Studies show the healing potential of the arts is powerful. It can change a person’s focus and alter a body’s physiology. Research suggests that it can lower blood pressure, improve stress management, curb anxiety and depression, alleviate pain, enhance memory, improve communication, promote wellness and relaxation, and enhance the production of proteins that accelerates healing and minimizes the danger of infection. Recognizing that a patient’s physical health is fundamentally linked to his or her emotional and spiritual well-being, in 2016 Summa Health committed to integrating the healing arts into its renowned patient care by creating a Healing Arts Leadership Council made up of senior hospital staff, benefactors, and community leaders. This Council is dedicated to bringing the healing powers of art and music into the hospital. As Summa is a community hospital, the Healing Arts Council decided early on that all artwork displayed would feature artists with a connection to Ohio, and predominantly Northeast Ohio. In addition, all art would be original, with the goal of engaging viewers with the pieces, and focusing their attention on the artworks’ unique qualities. 

The arts can transform spaces (through public art), and they can transform lives. My company, CODAworx, has built a network of artists who create large-scaled artworks that are designed for the built environment in which we live and work. We have seen firsthand how these kinds of artworks can transform spaces. Everyone at CODAworx connects with artists on a regular basis (including our Controller!), and it is one of the great perks of our jobs. Artists inspire us on a daily basis—not just with the amazing works of art they create, but the way they think and interact with the world. They push the boundaries of possibilities. We all need a daily dose of inspiration!

I have written quite a bit about the transformational power of the arts and it is nothing short of awe inspiring. As individuals, once you experience an artistic work you are forever changed. It can open minds to new perspectives while creating a stronger sense of empathy for people and their situations that you may not have felt previously. In my professional life, I have seen what the power of the arts in the workplace can accomplish with employees. It has been a key factor in employee engagement and in keeping up team morale. I have also witnessed the measurable impact the arts have on company team members regarding critical thinking, creativity, and productivity. I have found that a consistent engagement with the arts and employees is a powerful strategy to retain talented people while keeping up innovation and productivity. It develops more well-rounded team members, and that helps the whole team become more synergistic.

I’ve been called the “artsy-fartsy banker.” I started playing piano at age 5 and never looked back. As a farm girl from a rural town in South Dakota, the arts saved me. I’ve been in my role at Fifth Third Bank for 21 years and the company has grown to be an impressive arts champion. That’s not who our company was 21 years ago, but this is who we are today, and I couldn’t be prouder. With the right messaging, people now understand about the power of the arts: it’s an economic driver. People who have a love of the arts have more creative skills—they are more diverse, more innovative, and thus better businesspeople. When we have talent come in, they want to know about the arts scene in our company and community. We know quality of arts enhances quality of life of employees. We are at a critical juncture. Communities need to be strong and vibrant, which means we need the arts—and we must ensure that arts are accessible to everyone. In the future, I can see our relationships deepening and growing with the arts in our community to further achieve our civic and social priorities.

Through Akron Community Foundation’s “On the Table” conversation hosted at Western Reserve Hospital, we determined a need to address the lack of diverse artists and accessible art in the community. The arts proved to be a powerful way to forge meaningful connections by transcending barriers of class, race, gender, background, and so forth. The project brought people together in new ways that benefited the community by sharing the stories of historically marginalized voices. Moreover, displaying art in businesses served as an accessible entry point for those who might not feel welcomed or comfortable in traditional art spaces. This project also served as an economic driver by opening the local businesses to new markets and reinvigorating downtown Akron. By creating a map and social media hashtag, community members were exposed to new businesses on their journeys to view the artwork. At the end of the year, some of the businesses even created their own partnerships with artists and arts organizations to display work.

Recently I had the pleasure of being invited to Akron, Ohio to participate in meetings with local leaders and present a half-day professional development training on the basics of the pARTnership Movement, a program of Americans for the Arts which demonstrates that by partnering with the arts, businesses can gain a competitive edge. The pARTnership Movement offers language, resources, and case studies to help arts leaders “speak business.” It illustrates to the business community why they should be active partners with the arts, and how they can support the arts in myriad ways in addition to cash resources. As well as providing online resources and tools, the pARTnership Movement serves as a professional development opportunity for local communities to bring Americans for the Arts to you to train nonprofits and meet with business and community leaders.

