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Frank Novel: New Board Member
Power and Piety:
Spanish Colonial Art
August 20 – November 12,
2016
Throughout the 17th and
18th centuries, cattle ranching
and cash crop cultivation
transformed Latin American elites into some of the
wealthiest people in the world. Such affluence invigorated
the production and consumption of art made with
American gold and silver as well as woods with colors
and grains of unparalleled richness. The most opulent
pieces were procured by churches, local nobility, and
the wealthiest individuals. Meanwhile, slightly less
refined works were available to a mass market with more
modest assets. Spanish colonial art rivaled the beauty and
sublimity of objects treasured by European connoisseurs.
This exhibition features dozens of paintings, sculptures,
silver pieces, furnishings, and decorative devotional
objects accentuating the talents of local artisans and
the tastes of art patrons across the Atlantic World. The
exhibition provides an opportunity to appreciate priceless
artifa
cts while learning about the exchange of ideas and
aesthetics between the Old and the New Worlds.
Metropolitan
Capital’s Frank Novel
Joins LUMA Board of
Advisors
LUMA is pleased to
announce that Frank Novel,
the president of Metropolitan
Capital Bank & Trust, and
Principal and President of
Metropolitan Capital Investment Banc, the affiliated
investment banking unit, is joining the museum’s Board
of Advisors. As a board member, Novel brings more than
45 years of banking and business management experience
and extensive relationships throughout Chicago’s art
community.
“It is a tremendous honor to be joining the board of an
organization that in only 10 years has already made such
important artistic and spiritual contributions to our city,”
Novel said. “I am excited to bring my experience from a
company that is dedicated to delivering creative financial
solutions for clients to an organization that is focused on
the creative arts.”
Novel, who helped found Metropolitan Capital in 2004,
has served as president of four banks throughout the
Chicago area over the course of his career. Born in Italy,
Novel and his family moved to the United States in 1954.
After graduating with a degree in economics from Purdue
University in 1968, Novel began his banking career as an
examiner with the FDIC.
“Joining LUMA’s board won’t be our first contribution
to the Jesuits,” Novel joked. He and his wife, Patricia,
have a son and a daughter, both of whom attended
Benet Academy in Lisle for high school and Marquette
University for college. Their son also received his
J.D. from the Loyola University School of Law. After
raising their family in DuPage County, the couple now
live in River North.
Metropolitan Capital is a boutique Universal Bank located
in the historic Tree Studios that provides commercial
banking, private banking, investment banking, and wealth
consulting for startup-to-medium sized businesses and
the founders and families that own or operate them.
Novel is a member of the Union League Club of Chicago,
which has one of the largest private art collections in the
city. By serving on the organization’s Art Committee,
Novel was able to form relationships with many of
Chicago’s most accomplished artists. Many of these artists
have been a part of Metropolitan Capital’s Art Works
Chicago: A Progressive Corporate Exhibition program
that exhibits works by prominent artists in the company’s
River North headquarters.
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Upcoming Exhibition
Image: Courtesy of the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros