Category Archives: ART@WORK

Photographer and Clinical Medical Librarian, TMC Lakewood

Why did you get involved with the Art@Work program?
They made the announcement for an in-house competition and some friends asked if I was submitting, so I did sort of on a lark. I had so much fun the first year I started planning and thinking about what might be a good submission in advance of the next year.

In which arts disciplines are you involved?
So far, I’ve only submitted photography, but I am thinking about doing some writing for next year in addition to the photos.

Tell us about your talents and how you are using them through Art@ Work.
My interest in photography has always been about sharing how I see the world in the hope that what I find interesting will interest others. When I am selected to exhibit at the Art@Work event, I’m looking to make that connection with the people who will tour the exhibit.

Was there something from your childhood or your past that linked you to the arts?
I was a math and sciences geek when I was in high school, but I always tried to take an art or drama class to balance it out. I’ve found, as an adult, continuing involvement in the arts as my hobby keeps my mind fresh and that creative expression is a great stress-reliever.

How has Art@Work changed the corporate culture at your company?
TMC has always fostered the belief that the healing arts include more that the medical skills of its staff. Creativity and the arts can play a real role in healing the patient. I think that our involvement in Arts@Work lets us take this philosophy outside our physical facilities and into the community. It provides the opportunity for our staff to participate and embrace that important philosophy.

How has Art@Work changed your perspective of your employer and colleagues?
Our workplace has always been involved in the Kansas City Corporate Challenge and I think Art@Work gives more opportunity to people whose interest are less fitted for athletic skills and more for creative skills. Art@Work allows more people recognition by their peers. It also lets us show the community what kind of people work for TMC — that we aren’t just “health-care providers;” we are well-rounded people involved in our community.

In what ways has Art@Work inspired you at work?
The creativity I use in my photography and writing is not isolated to “skills I use away from my job.” I use that creativity every day. I try to think creatively when confronted with a problem, when engaging in interpersonal communication and when doing long-range planning for my department. I don’t think it is possible to separate the “art” in my life from my “work.”

In these challenging times and with challenging budgets, do the arts still have a place in the business community?
There is more to “work” then showing up for eight hours — at least there should be more. Well-rounded employees bring more to the mission of the company than a specific marketable skill. Art creates an environment of creativity. Support for the arts can link the employees to that mission by fostering that expressiveness in the employees, how they do their work and how the company relates to their customers as well as the community.

What is one of your favorite memories of Art@Work?
Seeing the installation at Union Station for the first time is my favorite memory. To see your work hung on the wall is exciting. Watching people look at what you’ve done is even more satisfying, and to see it there along with other good pieces is an honor.

Why do you think other employees should get involved with Art@Work?
I think Art@Work empowers employees to show to their peers and their administrations that they are rounded people, that they have lives outside of work and skills other than their job duties. It makes them better employees to be more than clock-punching automatons. Also, by fostering creativity outside of work, it encourages it on the job as well. Creativity on the job can be used to problem-solve and implement change. And, like I mentioned before, learning to express yourself creatively can be a great stress-reliever. l

Arts councils can be found in municipalities throughout Missouri and throughout the country, but it’s a bit remarkable to find an arts council within a for-profit company. Unusual or not, an in-house arts council is just what DST Systems Inc. formed in 1999.

The DST Arts Council’s first project was the DST Arts Festival, which expanded into other arts opportunities, as well as the annual DST Holiday Concert. Its arts council has been comprised of five subcommittees representing the different arts disciplines, each responsible for coming up with ideas and generating arts programming for associates.
Technical communications consultant Robert Palmer, a DST associate for 13 years and a photographer, joined the company’s arts council soon after its formation and was part of a group that eventually helped formed Art@Work. When Palmer joined DST, he already had experience organizing art events, such as a mammoth arts project that took place in conjunction with the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

Palmer said DST recognized it had many associates who were interested in all forms of the arts and in starting a companywide arts festival.

“That first year, I believe we had 30 associates who wanted to display their artwork,” he said.

In addition to the visual arts, the associates also were involved in literature, theater, music and dance, so a stage was needed and Bartle Hall was rented for the first DST Arts Festival.

