Think of great corporate art collections in Greater Des Moines and Principal Financial Group Inc., Meredith Corp. and American Republic Insurance Co. immediately come to mind. But it’s not just Central Iowa’s largest employers that collect and display fine art.

John Stenberg, president of Pigott Inc. in Des Moines, has been collecting works by Iowa artists for his company’s three locations for about the past 12 years.

“We employ a lot of interior designers, a lot of creative minds,” said Stenberg, whose company’s 70 employees work in offices in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and Davenport. “We decided that given the nature of our business, a commercial interiors firm that works with a lot of major corporate customers and architects, it would just be a natural.”

Stenberg chooses each of the pieces himself, primarily paintings and prints. Some of his selections include works by Iowa artists such as Donald Judd, Will Mentor, Luther Utterback and an artist named Crash.

Companies are increasingly realizing the value of incorporating original artworks into their offices, said Marlene Olson, owner of Olson-Larsen Galleries in West Des Moines.

“I think that year after year there’s more activity,” Olson said. “I think people realize the difference between wildlife reproductions and original artwork, whether it’s a small company or a larger company. We’ve been working with companies who are replacing those with a variety of different types of works, from abstract to modern.”

Because they can afford it, larger companies tend to select so-called blue-chip art, original works by the top 30 artists in the contemporary art world, said Karolyn Sherwood, owner of Karolyn Sherwood Gallery.

“The smaller offices I have worked with go with a mixture of original works by mid-career Iowa artists and some prints of blue-chip artists, and they’ve developed a very nice mix between those two,” she said.

Many new office or expansion projects that Pigott works with include an allotment for acquiring art work, Stenberg said.

“We are engaged quite frequently in helping them in artwork selection,” he said. “That’s something our designers do. We have different sources for artwork, depending on what the customer is looking for.”

Expansions definitely provide an opportunity to add to a collection, said Kim Walker, a partner with Faegre & Benson LLP.

“When we expanded the office here in 801 Grand, we made a specific decision at that point, as part of the design, to enhance the artwork that would be included,” he said. “In making that decision, we wanted to expand not only our collection of Iowa artists, but also our collection of national and internationally known artists.”

The firm, which will continue its expansion to occupy the entire 31st floor of the building, plans to acquire more works to put in that space, he said.

The Minneapolis-based law firm, which has overseas offices in London, Frankfurt and Shanghai, began its Iowa collection shortly after opening its Des Moines office in 1990. Some of its first pieces were works by Iowa artist Diane Cone Boddy. Other works in its collection include “Wharf Two” by Joan Waltemath, a Nebraska native whose works are well-known throughout Europe, and “Cool Sahara” by Thomas Jackson, a Cedar Rapids artist whose works are displayed in galleries across the Midwest. A sculpture by Des Moines native Mark LaMair is featured in one of the conference rooms.

Walker said the firm has worked with most of the major galleries in Greater Des Moines, and has been able to find each of its pieces through local galleries’ connections with artists across the country.

“I think we’re very fortunate to have the level of galleries we do, so that we do have that accessibility to excellent pieces,” he said.

Sherwood said prints of blue-chip artists can be priced anywhere from $2,000 to $50,000 and up, depending on the artist, while original works by Iowa artists generally begin at about $2,000 and on the upper end can range from $10,000 to $20,000.

“It’s interesting because the prices could be very similar,” she said. “I could have a Richard Kelley (an Iowa artist) painting for $5,000, or (a Claes) Oldenburg (a blue-chip artist) print for $5,000. So originally they may cost the same; the hope is that the (original) will one day become more valuable.”

Regardless of whether it’s a print or an original, “what I stress to corporations is that fine art goes on their books as an asset, whereas decorative art is just an expense.”

Some companies that have built fine-art collections are, for various reasons, no longer acquiring more pieces.

Jim Hubbell, chairman of Hubbell Realty Co., said he chose a number of works by Iowa artists when the company remodeled its offices “quite a few years ago.” However, there hasn’t been any push to make any significant additions since then, he said. Among the Iowa artists represented in the collection are William Barnes, Richard Brack, Sarah Grant, Sharon Booma, Gary Bowling, Dennis Dykema and Pat Edwards

“We’re in a very capital-intensive business,” Hubbell said. “If you buy a lot of paintings and sculptures, that’s money that’s not going into projects. In our business, it makes more sense to put the money into projects.”

Hubbell said he enjoys the works on display, but said he doesn’t know whether his employees share his appreciation.

“Employees never mention it,” he said. “I’ve never had anyone say, ‘Gee, that’s great,’ or ‘That’s awful,’ or ‘Can we get more?’”

After Wells Fargo Financial completes its new building downtown next year, it will have “very little in terms of additional corporate art,” said Dennis Young, the company’s chief financial officer. “Part of (the reason) is that the building just doesn’t lay out to provide that opportunity,” he said. With the exception of a Sol Lewitt sculpture added in its headquarters’ lobby earlier this year, the company completed its Des Moines collection in the early 1990s, he said.

Young said both its employees and the public have benefited from the company’s contribution of ground-floor space in its building for the Des Moines Art Center Downtown.

“The space will be enhanced once the skywalk connects (with the new building) to create a loop,” he said. “It will just allow a lot more traffic to have access to that (gallery) space. I think more of the community’s going to become aware of the space.”

At the West Des Moines headquarters of FBL Financial Group Inc., a three-person committee chooses art for the company’s buildings across the country, said Jodi Parrott, a facilities planner and one of the committee’s members. With nearly 200 pieces, the collection is made up entirely of original works by artists with roots in Iowa or the Midwest.

“A number of galleries are familiar with our collection, so if they have pieces they think we would be interested in, they contact us,” said Parrott, who added that the committee generally looks for works by Iowa artists.

“We have quite a few landscape works in various types of media that are a little more traditional — that appeals very strongly to the agricultural side of our company – as well as more contemporary,” she said. “We have a nice balance. We try to purchase different media – we’ve got some reliefs and sculptures that are a little more unusual.”

Selecting art for the workplace can be a challenging process, Parrott said.

“Art can be very controversial, so we try to be cognizant of that,” she said. “But at the same time, it’s a place of business and we do have a day-care here. We don’t buy things that are obviously offensive. But we try to keep our opinions very broad. We work very hard at making it such that people walking through the building are going to find things they like, but they’re not going to like everything.”