For Immediate Release
Office Art Makeover Can Drive ‘D&I Mindset’
‘Portraits of Great Women Changed the Boardroom Conversation’HALIFAX - A Nova Scotia-based media-art business is offering companies a new kind of diversity and inclusion (D&I) tool: portrait art that honours great women who’ve carved pioneering paths in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)
U.S. corporations spend $8 billion annually on diversity training programs but research shows a dearth of evidence as to whether they really have an impact. Why? They don’t seem to change mindsets. But behavioral scientists at Harvard says a simple design intervention, like updating your office portraits, can have a big impact.
Portraits of Great Women on office walls and in boardrooms and hallways reflect “an everyday approach to embracing inclusiveness”, says GWP founder and artist/art therapist Jo Napier. In today’s hyper-competitive economic environment, organizations must evolve to succeed, most companies use the usual business tools – mission statements, logos, annual reports – to communicate their values. Portrait art is a new D&I tool, but not a new business tool: portraits have always been used to reflect legacy and values, says Napier, who collaborates with clients to create portrait collections of historic, unknown women whose significant but unsung accomplishments powerfully relate to, and encourage viewers to reflect on, company values.
Driving diversity and inclusion is business imperative today because diverse, inclusive organizations aren’t just better places to work – they work, better, and research reveals 70 % of the new generation want to work for companies that reflects a genuine commitment to inclusion (2021 Oracle report: Addressing Diversity and Inclusion: Going Beyond the Benchmark).
“Companies need to create inclusive-feeling work cultures or risk losses - in market share, in their pools of candidates, in profits. Portraits reflect, to employees and clients, what is valued and what is possible. If the portraits that hang in an office are only of male leaders, what does that say?” Testimonials from her clients show that updating the portraits hanging in hallways, offices and boardrooms is a simple, powerful diversity and inclusion tool. Why? Napier says clients who are diversity leaders, like RBC Dominion Securities, say their boardroom portrait series of Great Women “changed the conversation”.
Great Women Productions (GWP) is a woman-owned Canadian business based in Halifax, Nova Scotia that creates portrait art and products reflecting the female face of innovation.
For more information: Jo Napier 902.209.8300
Greatwomenproductions.com
