The Rhode Island School of Design’s art museum is home to one of the three largest university art collections in the nation. Its colorful galleries contain more than 100,000 works of art, including ancient European statues, paintings by Cézanne and Monet, as well as contemporary artist Cy Twombly.
And that makes it one of the most unique settings on local college and university campuses in which to conduct corporate business or host relaxed staff gatherings.
“The space is really just amazing,” said Sean Dagesse, senior vice president, R.I. market manager at Bank America. Over the past few years, Dagesse has booked multiple corporate outings in the museum’s five rentable spaces on behalf of the bank and said he would be willing to return because “the RISD team does a phenomenal job accommodating us … listening to our goals and objectives.”
Pamela Kimel, special events manager for RISD Museum, said the majority of their corporate business comes in the form of word-of-mouth referrals.
“We don’t do a lot of marketing,” she said, because every time a professional association hosts an event here – drawing workers from across multiple industries – the interest grows.
From these referrals and repeat customers, Kimel said she learned businesses continue to select RISD Museum to host everything from small-scale department meetings to large, formal galas because they can conduct their business and then allow employees to wander through the galleries, which provide “a different vibe than other places around town.”
Summer is not one of the busiest times for corporate outings, she noted, in part because of the college’s limited space and “huge pre-college program” – a six-week educational introduction to the rigors of studying at RISD from June to August.
“During the summer months … it’s not as quiet as one might imagine,” she said.
In addition, all five rentable venues marketed to corporations are indoors – something businesses are less attracted to during the hottest months of the year, she said.
University of Rhode Island’s Alton Jones campus – home to the West Greenwich-based Whispering Pines Conference Center – has the outdoor amenities to fit that preference, says Ann Marie Evans, coordinator of conferences.
But while Whispering Pines is comprised of 2,300 acres of lakes, forests and fields, corporate-related business slows in the summer months – especially July – because corporate professionals often take vacations then, said Evans.
Annually, she said, Whispering Pines hosts an average of 300 events, but she could not say what percent of those bookings were corporate outings.
Even though most Whispering Pines bookings are by URI-related groups, she said interest ranges from local firms that include United Natural Foods Inc. departments, Hasbro Inc. and Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, as well as companies as far away as Leadership Greater Hartford – a Hartford, Conn.-based executive training nonprofit.
The decision to support such college-based settings with business, said Bob T. Nangle, R.I. Manufacturers Association board member, is an easy one.
A former RIMA chairman, Nangle said he chose to host events at the RISD Museum partly because of the networking possibilities.
“It’s great to work with [RISD],” he said, “because they’re big in the design community and manufacturing is always trying to work with designers.”