awards for arts achievement

United Technologies Corporation (UTC) believes successful businesses improve the human condition. UTC considers its commitment to corporate responsibility as fundamental to its culture. The company supports the arts, artists, and the entire creative process because they challenge its workers to see the world in new ways. Since 1980, UTC has sponsored nearly 60 exhibitions in the visual arts and 500 cultural performances in 13 countries and has contributed more than $55 million to the arts.

UTC sponsors the arts worldwide, including performances and exhibitions at Carnegie Hall, the National Gallery of Art, the Tate Gallery in London, the Art Gallery of Western Australia, and the National Museum of Chinese History. UTC is also the largest supporter of the arts in its hometown of Hartford, CT.

Last year, the company celebrated a quarter century of arts support by sponsoring Vincent van Gogh: The Drawings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. With nearly half a million visitors, the exhibition was the best attended in the museum’s history. To coincide with the van Gogh exhibition, UTC also launched a five-year public art project by commissioning three artists—Gary Hume, Alex Katz, and Lisa Sanditz—to create wallscapes throughout New York’s SoHo neighborhood. The Billboard Project was heralded by The New York Times for offering the artists complete freedom of expression.

Throughout fall 2006, UTC celebrated its second public art project, Cities in Transition. UTC commissioned three world-renowned photographers—Chuck Close, Mitch Epstein, and Dayanita Singh—to explore the often precarious balance between urban development and the environment. New York, Boston, and Hartford served as the backdrops for the photography, as well as the locations for public art displays.

Additionally, UTC is sponsoring Ecotopia: The Second ICP Triennial of Photography and Video at the International Center of Photography in New York. This exhibition, which examines concerns about global climate change, is significant for UTC because it brings together the company’s commitments to both the arts and the environment. As with the arts, UTC’s environmental record is strong and includes substantial reductions in energy consumption, greenhouse gases, and chemical releases to air.