On the Other Hand: Art's Place in the Workplace<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""If you love the way art has molded and shaped you, find ways to bring that value to bear on pragmatic things."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/05\/on-the-other-hand-arts-place-in-the-workplace\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On the Other Hand: Art's Place in the Workplace\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\""If you love the way art has molded and shaped you, find ways to bring that value to bear on pragmatic things."\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/05\/on-the-other-hand-arts-place-in-the-workplace\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christ and Pop Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-05-24T17:22:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ben Bartlett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ben Bartlett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/05\/on-the-other-hand-arts-place-in-the-workplace\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/05\/on-the-other-hand-arts-place-in-the-workplace\/\",\"name\":\"On the Other Hand: Art's Place in the Workplace\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-05-24T17:22:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-05-24T17:22:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/38a345f7247251389553b101df6da1be\"},\"description\":\"\\\"If you love the way art has molded and shaped you, find ways to bring that value to bear on pragmatic things.\\\"\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/05\/on-the-other-hand-arts-place-in-the-workplace\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/05\/on-the-other-hand-arts-place-in-the-workplace\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/05\/on-the-other-hand-arts-place-in-the-workplace\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"On the Other Hand: Art's Place in the Workplace\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/\",\"name\":\"Christ and Pop Culture\",\"description\":\"Where the Christian faith meets the common knowledge of our age\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/38a345f7247251389553b101df6da1be\",\"name\":\"Ben Bartlett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1c9659c38983e5ec1e812fdcb7586e7f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1c9659c38983e5ec1e812fdcb7586e7f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ben Bartlett\"},\"description\":\"Ben Bartlett lives in Louisville, Ky., with his wife and two terrific kids. 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{"id":11349,"date":"2011-05-24T13:22:22","date_gmt":"2011-05-24T17:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christandpopculture.com\/?p=11349"},"modified":"2011-05-24T13:22:22","modified_gmt":"2011-05-24T17:22:22","slug":"on-the-other-hand-arts-place-in-the-workplace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/05\/on-the-other-hand-arts-place-in-the-workplace\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Other Hand: Art's Place in the Workplace"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

It\u2019s easy for those of us who love art to forget that it has its pragmatic side too.<\/p>\n

After all, art seems to be mostly about capturing the powerful emotions, the heights and depths of transcendence, the gritty detail of despair, etc.\u00a0 And mostly, we like to experience and think about it and let it stretch our emotional awareness and capacity for the world.<\/p>\n

But art can help get things done once in a while as well.\u00a0 Consider this fascinating little article from the NY Times regarding several interviews about literary influences on our Supreme Court Justices<\/a>.\u00a0 What is striking is not so much the simple fact that they are influenced by authors\u2026 it\u2019s the uniformity with which they affirm the value of literature in helping their work, and the corresponding valuelessness of everyday law writing.<\/p>\n

Too often we allow ourselves to be one person while working and another while alone.\u00a0 If you love the way art has molded and shaped you, find ways to bring that value to bear on pragmatic things. For me, this includes writing memos that help model restraint and a lack of excessive wordiness to my coworkers, using story metaphors to help describe complex concepts, and even displaying art that I care about as my screen saver so that people will ask about it and I can converse with them about its meaning in my life.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d love to hear other ideas you guys may have for mixing the artistic and the pragmatic.<\/p>\n

p.s.\u00a0 Don\u2019t miss the Scalia\/Roberts exchange at the end of the article I linked to\u2026 it\u2019s high-level humor at its best!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"