By BRIAN HERSHBERG
Courier-Post Staff

Andy Warhol's soup can series has become among the most recognizable collections of popular art.

But the inspiration behind the series, Camden-based Campbell Soup Co., is more than just a passive subject in the art world. It is also an active participant, especially within the city.

With a mission to support local organizations that benefit the community in general, and Camden specifically, the Campbell Soup Foundation - Campbell's philanthropic arm - provides financial resources to the arts in the city and region with contributions totaling about $150,000 a year.

The contributions reflect the collaboration between the business and arts communities in the region - a collaboration that will be the focus of the Third Annual Regional Business/Arts Summit on April 27 at the South Jersey Performing Arts Center on the Camden Waterfront.

The summit is being co-sponsored by the Courier-Post; Lockheed Martin; WMSH Marketing Communications; Capehart and Scatchard, attorneys; PNC Bank; Comcast; Virtua Health; South Jersey Performing Arts Center; the Arts and Business Partnership of Southern New Jersey; and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

With revenues of roughly $6.5 5 billion a year, Campbell's provides about $20 million to charitable causes through product donations and its Labels for Education program. The foundation, meanwhile, gives about $2 million a year to a variety of groups.

The results of Campbell's largess can be seen throughout the Camden area.

``The programs we support benefit quality-of-life improvements that affect our workers and Camden residents,'' said Lisa Rouh, program director of the foundation. ``Arts are important to Campbell's, but are part of the larger goal to aid Camden.''

In addition to financial aid to the arts, the company is one of the sponsors of the 27th Annual Summer Program, which offers activities in the arts to Camden-area children. The foundation has committed $400,000 to the 27 nonprofit groups that run the project for the summer.

One of the groups that will benefit is the Rutgers- Camden Center for the Arts, which runs Art Soup, a visual and performing arts project.

The center brings in area artists to have children work on projects that enliven the cityscape. In years past, for example, it has worked with a local artist who has helped children create murals and mosaics for the Walter Rand Transportation Center in Camden and the pedestrian walkway at the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. The latter will be installed this summer.

``These are projects that beautify the city and make it more enjoyable for everyone,'' said Virginia Oberlin Steel, director of the Rutgers arts center. ``The work is lasting and the kids are taught that their efforts to improve the city are tangible.''

The performing arts center puts on a series of shows aimed at teaching conflict resolution and opening young minds.

``The idea is to get the (area) kids thinking in new ways,'' Steel said. ``These arts programs have a ripple effect - we support area artists, the artists share their work with the kids, and the kids share their work with the city. The lessons they learn become life lessons.''

Another beneficiary of Campbell's support is the Perkins Center for the Arts, a Moorestown-based group that promotes self-expression through art.

The center, with the help of $22,500 in support from the soup maker, runs an eight-week-long summer program that brings inner-city and suburban children - ages 6 to 11 - together at its 5-acre arboretum in Moorestown. This year's theme is a World of Art, which features projects focusing on styles of art from around the world.

The program affords urban children a chance to escape the streets during the year's hottest days, and gives suburban kids the opportunity to interact with their inner-city peers, said Denise Creedon, the Perkins Center's assistant director.

``It's a great opportunity to give city kids some time in a nice setting. And it's great for the suburban kids to have a chance to meet their urban counterparts,'' she said.

But Creedon is quick to point out that none of the Perkins Center's work would be possible without the benefit of Campbell's support. She credits the company, which has funded the summer arts program at Perkins for 16 years, with being ``single-handedly responsible for the growth of the center.''

``We love Campbell's. They've been wonderful to us,'' she said. ``This program would not be what it is without ( Campbell's) support.''