorated my current feeling towards the art world. Not that I have lost any love for it but more so I feel a little far removed from the actual art bit and having recently been asked to curate a space this feeling came very much to light. So onto the exciting bit that left me buzzing like the old days of CHELSEA space; where everyday I got to hang out with people that made me cooler by association. 

Bridget Riley - CitiGroup commission

Tuesday saw me meeting with the head of Art for CitiGroup - Louise Spence - at the Citi HQ in Canary Wharf. It was great to enjoy a tour of the collection - which is dotted all over the building, from meeting rooms to corridors with a fantastically large Bridget Riley installation right in the central atrium of the Norman Foster designed half of the building. Viewed from the bottom and the top it is pretty impressive. The 3D nature of it means wherever you stand it shifts and moves to create an entirely different art piece. Jan Dibbets - who is considered one of the first artists to use photography as an artistic format - is on show in a meeting room and Peter Blake and Dexter Dalwood in corridors. It really was an interesting tour and opened my eyes up to an entirely different side to the art world. 

  Dexter Dalwood - Cinderella

The Citi Corporate Collection is very diverse. Lousie Spence - a very warm and knowledgeable person who I very much enjoyed listening to describe the pieces we were show -  doesn't necessarily follow themes like some corporate collections which focus on emerging talent or artists from the areas their offices are based in and this is quite refreshing. To walk around and be able to see different movements and formats really gives you a much broader insight into the art world. With these artworks on show to; I would assume sometimes thousands, of Citi Bank employees it's great that they get to see such a wide range of pieces and of the staff I met they seemed genuinely interested in learning about it. This plus hearing that Louise also runs an arts club, regularly hold exhibitions for prizes she works with and even holds competitions for the staff's children to submit too and also mentions there is a photography club within the corporation was all quite inspiring and a surprise to hear. 

Peter Blake - I May Not Be A Ruralist Any More...

I hold my hands up and say I wrongly assumed something a little stuffier, maybe less friendly - corporate collections can be so closed book at time that it has always been an area I've written off as impenetrable. 

Jan Dibbets - Water III

Actually the visit and the time with Louise was fantastic and opened up a whole new side to the art world to me and how it can educate people further by being able to afford the talents of a curator who can buy and place artworks within their offices.

I hugely believe that art needs to be placed in the way of people who may not otherwise see it, put it bang in the middle of your atrium instead of the art gallery environment - which people may be less willing to seek out themselves - and whether someone has walked past it for 2 months or 10 years before noticing it at some point they will notice and will question. 

There is as of late a lot of talk about the art world becoming more elitist, with art schools going up in fees and the huge number of unpaid 'internships' we are now expected to undertake before being qualified to take on a poorly paid job in the industry. But in some instances - like with Citi's Corporate Collection I see how having a huge corporation and I would like to assume more funding than most galleries - although the collection has not acquired a piece since 2008 - can really open the arts up to a wider audience by putting it smack in front of a new audience and talking about it to everyone in the building with the aim of getting them involved.