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Maureen Sullivan, AOL’s Senior VP of Marketing, Brand, and Partnerships, is passionate about AOL’s relationship with art. She's behind the AOL Originals program, a collaboration with fine artists and illustrators all around the world, as well as the recent 25 for 25 Grant Program for emerging artists -- and a high-profile collaboration with legendary portraitist Chuck Close.

  1. Your job is to brand AOL, starting with the new logo. Tell me how fine art and illustration fits in to your vision for AOL. How are you using fine art and illustration to tell AOL's story?
  2. AOL is dedicated to supporting creativity of all kinds -- in the arts, journalism, and technology. Our logo, and really our visual brand identity reflect our commitment to creativity and our mission to surprise and delight our consumers. We are working with artists from around the world to create original works of art that we feature behind our logo. We are honored to have so many talented artists as a part of our AOL Artists community that have created original works for our brand and our consumers that cross all artistic mediums, including painting, photography, graphic design, product design, sculpture and motion. Our consumers love that every time they see the AOL brand and they are exposed to world-class artists and incredibly creative expression.
  3. The Chuck Close portrait series is amazing -- I understand it's the first advertising campaign he's ever done. Tell me how that came about.
  4. Collaborating with Chuck on our AOL Originals campaign has been a dream come true and an incredible source of inspiration for everyone at AOL. Chuck Close is one of the only living artists
    to be featured at the Whitney, MoMA, and the Met and his contributions to the art world as well as his philanthropic endeavors to support arts education are beyond inspiring. This was the first partnership of this type he had ever embarked upon, and we were thrilled to collaborate with him on both our AOL Originals campaign and our 25 for 25 Grant Program (a grant program to award 25, $25,000 grants to artists, innovators and creators).
  5. The AOL Artists Gallery is really fun to browse. What are some of the ways you're using these pieces?
  6. We use them everywhere! The original pieces of artwork that our artists have created adorn our global offices, our presentations, our AOL gear, and even our business cards. The AOL Artists site has been extremely helpful, in not only providing a platform for the artists we are working with, but also enables us to tell the story behind our visual brand identity and highlight the incredible artists that are a part of our AOL Artists family. Through our audiences' interaction with the AOLArtists, in particular the gallery section, which features the artists' work, we enable our consumers to explore the incredible creative talent of the artists we are so honored to work with.
  7. What are your hopes for the 25 for 25 Grant Program?
  8. We formed 25 for 25 to celebrate our 25th Anniversary and awarded 25, $25,000 grants to innovators and visionaries -- tomorrow's groundbreakers who are blazing creative trails -- artists, journalists, and inspiring creators. We know these grants have empowered their creative vision and we are inspired by their passion. We believe the financial support as well as the platform we can provide will shine a light on these incredible individuals that we would love the world to know about.
  9. Tell me about your own relationship to fine art -- how did that help spark this program?
  10. I would say it's the opposite way around! This program has sparked my relationship with the arts! Working with such talented and creative individuals has opened my eyes to the amazing and intriguing world that is art. I find myself now an avid fan of so many incredible artists we are working with and spending my time visiting museums and galleries more often now than I ever did before. Collaborating with these artists is the best part of my job. I am extremely inspired by every artist we work with and my fellow AOLers feel the same way about our AOL Artist community. Their creativity is infectious.