In the past, we saw art as a passion—not a business. But today, with the popularity of online shopping sites like Etsy and the growing number of community arts and craft shows, more and more artists are creating a thriving business from their art. Couple that with more creative outlets for musicians and actors, and it’s no wonder why dynamic arts communities are scattered throughout the country with growing opportunities for artists to become entrepreneurs. To help support and guide artists in Akron, Ohio, Summit Artspace is helping these highly right-brained individuals with the business side of things. In fact, evolving with the needs of the artists, this nonprofit community art center organization is revamping its strategic plan and mission in 2020 to focus on connecting artists and artist-serving organizations to the community and to the resources they need to thrive professionally, creatively, and financially.

My grandfather, David Rockefeller Sr., founded the Business Committee for the Arts in 1967 with a mission: to inspire business leaders to support the arts in the workplace, in education, and in the community. He believed that when businesses partner with the arts, it facilitates a mutually beneficial and inspiring collaboration. Today I carry on the philanthropic traditions and values exemplified by my grandparents by recognizing a responsibility to be an active and engaged participant in the community, both at home and globally. I am honored to be presenting Gensler and Access Gallery with the David Rockefeller pARTnership Award at the 2019 Arts and Business Partnership Awards on October 3. 

I am both a businessperson and an artist, which helps expand my perspective and set my business apart. The challenge, on the business side, is that because profit motive is the driving force, the most creative work often doesn't receive the recognition or appreciation it deserves from businesses. The tendency for most businesses is to stick to a proven, profit-driven formula. I'm not saying that profit-driven formulas are wrong, but we should also be allowing room for creativity, innovation and growth—not just in the arts, but in every aspect of business. Businesses should want to hire creative people, people who can create solutions without predefined answers. We need businesses to understand that the arts can and will help them achieve their objectives—even if those objectives are not always related to the arts. We need to frame the arts in a way that businesses can find value in them as well. Having this business background helps me be a better advocate for the arts.

Arts education certainly doesn’t have to (and really shouldn’t) end after high school. At least that’s our belief at COCAbiz, the arts-based business training division of COCA-Center of Creative Arts in St. Louis. COCAbiz provides immersive arts-based training, programming, and consulting for business professionals. We are constantly exploring how to unlock creative energy and build skills to meet today’s business challenges by providing leaders with new tools, techniques, and perspectives from the arts. COCA’s Executive Director, Kelly Pollock, wrote about COCAbiz for Americans for the Arts back in 2011, suggesting “businesses might be more innovative and achieve greater success when they give their employees all of the tools that the arts and the creative process have to offer.” She’s right. As we round out our first decade of COCAbiz, we have learned that arts learning is powerful and needed with business professionals. In a world where automation and technological dependence are becoming the norm, human creativity still reigns as the ultimate competitive advantage.

The arts are core to what we do at Opsis and our relationship to, and support of, our local and diverse arts community helps us make connections with members of our local and regional community that we might not otherwise be able to do as effectively. As a result, Opsis is well known in our local arts community as an available supporter, participant, and resource. Opsis is a firm filled with people for whom the arts are as personally and professionally important. Folks come to us because we value the arts as a fundamental priority and integrate the arts into our practice with every opportunity. We partner with arts organizations to help raise money, plan and design facilities (often pro-bono or at cost), and we invite creatives into our office for monthly lunch-hour talks that demonstrate this focus and accelerate the exposure of our staff to other creative people from a wide variety of disciplines.

When I envisioned Rollie from the very beginning, I aspired to create a brand that was bigger than me, a brand for the people, and designed alongside other creatives to challenge myself and what is the norm in the industry. This allowed us to create our own unique point of view and USP (unique selling proposition). Being a creative business owner, working with other creatives, felt very natural and empowering to me and the value in doing so was immediate. Our first collaboration came two days after launching the brand; it was with the founder of an award-winning design agency who was simply fascinated by the product and brand story. We collaborated despite not having the funds, with the common understanding to create something we were both proud of; we came runners up for Australian Print ad of the year with our first campaign. The lesson here is that there are other currencies than money.