The Art Bank is a division of the Canada Council for the Arts that rents works of art to public and private sector offices.
Established in the 1970s the Art Bank buys art from notable Canadian artists through a system of peer review juries. The Bank continues to expand its collection, buying 52 works for 160,000 dollars in 2002. The bank is completely self-funded, earning its money from renting out works in its collection. The vast majority of its art is rented by the Federal government, with less than ten percent being rented by the private sector. Works of art are rented out for two-year periods, and the price is generally 20% of the piece's value for the rental. The Art Bank is located in Ottawa, Ontario, but it ships its work across the country. Its collection has been appraised to be worth over 60 million dollars.
Famous quotes containing the words art and/or bank:
“We marry
A gentler scion to the wildest stock,
And make conceive a bark of baser kind
By bud of nobler race. This is an art
Which does mend nature—change it rather; but
The art itself is nature.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“It was like passing a boundary to dive
Into the sun-filled water, brightly leafed
And limbed and lighted out from bank to bank.
That’s how the stars shine during the day.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)