Others found more personal benefits. Riley, for example, who helped Edmunds launch PICA, saw it as a way to generate excitement in his life -- and figured it would also reenergize his colleagues. "When I started working with PICA, my life turned from dull to exciting," Riley says. "I had been bored, and spending time with people who work in the arts was a sheer pleasure. The best artists are at the bleeding edge, experimenting with ideas that will define the culture in five years. It changes the way you see your work."
Wieden and other agency veterans were also tired of making excuses for Portland whenever they tried to persuade someone to move there from London, New York, or San Francisco. "When you think of culture, of outside stimulus, Portland isn't the first city that pops into your mind," Wieden says. "The more we can do to encourage the development of the arts here, the more we'll be able to attract young people who are thirsty for that kind of thing and who are looking for a scene. And when you have Kristy, who's at the leading edge of that scene, literally inside the building with you, it's ideal."
Supporting the museum also represented an ongoing way for W+K to contribute to the larger Portland community. "We'd like to think that we will be able to contribute something other than money to the local economy," Riley says. "Otherwise, we all end up working in glass boxes, paying our taxes, and hoping someone else will solve our problems. Why am I helping to build this business? If the legacy is a thriving contemporary-arts community in Portland, then I'm happy. We had 900 people turn out recently for a show opening. That's more than they'd get in New York." Edmunds adds that it's a particularly important time for companies to support contemporary art. "Over the past decade or so, Congress has made art synonymous with pornography," she says, noting the big cuts in funding for the National Endowment for the Arts. "A lot of corporate foundations don't want to touch it with a 10-foot pole now."
The relationship between W+K, its newly refurbished building, and PICA even involved Edmunds's participation in the design of the atrium. "They wanted to know how art could occupy this kind of architecture, because if it couldn't, then they wanted to change it," Edmunds says. "And I'm just sitting there thinking to myself, 'Man, I love these guys.' "
Ron Lieber (rlieber@fastcompany.com) is a fast company senior writer. Visit Wieden+Kennedy (www.wk.com) or PICA (www.pica.org) on the Web.
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