Thank you to the many people who have been blog contributors to, and readers of ArtsBlog over the years. ArtsBlog has long been a space where we uplifted stories from the field that demonstrated how the arts strengthen our communities socially, educationally, and economically; where trends and issues and controversies were called out; and advocacy tools were provided to help you make the case for more arts funding and favorable arts policies.

As part of Americans for the Arts’ recent Strategic Realignment Process, we were asked to evaluate our storytelling communications platforms and evolve the way we share content. As a result, we launched the Designing Our Destiny portal to explore new ways of telling stories and sharing information, one that is consistent with our longtime practice of, “No numbers without a story, and no stories without a number.”

As we put our energy into developing this platform and reevaluate our communications strategies, we have put ArtsBlog on hold. That is, you can read past blog posts, but we are not posting new ones. You can look to the Designing Our Destiny portal and our news items feed on the Americans for the Arts website for stories you would have seen in ArtsBlog in the past.

ArtsBlog will remain online through this year as we determine the best way to archive this valuable resource and the knowledge you’ve shared here.

As ever, we are grateful for your participation in ArtsBlog and thank you for your work in advancing the arts. It is important, and you are important for doing it.

Employee Engagement Workbook: Arts-Based Training

This workbook series focuses on one of the many ways arts organizations can work with businesses—arts-based employee engagement. This broad concept can be defined as employee engagement training or a cultural experience, delivered through various arts disciplines (music, visual art, drama etc.) with the goals of:

  • developing trust;
  • finding shared values;
  • shifting perceptions;
  • combining right-brain imagination with left-brain logic and analysis to increase the capacity for breakthrough ideas and insights; and
  • teaching employees leadership and communication skills and high-performance teamwork.

Since the 1990s, businesses from law firms, banks, and Fortune 500 companies, to hospitals, local governments, and community-based organizations have been using arts-based training to engage employees and reach business goals.

Each workbook in this series is based on a specific organization’s programs, philosophy, and tactics about creating employee engagement programs for the business community. This workbook features the work of The Arts & Business Council of Nashville (A&BC Nashville). A portion of the day-to-day work at A&BC Nashville is placing artists in unexpected arts-business partnerships. In some situations, artists are learning new skill sets from business experts and in others, they become the trainers, the experts teaching members of Nashville’s booming business community about innovation and creativity.

A&BC Nashville’s WorkCreative program brings arts into the workplace by engaging employees in hands-on creativity to stimulate communication, build teamwork, and spark innovation for effective business growth. Spanning industries as varied as banking and healthcare, the in-office projects include music, visual, and performing arts and are customized by an A&BC Nashville staff consultant to meet each company’s goals.

 

This workbook series focuses on one of the many ways arts organizations can work with businesses—arts-based employee engagement. This broad concept can be defined as employee engagement training or a cultural experience, delivered through various arts disciplines (music, visual art, drama etc.).

Toolkit
Johnson Tidwell, Jaclyn
22
April, 2016
PDF icon DOWNLOAD
Publisher Reference: 
Americans for the Arts
Research Abstract
Categories: 
Creative Industries
Creative Workforce
Local Arts Agencies
Participation
Partnerships
Private Sector
Professional Development
Is this an Americans for the Arts Publications: 
Yes
Image Thumbnail of Pub Cover: 
April 2016