Jandel Allen-Davis, MD, 2024 John Madden, Jr. Leadership Award Honoree Speech

Jandel Allen-Davis, MD, 2024 John Madden, Jr. Leadership Award Honoree Speech

Thank you for this incredible honor!

To Colorado Business Committee for the Arts and those who had the difficult task of deciding whose work we would see today. I know firsthand the work of deciding who is worthy of this recognition, as there isn’t a nominee who shouldn’t be recognized. I once again find myself receiving way more than I deserve out of this life.

To those who are here to celebrate those businesses and organizations who believe deeply in the power of the arts and our cultural institutions, be they large or small, to transform and sustain this most important aspect of civic vitality and business.

To my friends and colleagues, waaay too many to name and I know you are here and am so humbled by that… you who have encouraged and supported me along my artistic journey and invited me to be part of making sure that many of our cultural institutions thrive through the extension my and my family’s time, talent and treasure.

To all of the cultural and scientific organizations who are not only the backbone of what makes our State so great, but also have served in ways known and unknown, seen and unseen, as inciters of artistic and scientific careers for countless nameless and faceless folks.

To my family, who is here today and who each is a creative genius in their own right and have inspired and directed me in pursuit of my own passions.

And I want to thank Mr. John Madden, Jr., for blending what was clearly a passion of his into his business pursuits, by founding and supporting an organization that exists to keep the importance of Arts and Culture at the forefront of our society and civilization, because both matter.

It has been an honor, a privilege and a blessing to be part of this aspect of our community.

Thank you again.

The great leaders in business, political, and civic circles knew this best.

President John Kennedy said:

I look forward to an America which will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft. I look forward to an America which will steadily raise the standards of artistic accomplishment and which will steadily enlarge cultural opportunities for all of our citizens. And I look forward to an America which commands respect throughout the world not only for its strength but for its civilization as well. And I look forward to a world which will be safe not only for democracy and diversity but also for personal distinction.

In closing, I leave you with this.  Words and actions matter.

I was recently given a book by my friend George Sparks entitled Fluke by Klaas.  He purports that we control nothing and we influence everything.

That one glance you give a child or a budding creative person that causes their flame to whither.

Or…

That smile of encouragement and enthusiasm you extend to the same persons that ignites a flame that builds cathedrals, that writes the next symphony that will be hummed and adapted centuries late, that inspires art that graces not just museums but also our office spaces, that enables an artist (regardless of media or metier) to live his/her or their life fully.  These little actions nourish and build nations!.

In each of us rests the responsibility and the accountability to choose which path you will walk.  I hope you choose the path that encourages and incites a deep passion for arts and culture, and provides the light that solves some of our most vexing problems in a way that invites all to participate.

Thank you and onward!

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Thank you and congratulations, Jandel!