BATartventure has often propagated its concept of “bringing art to the people” by initiating projects outside the company. After all, the concept of art in society is an almost automatic continuation of art on the shop floor. With this in mind, BATartventure has often commissioned projects that have generated much response, examples being the famous Art Taxis in Paris and the painted aeroplane designed by Niki de Saint Phalle.

Thematic exhibitions
Under the theme of “Art works”, BATartventure has often loaned part of its collection to prominent museums such as the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in 1962 and 1992, the Fine Arts Pavilion at the World Expo in Seville in 1992, the Juan Miró Foundation in Barcelona during the same year, and L'art dans l'usine in Paris in 1986. The aim of these exhibitions was to propagate the concept of art in the working environment among a wider audience.
 

 

Tapestries
In 1974, BATartventure commissioned a unique series of tapestries. A number of famous artists such as Appel, Calder, Vasarély and Niki de Saint Phalle created a design for a carpet that artisans living in the African country of Lesotho would then weave. This project provided a few hundred weavers, mostly women, with work.
 

 

Aeroplane
In 1980, BATartventure made French artist Niki de Saint Phalle an original proposal: to devise a design for the exterior of a twin-motor aeroplane, the Piper Aerostar 602 P, that was being launched in Europe. Niki created a design in which her signature imagery would be painted on the wings and fuselage of the aircraft in vivid colours. She also designed original and colourful outfits for the pilots. This flying piece of art participated in the first trans-Atlantic Paris-New York- Paris air race in 1981: a multicoloured Niki-bird soaring in the air space over the ocean.
 

 

Art Taxis
The success of Niki de Saint Phalle’s aeroplane generated the next idea: parking Art Taxis at a sidewalk café on a busy street in of Paris. A taxi as artwork would be a unique interpretation of the concept of bringing art to people. Morellet, Pistoletto, W.T. Schippers and Spoerri were then invited to submit their own designs for a Parisian taxi. The result was Morellet’s completely lopsided taxi, Spoerii’s Emmenthaler on wheels, Pistoletto’s mirrored taxi, and Schippers’ much talked-about dented taxi. BATartventure learned much from the reactions – not only from the artists for whom the use of a car as the medium for their creativity was a new experience but also from the taxi drivers and sometimes even from the impertinent Parisians themselves. The Art Taxis were driven around Paris for two years and transported tens of thousands of passengers before they were taken out of circulation. Today, they are part of the collection. Two of them are permanently on display in the sculpture garden at the offices of British American Tobacco on De Boelelaan and the other two are parked in front of the office in Schiphol-Rijk.
 

 

Hommage à Spinoza
On the occasion of the BATartventure Collection’s 30th anniversary, French artist Jean Dewasne was commissioned to transform one of the pieces of machinery in Zevenaar into a work of art. Dewasne then decorated an enormous processing unit in the middle of the factory with an impressive abstract composition in bright contrasting colours. The machine is now one of what he himself calls his “anti-sculptures”. His efforts have changed what was once a drab uninspiring element into a real work of art. He has given it the title of “Hommage à Spinoza” because he considers Spinoza to be the philosopher who best expressed the individual freedom of 17th-century Dutch thought. This artwork, the meaning of which was inspired by the machine itself, has thus achieved an aesthetic synthesis of human and industrial activity.
 

 

SAGA
BATartventure is frequently involved in SAGA, the annual international graphics fair in Paris, in which it makes use of this opportunity to purchase new graphic works for the collection.
 

 

Aventure dans l' Art
Due to the interest of a group of French vintners in the collection, a plan was developed to use their locations to display BATartventure’s concept of enlivening the working environment with artworks. The public could then view these displays where the wine was being produced, usually at castles, during the summer months. In the summer of 1989, four castles made their wine cellars available to exhibit these pieces of art. It was a delightful surprise to see how art could be presented in these environments.