arts & business council

MetLife Foundation National Arts Forums Series

Iowa Arts Council
Des Moines, Iowa

Creative Minds, Creative Processes: How Can the Arts Impact Today's Workforce?
02/26/2007

Moderator: Davis Williamson, poet, sculptor from Boone County

Panelists:

• Gary McKay, creative director, Meredith Corporation
• Amedeo Rossi, bar owner and theatrical impresario, The Lift & Vaudeville Mews
• Philip A. Hodgin, architect and CEO, RDG Planning and Design
• Lilly Jacobs, community relations director, Principle Financial Group

This forum addressed the impact of arts on the workforce and the challenges affecting Iowa in particular.

All of the panelists agreed that the retention of creative employees is the main goal of their arts support. Phil Hodgin noted that his design company is challenged with finding a creative workforce large enough to support their growth from local to national status. Gary McKay stated that Meredith recruits internationally to Des Moines, so it’s imperative to support an attractive “quality of life” ambiance that includes arts. Mention was made of natural handicaps such as competing with cities better endowed with mountains and beaches, major league sports/opera/symphonies, and ethnic diversity. All agreed that an excellent tactic to counter the handicap was to involve employees more intimately with the arts infrastructure.

Libby Jacobs said that Principal Financial Group trains 20 docents, in partnership with the Des Moines Art Center, to properly conduct a one-hour (or longer) tour of their corporate art collection. They have an “Art Zone” where the docents and managers of their Art Program sit down and decide what shall be displayed next, which, she said, "engages employees in the process.”

McKay said that Meredith measures the success of their artistic stimuli by “how many employees sign up for volunteer work with local arts organizations.”

David Williamson cited Richard Florida's books, The Rise of the Creative Class and The Flight of the Creative Class. He stated that despite the challenges faced by Des Moines, it ranked second, behind Madison, Wisconsin, and ahead of Santa Barbara, California, as a talent magnet, among mid-sized American cities. He said that the rock and roll band Slipknot poses a huge opportunity for Des Moines: “Des Moines’ music scene is now where Seattle’s was with Jimi Hendrix and [grunge rockers] before Microsoft came there, and where Austin was with its music scene before Dell came."

In brainstorming synergies between art and productivity of the workforce, Hodgin endorsed the “Bernstein Model,” a reference to the Leonard Bernstein Center for Learning’s Artful Learning School, a K–12 comprehensive school reform model which prepares teachers to use the arts and the artistic process to reinforce teaching and learning in all subjects. Hodgin said he had personal experience with the model when designing an elementary school with a curriculum based on the Bernstein Model. He stated that its use leads to “dramatic, measurable improvements in self-confidence, willingness to take risks, attendance, collaboration with teachers, leadership, perseverance, creativity, improved standard test scores, self-assessment across the board, and wellness.” He noted that all these results translate to the workplace. 

In stimulating creativity in the workplace, McKay described the importance of simply engaging other employees in conversation. Hodgin concurred citing “The World Café.” This collaborative process is built from the belief that “the power of conversation will change the world.”

Hodgin also said, “Tear down walls, turn up music, and never have meetings. They always fail. As soon as you institutionalize anything, people freeze up.”  He admitted he was half joking, but described attempts to develop corporate “fun” committees or “creativity” projects that had generally fallen flat.
 
Jacobs said that Principal Financial Group is a pioneer of “Art at Work Month,” using employee art exhibitions and online art exhibits, and “even salsa dancing lessons.” She concluded that the idea is “to engage employees, so they like the idea of putting roots down here. We do surveys regularly asking about quality of life, and arts commitment is one of the top reasons people give to support their life here.”

Amedeo Rossi said that he likes to hire artists to collaborate on a single commission, so that their own creativity will be stimulated by working together.

In summing up these forums on the arts and workforce development, an audience member and State Senator Bill Dotzler from Waterloo emphasized the need to see the big picture, the link between the arts and business development. He stated that there is a great window of opportunity for the arts community right now. The business community is coming to the legislature and talking to them about workforce development and the need to capture Iowans in Iowa’s businesses, but there are simply not enough Iowans to fill the jobs despite the arts and cultural opportunities that Iowa has. Dotzler talked about his efforts in the legislature to develop a creative environment and said that the arts community needs to step up, to create opportunities, and to create exposure to arts events. Recruiters are trying to bring people to Iowa and “the arts community underestimates its importance to the economy. There’s a lot of work to be done convincing the economic development side,” he said. We need to have corporations understand, to share it with employees, and use it to recruit employees."