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When you hear the word “progressive,” you don't often think of a multimillion-dollar corporation. The term usually evokes avant-garde thinkers, or the Progressive era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when reformers like muckraking writer Ida Tarbell brought Standard Oil Company executives to their knees over free trade and corporate monopoly abuses.
The idea of a progressive corporation is somewhat oxymoronic, especially in Cleveland, where monolithic monuments to our city's industrial past loom like phantoms, haunting the outskirts of historically working-class neighborhoods. Yet despite Cleveland's retrogressive nature, the seed for what is now referred to as Progressive's corporate “campus” was sown in Mayfield Village in 1974, after 20 years of occupying downtown offices. Throughout its history, the insurance company has lived up to its name, and its success is often linked to work environments that are designed to foster innovation and creativity.
One of the most obvious symbols of this inspiring work environment is Progressive's corporate art collection, displayed throughout the company's main buildings in Mayfield Village, and in all satellite locations across the country, including call centers and insurance claims offices. Company founder Joseph Lewis' son, Peter B. Lewis, who became Progressive's CEO in 1965, began collecting prints in the early 1970s. The motivation behind the nascent art collection was simple: Lewis thought that by bringing art into the workplace, it would inspire employees to come up with original solutions and ideas.
In 1985, Progressive's corporate art department was founded under the leadership of Lewis' ex-wife, Toby Devan Lewis (they divorced amicably in 1981). Devan Lewis began to expand the collection beyond prints, ultimately transforming it into one of the most distinctive and venerated corporate art collections in the country. In 1993, when the company moved into its current home, a newly designed 630,000-square-foot space on Wilson Mills Road, the company took corporate art collecting to the next level by commissioning artists to create several site-specific works.
During her tenure as curator at Progressive, Devan Lewis acquired artwork from New York heavy hitters such as Petah Coyne, Joseph Kosuth and Gregory Crewdson, and purchased pieces by established and emerging Cleveland artists, including Michael Loderstedt, Don Harvey, Christa Donner and Dexter Davis. Currently, Progressive's collection includes 6,500 works of contemporary art.
Beyond her important role as head of the company's corporate art department, Devan Lewis has also supported Cleveland's art community, serving on the boards of organizations like MOCA and the Committee for Public Art. She also frequently attends benefit parties and silent art auctions, and shares her curatorial expertise in panel discussions and lectures.
Last March, after almost 20 years as curator, Devan Lewis resigned to write a book about the company's art collection. This announcement sent a jolt of anxiety through some in the art community, who feared that Peter Lewis's successor, CEO Glenn Renwick, would liquidate the corporate art collection.
Their fears proved unfounded. Following Devan Lewis's resignation, Scott Westover was promoted from the position of regional art manager to curator of Progressive's corporate art collection.
Westover, who joined the department staff in 2002 after earning a master's degree in art history and museum studies at Case, believes that he and his colleagues in Progressive's corporate art department have the best jobs in the city. Asked whether he feels any pressure to fill the shoes of Toby Devan Lewis, Westover says, “Toby is the best — it would be impossible to fill her shoes. And that is not my goal. My goal is to respect the art collection that has been left in my care, and to honor Toby's legacy by continuing to acquire the highest quality art I can find.”
Westover believes that art has the ability to change people's lives, and he views Progressive's collection as a way to “…activate and engage the people who work [here].” With a nationwide staff of 30,000, the activation potential is significant, and Westover plans to work with the members of his department to develop education programs, including lunch hour “art boot camps,” where employees can learn about contemporary art through the Progressive collection. He would also like to institute a docent program made up of employees trained to give tours and talks on important works in the collection.
While Westover has yet to make numerous purchases of work by Cleveland artists — so far he has bought just one painting, a piece by Cleveland Institute of Art professor, Daniel Dove — he has acquired several pieces during trips to New York, including a conceptual sculpture by Toland Grinnell, a print by Robert Rauschenberg and a drawing by Mark Sheinkman. Westover is a formalist — he is drawn to well-crafted works that reveal an attention to detail, and to abstract works with finely rendered, slick surfaces.
Asked why Progressive's art collection is an asset to the Greater Cleveland community, Westover says it is “just one more thing that distinguishes Progressive as a different kind of company.” While his comment seems to reflect company rhetoric, it runs deeper, especially given the current corporate and economic environment in Cleveland. What is left unsaid is that this city needs more progressive businesses — those that foster creative and innovative ideas among employees who spend their workdays in stimulating, contemporary art-laden settings. Imagine what kind of city Cleveland would be if it was home to ten “progressive” corporations; it would cultivate a livelier, more competitive corporate environment, and, more importantly, it would foster our city's cultural community.