Career & Entrepreneurship
How to connect the dots between art & business
About Steph
If you mix curiosity, courage and creativity with a personal crisis, you can end up falling down in Alice-in-Wonderland-style rabbit-hole. In Steph’s case, the fall triggered introspection and a leap of faith that lead her to connect with passion and purpose. Today, Steph is an internationally exhibited artist and founder of Collaborative Art® that links her passion for art and people. By bringing out the artist in us all, she breaks down barriers between people and opens up new connections fostering creativity and innovation.
Steph Fonteyn creating a large commissioned drip painting of Brooklyn bridge by night
Her Business
Collaborative Art® was founded in 2011 to connect the dots between art and business. The workshops lead teams (from 10 to 150 people) through a creative collaborative process to turn their vision, purpose, mission, strategy or values into a masterpiece as a team building challenge. The process engages employees around where they’re going, why they want to go and how they’re going to get there.
Alaya Social StartUpShared Purpose blackboard mural
Video: Steph Fonteyn at P&G in 2019, “How diversity of experience leads to innovation
Creativity doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Steph joined forces with artist Uli Van Neyghem to co-facilitate and bounce ideas off each other. The creative duo have been designing tailor made creative experiences for events worldwide ever since. You might have heard Uli’s voice on World Radio Switzerland when she reviews the Art Seen in the Art Scene as their in-house Art Journalist.
Steph Fonteyn and Uli Van Neyghem facilitating a Collaborative Art® team building
Her Story
In the words of Mark Twain, “The two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you figure out why”.
It wasn’t until Steph was diagnosed with postnatal depression, that she began to question the unknown, challenge the status quo and figure out her why. This introspection enabled her to let go, unleashing her authentic self, passion and purpose.
Video: Steph Fonteyn at TEDxZurichWomen in 2015, “An Artist’s Leap of Faith”
Steph tirelessly connects dots to find innovative ways to bridge the gap between art and business, finding ever more creative and empowering solutions for her clients. Whether it’s using art as a platform to unite people, develop a sense of belonging, or cultivate creative collaboration and communicate visually, Steph uses art to take people on a creative journey that yields insights.
Unifying people through art, cross-pollinated into Steph’s own artwork in 2012. She wondered: “How can I explore the unifying effects of art and our innate need for a sense of belonging?” “How can I do something remarkable?” and “How can I disrupt the way an artist makes money?” So she embarked on a project to paint 100 commissioned portraits, in a year. The result was an artistic alternative to facebook and one huge mosaic of connectivity called The 100 Faces Project.
https://www.stephfonteyn.com/the-100-faces-project
Present
Today, Steph’s main focus is Collaborative Art® where she and her team provide tailor-made visual communication, visual facilitation, creative team building and event branding to businesses no matter how large or small, NGO’s and schools.
Recently, Medicines for Malaria Venture celebrated their 20 years of achievements. Steph Fonteyn brought three elements to the celebration.
1) Digital art to communicate coherently their core message on slides, badges and programs 2) An interactive live art that honoured their guests and symbolised their core message
3) Mini mosquito sculptures made from recycled objects displayed in transparent cubes to symbolise the containment of malaria. They were used as centerpieces on tables and served as fantastic conversation starters!
One of twenty mosquito sculptures by Steph Fonteyn at MMV20 event. Photo credit: Edouard Venceslau
Video: Creative Event Branding for Medicines for Malaria Venture in 2019
Collaborative Art® inspires teams to turn their shared visions into masterpieces. Strategies for digital transformation, product launches or organizational strengths and values, no matter what the theme is, cocreating art is a powerful way to combine diverse perspectives into one shared vision that everyone is proud to talk about.
Things are spiced up by creating masterpieces inspired by different art styles! They hang proudly, generating a buzz in the corridors long after the team building event.
A Zurich based pharmaceutical’s shared vision of a product launch with impact using their brand colours
Here’s an example from General Mills who transformed their brand purpose into a masterpiece with Collaborative Art®.
Video: General Mills transform their brand purpose into a masterpiece as a creative team building exercise
Future Goals
Companies can no longer afford to underutilize collaboration. It’s a tactic that increases creative problem solving and productivity. Collaboration is essential if companies want to keep a competitive edge. Yet according to Salesforce, 86% of employees and executives cite lack of collaboration or ineffective communication for workplace failures.
“The Art of Collaboration” will enable upskilling and develop cross functional collaboration. Collaborative Art® proposes this art-based learning program to develop workforce skills required to create collaborative cultures.
It’s an interactive and fun way to develop the necessary skills such as active listening, empathy, feedback, communication and flexing between leading and following that will transform thinking in silos to sustainable collaboration.
Collaborative workplaces of the future. The Art of Collaboration – Photo Credit Tony Johnston
https://www.stephfonteyn.com/
https://collaborativeart.ch/
