Arts in Business: A Value Added Asset

This column was published in the 12.14.05 edition of the Tribune & Georgian newspaper.

In the November 14, 2005 issue of Newsweek, writer Linda Stern offered an insight into techniques more than 120 U.S. companies are using to feed their spirit of innovation. To shake up the status quo, enterprises are working with arts professionals at the Creativity Connection (a New York nonprofit) to improve reactive, non-linear thinking among employees and managers. Improvisation, projects that require creative thinking, and jazz music are among the resources used to help employees learn to handle competition, resolve conflict and produce new processes, products and services.

I once had the privilege of watching a Georgia state Bar Association training session, in which lawyers honed their questioning skills in a competitive setting. To whom did they turn to be their witnesses? Actors from an Atlanta-based improvisational troupe, whose creativity in playing the roles required by the mock cases was inspiring and challenging for these highly accomplished attorneys. From the very first, these legal warriors recognized that to prepare for the realities of today’s courtrooms, they needed to learn and be associated with improvisational, creative and out of the box thinking. And they turned to actors, well trained and skilled in the specialized world of improvisational dialogue, both comedic and dramatic.

Today, in business and in academia, the big emphasis is understanding and using information gained from studying current research. Each of these examples offers proof of what the research tells us: there are clear links between creativity in the arts and in the trenches of daily business life. Communities, businesses and individuals that aspire to innovation in planning, production and marketing can create more positive space for those things to occur by supporting, adopting and fostering the arts.

On Saturday (Dec. 17), the Woodbine Woman's Club sponsors the 1st Annual “Christmas in Woodbine” Tour of Homes and Churches, along with an Artists' Exhibit showing works by talented Woodbine residents. A special feature of this year’s Woodbine Tour is several homes currently being restored that have not been lived in for quite a while. On the Tour will be the Gowen / Joiner house and the late 19th century Woodbine Plantation House of the Bedell family on the Satilla River. Five homes and 4 churches will be featured. Tickets are $15.00, Woodbine Woman's Club, PO Box 64, Woodbine, Georgia 31569. Tickets and Maps will be available at Woodbine City Hall on the day of the Tour.

Other best bets for this week and the weekend: offbeat singer John Prine at Florida Theatre, 12.14, 8 p.m.; movie buffs will head to Peter Jackson’s updated “King Kong” due in theatres on 12.14; The Jacksonville Landings Holiday Concert Series features performances by groups from schools, churches and dance companies, 12.12-17, weekdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 6-9 p.m. and Saturday 2-10 p.m.; The Florida Ballet’s “Community Nutcracker” at the Florida Theatre, 12.17 at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m.; “A Christmas Carole” at Alhambra Dinner Theatre, through 12.24 (a holiday tradition featuring Tiny Tim and Scrooge); take the kids to see “Babes in Toyland” at the Thrasher-Home Center for the Arts in Orange Park, Jax, 12.17 at 8 p.m.; Have a “Blast!” at the Times-Union Center, 12.18 at 7 p.m. (a powerful show of percussion and visual ensembles); Jax Symphony “Home for the Holidays” Concerts at the Times-Union Center, 12.16-18, evening and matinee performances; “The Last Night of Ballyhoo” at the Limelight Theatre in St. Augustine, 12.15-1.14, (this show is by Alfred Uhry, who also wrote “Driving Miss Daisy.” Set in 1939’s Atlanta, it is delightful, funny and full of warmth!)

There more holiday events that readers might want to share; send me a note at pkraack1@tds.net to help us spread the word.

12.14.05