“One of the best parts about in-house arts opportunities is it gives folks experience and confidence. It also makes it more enjoyable to come to work when you have something else going on besides your daily job,” Palmer said.

“And you develop a new level of relationships within the company, talking with colleagues about your common interests.”

Palmer said DST associates have had a variety of opportunities in which to participate in the arts, including in-house workshops, a chorale, dance lessons and an actors improv group, as well as working with the Mid-America Arts Alliance to bring in Ted Kooser, U.S. poet laureate, to speak.

“For visual artists, we were able to create an associate art gallery and rotate pieces every three months,” he said.
Palmer said it’s important to take away hurdles that prevent people from participating in the arts.

“For example, one of the biggest things for visual artists who work for companies is, these folks aren’t full-time artists, so they don’t have experience with presentation (of their artwork). At DST, we created workshops on matting and framing to take away that hurdle,” he said.

Not only has the DST Arts Council been a measureable success for the company and its associates, but it also was the precursor to Art@Work, ArtKC’s popular workplace program created in partnership with DST. Palmer said DST was impressed with the level of in-house participation in the arts and wanted to share this experience with its clients and other businesses. DST also wanted to encourage other local companies to develop their own art exhibits and programming.

Palmer had been involved with the Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City and was on a steering committee where exploring an arts version of the Corporate Challenge was being discussed. In 2005, the steering committee began setting up this program, which eventually became Art@Work.

“(Art@Work) uses the model created within DST, but other companies have run with it,” Palmer said. “Burns & McDonnell’s visual arts exhibit is completely different than DST’s or the one Garmin does.” And Palmer said he has been impressed with what other companies are doing with Art@Work.

To help other companies with their art exhibits, DST loans out its exhibit cases and the portable wall system associates made from scratch. Palmer said several companies have taken advantage of using these walls for exhibits. “Again, we want to remove as many barriers as possible to allow more companies to participate,” he said.

Another hurdle Art@Work removed for participating businesses was finding a venue for the annual citywide arts festival, which now involves several companies. The visual arts portion of the festival takes place each year at Union Station, where their work is seen by thousands of people.”

Companies are “making a big push for innovation,” Palmer said. “They want associates to become innovative in their work and look for new opportunities. The creative aspect that goes along with being an artist can only benefit a company looking for innovative ideas. (Art@Work) makes me appreciate how many great companies are around Kansas City. It makes me feel good about Kansas City and its creative workforce.”

Since its inception, the Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City’s Art@Work program has encouraged area companies to exhibit various types of visual art created by their employees.  In 2008, at the prompting of several writers from DST Systems Inc., the Arts Council launched the “On Page” portion of Art@Work, establishing its commitment to the literary arts. To test the interest level from other companies, the Arts Council first offered a Haiku competition and asked employees to describe Kansas City.

“We expected a lot of poems about the Plaza, the river, and downtown that first year. We had to laugh when we received entry after entry about potholes and road construction!
It must have been a big year for MoDOT,” said Kelly Seward, director of business programs for the Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City.

Since then, the literary portion of Art@Work has expanded to include a variety of categories, each of which is intended to encourage the burgeoning writer as well as showcase the talents of those more advanced in the genre.
According to Seward, each participating company hosts its own in-house literary competition, posting entries on Intranet sites or distributing printed chapbooks. The first-place winners in each category advance to the citywide competition and are published in the annual Art@Work catalog. As with the visual arts, a group of local literary professionals select “Best in Show” awards for each category, while the general public selects the “People’s Choice” winner.

For 2012, the Arts Council is partnering with the Writer’s Place to offer a series of free workshops to employee authors. These workshops will challenge employees to exercise their writing skills, receive feedback about their existing works and to learn about local authors. Among other employee-enrichment activities, there will be opportunities for visits to the Blue Room to experience spoken-word poetry.

For Art@Work 2012, participating employee writers can submit entries in the following seven categories:
• Open-Verse Poetry
• Magnetic Poetry®
• 8-Word Story
• Fictional Short Story
• Creative Non-Fiction
• “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words” (a writing based on a pre-selected work of art from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art)
• Story Chain (a story written collectively by a group of authors)

Companies wanting more information about participating in Art@Work can visit
www.artskc.org or contact Kelly Seward at 816-994-9226 or seward@artskc.org. l