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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

The Art of Banking

Combining fine art and banking is like trying to put a square peg into a round hole. It just doesn’t fit. Sure, many banks have art on their walls. But so do dentist offices and the grimiest hotel rooms. These fine art displays, usually cookie-cutter and uninspiring, aren’t expected to be lingered over. They are like muzak in elevators apprehended for a moment and forgotten. Yet Carl Raggio, president and CEO of Western Commercial Bank in Woodland Hills, has a different view of public art. He also has a different view of banking. Raggio believes that uncovering the needs of a client is similar to intuiting the depth of an artwork. He believes banking and art are joined at the hip. “I will always have art as an important element in any bank I head,” Raggio said. “If we can see deeper into our clients, we can help them grow.” Raggio was initially drawn to art because of its historical content, and as a 10th-generation Californian, the history that most fascinated him was that in the Golden State. Raggio’s parents were both recreational artists. And while the talent for art skipped Raggio (he jokes that he couldn’t draw a straight line with a ruler), at least two of his six children are endowed with artistic skills. His 29-year-old son, Carl Jr., is an artist for the Cartoon Network. His 18-year-old son, Andrew, is studying art at Pasadena City College and plans to transfer to the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Art is how his bank reaches out to the community. “I am a broker to bring people together,” Raggio said. “Art is a great place to come together.” The CEO first brought art to banking in a conscious way in the 1990s, when he headed Ventura County National Bank. Some of its employees now work at Western Commercial, which opened in February 2006. Raggio has arranged to have Cal State Northridge fine art students hang works in the bank. He also hired Rose Goldwater as community relations liaison. Among her duties is to organize art events sponsored by Western Commercial. “When you’re in business, if you’re not part of the community, you won’t succeed,” said Goldwater, 76, who along with her husband headed Quality Instant Printing in the Valley for many years. “It doesn’t mean you have to give thousands of dollars, but you have to give something.” Western Commercial and the Warner Center Marriott in Woodland Hills co-host art receptions at the Marriott that are presented by the Visual Arts Gallery. Many of the 15 to 20 artists showing at the bank, which rotates art quarterly, are Visual Gallery members. “Having the support of a banking institution is of epic proportions to me,” said Shane, president of the Visual Arts Gallery in Woodland Hills. Shane, who goes only by his first name, attended the last Western Commercial shareholders meeting and said the investors broke into cheers when told the bank was proposing its moniker be The Art of Banking. “It’s a personal passion for Raggio,” Shane said. “His bank was founded on a basic premise of commercial banking and advancement of the visual arts. This is Carl’s personal passion.” Being a commercial bank that handles most transactions electronically, Western Commercial doesn’t get much foot traffic, which may explain why only one painting has sold so far. But presenting art, not selling it, is the real point. “We just want more people to be exposed to the art,” Shane said. Among the artists displaying are a young bank teller, a retired illustrator and the former lead singer of the 1970s band the Runaways. On a recent day, bank teller Frances Jimenez explained the meaning of her oil on the wall. Titled “Wild Silence,” the painting depicts the 22-year-old staring at a lion with golden locks. Jimenez said that the lion was her inner wild self staring back at her. “Clients walk by and say, ‘That looks like you,” Jimenez said. “They don’t believe I did it.” Sculptures also decorate the bank, such as the “Hugging Bears” piece, carved out of wood with a chain saw by Cherie Currie, former lead singer with the 1970s all-girl group The Runaways. A wood carver for seven years, Currie said “Hugging Bears” was a gift to her parents. “Banks are just lousy to stand in line at, and if people can look at my hugging bears, great,” Currie said. “It’s a chance for us all to feel a little more human.” The oldest artist displaying is Robert Perrin, a retired commercial artist living in Northridge. Perrin, 90, isn’t a big fan of banks, but he makes an exception with Western Commercial. Staring from a column are a half-dozen of Perrin’s charcoal and colored pencil drawings of dirty cowboys of the Old West. “I like to draw rough-looking characters,” Perrin said. “I can’t draw pretty-looking people.” Perrin still feels the excitement of creation. “I love to see a big sheet of paper and think, hot dog, I am going to make a real winner on this page,” he said.

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