NEW YORK—Imagine going to the bank for routine transactions, and while waiting for your private banker or standing on line for the clerk, you lift your head and there it is—an art gallery. A museum-quality art gallery, built with the specification of a real museum, is situated inside your bank.
"The lights, the air, and the security are the most important for all museums to release their art and antiques to us for display," said Martin Mullin, curator and director of the Gallery at The Park Avenue Bank. The bank's "Meet the Museum" program hosts exhibitions from museums from around the world, and pieces rotate every 6–8 weeks.
The Park Avenue Bank is a New York-based community bank with four branches throughout the city. The bank provides full service traditional consumer banking, real estate and commercial lending to small and mid-size businesses and other private banking services.
"We are not your typical bankers; we are business people for business people with the ability to tailor our financing to the needs of our customers," said Charles Antonucci, President and Chief Executive Officer of Park Avenue Bank. The bank is one of the fastest-growing financial institutions in New York City, according to "Crain's New York Business," a trade newspaper for local businesses.
In 2006, Park Avenue Bank added two new branches to strengthen its position in the New York market. At the end of 2006, over $50 million were deposited after less than three month at the new locations. The newest branch opened in Midwood, Brooklyn in August.
Art of Banking
Customer service and attention to detail are competitive advantages of small community banks, and Park Avenue Bank has turned to a new strategy in attracting new clients.
On display from this week until Dec. 28 is the "Harmony and Refinement" exhibit, a selection of paintings of Buddhist subjects—with intimate views of nature, landscapes and calligraphy dating from the Ming and Qing Dynasties of China.
Park Avenue Bank customers will witness the ancient ideals of cultivated scholars and reflections of living in prosperity and harmony with the universe. In one painting, you can see ancient Chinese calligraphy in three separate sections—each with a thousand characters written in different styles of Chinese calligraphy.
There are a few pieces drawn with golden ink on dyed black paper by Miss Qiu, part of a series of twenty-four depictions of Guanyin, the Bodhisattva of Compassion. As is the case with many ancient Chinese female artists, little is known of Miss Qiu's background except that she was the daughter of the famous painter Qui Ying.
There is another piece by artist Gao Jian depicting plum blossoms. The plum blossom is very much admired in Chinese culture for its perseverance and the ability to withstand harsh freezing, and still produce delicate pure blossoms. The plum blossoms symbolize scholarly virtue, loyalty and feminine beauty.
Another painting on silk depicts a pair of quails among bushes changing color with the arrival of autumn. In Chinese tradition, a single quail symbolizes peace, while a pair represents an abundance of peace.
This collection comes from the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University, considered among the largest university museums in the country. "The Museum was founded in 1870 with the help of the distinguished Chinese alumni such as Hu Shih and has served as an important educational resource for Cornell's world-class programs in Asian studies," said Franklin Robinson, The Richard J. Schwartz Director at Cornell University.
Mullin said that one of the reasons for the bank's exhibit is to serve as a satellite connection in New York City to those donors, trustees or investors of the arts and an educator to local residents. Every six to eight weeks the bank will display a different exhibit. The previous one was about 20th Century American Women from the Collection of The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College.
The next exhibit will be an exhibition from The National Academy Museum titled Shining Likeness: Portraits from The National Academy Museum. It will be on display from Jan. 7 to Feb. 8, 2008.
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