Previous Events

Business Roundtable: Leveraging the Arts to Build a More Diverse, Inclusive, and Equitable Company and Culture

Wednesday, October 11, 11:00 a.m.

Event Recap

On Wednesday, October 11, 2017 Americans for the Arts presented a Business Roundtable at Wells Fargo Private Bank in New York City. Hosted by two Americans for the Arts groups, Business Committee for the Arts and the Arts & Business Council of NY, the event gathered 50 leaders from various sectors including healthcare, finance, hotel, and city government to discuss how the arts can address DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) needs relating to corporate culture, recruiting and retention, and corporate social responsibility, while exploring some of the barriers. The roundtable featured exemplars from Bloomberg LP and 21c Museum Hotels and was bookended with an arts-based experience led by LimeSHIFT. The workshop invited participants to work as teams and use portraiture, collage, and other visual elements to explore unconscious bias. The experience was a great example of, and introduction to arts-based workshops that the Arts & Business Council of NY encourages the corporate community to employ in order to approach DEI goals in thoughtful and innovative ways. Read the blog post and check out photos from the day.

 

Professional Development Workshop: Creatively Connecting Arts to Business

Thursday, July 27 10:00 a.m.

Event Recap

A group of 17 arts and business leaders, many of them Brooklyn-based, gathered at the Brooklyn Arts Council for the Creatively Connecting Arts to Business training featuring Jordan Shue, Americans for the Arts Manager of Private Sector Initiatives and Emma Osore, Arts and Business Council of New York Program Coordinator. Both speakers provided local and national examples as well as some practical onramps for arts organizations to think outside of the box when approaching corporations for support. Learn about the tools and resources that were shared here, here, and here.

    

Driving Workforce Engagement Through the Arts

Thursday, May 11 5:30 p.m.

Event Recap

More than 75 professionals from the corporate design, corporate social responsibility, and talent management fields came together in the beautiful Steelcase offices overlooking Central Park to delve into how the arts could meet their bottom line employee engagement goals. This panel discussion and networking forum, sponsored by the Arts & Business Council of New York, Steelcase, AFD Contract Furniture, and Pace University explored the ways in which the arts rise to meet the needs of business while strengthening the arts ecosystem.

Anita Napoli, applied researcher at Steelcase, opened the discussion highlighting how our work environments dictate our productivity. Cara Conceller from Culture Amp, a tech-based platform to measure employee engagement and experience, moderated a discussion featuring panelists Suzy Myers Jackson, Executive Director of Opening Act, and Pam Hacker, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility at HBO. They embodied how a symbiotic partnership between the arts nonprofit and private sector can work for mutual benefit. Elizabeth Thys, Co-Founder and CEO of Brooklyn-based limeSHIFT, shared stories of her team’s work with companies and business schools across the country to invest employees in company and social values. limeSHIFT’s magic bullet: team-based projects based in visual arts that disrupt the physical office space and inspire innovation. Andrew Graham, Chief Innovation Officer at Designtex, remarked that he is inspired every day by the hard work of artists at Designtex. He hires artists to integrate their designs into the furniture fabrics and other applied materials they produce. Each panelist brought a unique perspective to how the arts and intentionally-designed spaces can build competitive advantage and address core retention, engagement, and creativity challenges.

To learn more, check out the full article, Facebook album and our arts-based employee engagement matchmaking portal.

             

 

Professional Development Workshop: Moving Arts Leadership Forward

Thursday, March 2 9:00 a.m

Event Recap

For arts nonprofits, people are our bottom line. Yet it's not always easy to create a culture that supports ongoing professional development. Arts & Business Council of New York together with Con Edison hosted a free networking breakfast, panel, and talent development workshop at Con Edison's headquarters to help 48 arts organizational leaders strengthen their people power and internal culture.

Panelists spanned the nonprofit, governmental, and private sectors to bring a well-rounded set of strategies. Panelists included Tim Cynova, Chief Operating Officer of Fractured Atlas; Harriet Taub, Executive Director of Materials for the Arts; Kelvin Dinkins, General Manager of Two River Theater; and Ilona Jurkiewicz, Head of the Early Careers Center for Excellence at Thomson Reuters. Each panelist discussed the importance of investing in human assets to further an arts organization mission, how they have expanded employee leadership training opportunities without a big budget, and how to leverage existing programs and partnerships to foster professional skills and leadership development internally.

Featured guests then led smaller breakout groups designed to give participants a forum to share challenges and develop customized resources and strategies to move arts leadership forward. Topics included: investing in early career excellence, maximizing talent and utilizing feedback, creating a culture of innovation to develop talent, and cultivating staff underrepresented in the arts. Check out the resources and strategies developed here!

             

 

Annual Speaker Series: The Convergence of Arts and Technology

Tuesday, November 15 5:30 p.m

Event Recap

Creativity is the driving force of innovative technologies. Arts & Business Council dedicated its annual speaker series to exploring the intersection of arts and technology by showcasing companies that have developed and utilized new technologies to tap into the creative economy—transforming how the arts are accessed, produced, and funded.

More than 120 attendees gathered at Sidley Austin LLP to explore the Convergence of Arts and Technology with a panel discussion and networking reception. Bahia Ramos, Arts Program Director at the Knight Foundation, jumpstarted and moderated the engaging discussion featuring panelists Zachary Kaplan, Executive Director of Rhizome; Stephanie Pereira, Director of Learning and Engagement at Kickstarter; and Matt Wade, Interaction Design Creative Director at Google Creative Lab. Themes throughout included tech trends on the horizon, accessibility, and a commitment to employing artists within their companies. Check out the photo album and blog.

