During a black-tie gala on November 19, 2009, Arketype President Jim Rivett accepted a BCA TEN award at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The Business Committee for the Arts (BCA), a division of Americans for the Arts, selected Arketype as one of only 10 companies in America for its outstanding support of the arts.
Since 2005, the BCA TEN Award is given annually to only the top 10 best companies supporting the arts in America. The BCA was founded in 1967 by David Rockefeller to bring business and the arts together. The group’s mission is to ensure that the arts flourish in America by encouraging, inspiring and stimulating business to support the arts in the workplace, in education and in the community.
Art and design are fundamental to Arketype's business and mission. Our company has significantly supported the arts with sponsorships and in-kind time and talent since 1992. Arketype's core philosophy is the 80/20 rule—80 percent of time is spent on billable projects and 20 percent of time is spent providing in-kind design, video, and multimedia work to the community.
In 2008, at the invitation of Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton, Arketype President Jim Rivett joined The Wisconsin Task Force on Arts and Creativity in Education whose mission is to ensure Wisconsin cultivates a creative workforce to effectively compete in a 21st-century global economy. For the past six years, company founder Paul Meinke has served on the Wisconsin Arts Board, a state agency dedicated to engaging citizens in the creative process.
Meinke serves on the board of the Weidner Center Presents, a non-profit collaborating with University Wisconsin—Green Bay in programming for the Weidner Center for the Performing Arts. Rivett sits on the board of the Meyer Theatre, where Arketype supported the feasibility study to restore the 1930s theater and donated strategic and creative services. Rivett and Arketype have remained integral players in the Meyer Theatre's fundraising, revitalization, and branding identity. The company annually sponsors performances at the Meyer Theatre and Weidner Center for the Performing Arts and provides employees and clients with tickets and invitations to performances.
When the Meyer Theatre or other arts organization need to boost ticket sales or attendance, they know Arketype will help brainstorm marketing tactics including the popular car magnets. Arketype is notorious for turning employee cars into billboards promoting local arts events.
In 2006, Arketype started Respectacles to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with service. Employees promote messages of respect, tolerance, and peace through stories and skits performed for second-graders. Books about diversity are donated to the schools' libraries and students receive "Respectacles"—glasses that encourage empathy, understanding, and respect for others. Arketype creates an annual Respectacles poster distributed to clients, community leaders, students, and teachers. "Advertising is more than just promoting products," said Rivett, "Creativity can inform, educate, and change the direction of a community."
During the Meet the Artist series at Danz Elementary School, Rivett dresses up as Vincent Van Gogh and paints for the students while a partner discusses the artist and students ask "Van Gogh" questions. Rivett has portrayed the artists for students at Danz and other elementary schools.
Other Arketype partnerships include The Einstein Project's Butterflies on Parade, Bruce Nauman and Masters of American Comics at the Milwaukee Art Museum; KRAZY! The Delirious World of Anime + Comics + Video Games + Art at the Vancouver Art Gallery; and the 40th Anniversary Gala and Bruce Mau's Massive Change exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art—Chicago.
"Arketype values the integral relationship between creativity, the arts, and business. That relationship plays an increasingly important role in an emerging global economy, by igniting man's passion to express new ideas, and by continuing to enrich our cultural heritage. It fuels, drives, and supports entrepreneurial ingenuity, innovation, and differentiation. Through Arketype's support of the arts, we enable our community to flourish by partnering with artistic initiatives that struggle or compete for the recognition they need to thrive."
— Jim Rivett, President and Executive Creative Director, Arketype Inc.