        

Uncovering the Artistic Skills of Your Employees

Thursday, October 27 8:30 a.m

Event Recap

Together with Common Impact, Arts & Business Council (ABC/NY) brought together 20 corporate and arts nonprofit professionals at The Foundation Center for a networking breakfast, panel, and interactive workshop in celebration of Pro Bono Week and National Arts and Humanities Month!

Through this interactive session, participants learned how corporations partner with NYC arts organizations to spark innovation in the workplace and apply creative business skills to build capacity at nonprofits. Suzy Myers Jackson, Executive Director of OpeningACT, spoke about how nonprofits can leverage relationships with private sector and individual professionals to help further their mission. Kevin Hogan, Director of Planning and Assessment at The Asia Society and ABC/NY board member, illuminated the ways in which employees can expand their creative skill sets through skills-based volunteering. Alyssa McCallan, CLDP Marketing Analyst, JPMorgan Chase, discussed how to define creative skills and communicate the business value they brought to her company.

In the workshop following the panel, the Common Impact and ABC/NY team led small group discussions to help participants begin to think about the ways in which artists and art organizations can provide creative services to companies to help improve employee engagement. It was an info-packed sesion and everyone was able to walk away having sparked a cross-sector discussion using creative skills and the arts as a connecting point.

     

 

NYC Arts and Business Meetup

Thursday, May 12 6:30 p.m

Event Recap

On the evening of May 12th, The Greenwich Village Chelsea Chamber of Commerce and ABC/NY teamed up to bring over 30 arts and business sector leaders together at the Sum Innovation space to explore what might be gained from partnership.

During the formal program, Emma Osore, ABC/NY Program Coordinator, introduced the work of ABC/NY and the next speaker, Jordan Shue, Private Sector Initiatives Program Manager at Americans for the Arts. Jordan highlighted arts and business exemplars from across the country to provide a framework for understanding the possibilities in NYC. Amy Webb, ABC/NY Program Director, shared how NYC arts and business partners can both gain by explaining ABC/NYs menu of options. She highlighted corporate employee engagement, business volunteers for the arts, arts-based volunteering, artist professional development, and signature events that bring the arts and business communities together. Although the formal program ended at 8 p.m., attendees found many mutual connections and were mingling until after 9:00 p.m.!

  

  

 

Developing Audiences Everywhere

Friday, April 22 9:00 a.m.

Event Recap

In an engaging three hour workshop at The PIT Loft, Matt Lehrman, principal of Audience Avenue, LLC, showed arts and culture administrators why the current paradigm in audience engagement (employing strategies that cater mostly to a low-hanging fruit demographic) were not producing a broader audience base. Matt provided a new, more inclusive, framework challenging participants to think more broadly about possible audiences - those who are devoted, oriented, uninspired, and asleep. In small groups, administrators used the new frameworks to present their audience development challenges and used eachother to develop low-cost and workable solutions that could be employed within the next 30-60 days. 

  

 

Approaching Corporations for Support

Thursday, March 10 9:30 am

Event Recap

Consultant and Facilitator, Marti Fischer led a workshop in our lobby auditorium on Approaching Corporations for Support. In this interactive session she differentiated between securing foundation and corporate support, and provided strategies for partnering with businesses based on aligned goals and values. Attendees learned the benefits of pitching integrated partnerships that offer opportunities for volunteerism and engagement with employees that goes beyond a request for financial support.

The Power of Giving Forum

Thursday, February 18, at 6:00 p.m. at Lower Manhattan Headquarters
Con Edison and Arts & Business Council of New York presented a lively panel discussion and networking reception about diversity in arts leadership.

Event Recap

Our speakers included Edwin Torres, Deputy Commission, New York Department of Cultural Affairs; Brenda Williams-Butts, Vice President of Recruitment, Diversity and Inclusion, WNYC; Kevin B. Taylor, Director, Graduate Admissions, Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College; and Kay Takeda, Director of Grants & Services, LMCC. We discussed how the arts community can promote diversity among staff and boards, and how to attract and develop the next generation of diverse arts leaders. We highlighted successful programs – including our Diversity in Arts Leadership internship program – and organizations as examples of these principles in action.

Arts Volunteer Fair

Thursday, November 17, at WIX Lounge in Chelsea

Event Recap

Arts & Business Council of New York hosted its 2nd annual Arts Volunteer Fair. The event was a success with 19 arts organizations presenting a variety of volunteer opportunities for business professionals. Approximately 75 business people attended the event, and many signed-up for projects on site.

50th Anniversary Celebration

Monday, December 14, 2015 at MME Fine Arts

Event Recap

We had a wonderful turn out at our 50th anniversary celebration at MME Fine Arts on December 14. Those in attendance included past board members, current board and advisory council members, supporters and program participants. Americans for the Arts CEO Robert Lynch, gave a fantastic address touching on ABC/NY’s history and milestones, and Director Amy Webb, shared the organization’s recent accomplishments and programmatic footprint. It was a great opportunity to celebrate ABC/NY’s past, present, and future.

Annual Speaker Series: The Power of Arts and Business Partnerships

Monday, September 28 at 5:30 p.m. at Thomson Reuters

Event Recap

The Power of Arts and Business Partnerships event recognized outstanding arts and business partnerships at three businesses – TD Bank’s Art for Trees campaign, UNIQLO and MoMA’s SPRZNY line, and WIX support of local arts in their Chelsea lounge. Alessandra DiGiusto, ABC/NY board member, moderated the conversation. It was an engaging discussion and attendees learned innovative ways in which these businesses have incorporated the arts into their companies. 125 people attended from across business industries and the arts.