Kaiser Permanente Colorado Wins National Award for Supporting the Arts

Americans for the Arts recently announced Kaiser Permanente Colorado, long-time CBCA Member company, sponsor and participant, as one of this year’s BCA 10: Best Businesses Partnering with the Arts in America honorees. Presented every year by Americans for the Arts’ Business Committee for the Arts (BCA), 10 companies nationwide are honored for their exceptional commitment to the arts. The awards will be presented at a black-tie gala at the Central Park Boathouse in New York City on October 11, 2017.

“We’re honored to have been nominated by the Colorado Business Committee for the Arts to receive this national recognition from Americans for the Arts,” said Jandel Allen-Davis, MD, vice president of government, external relations and research for Kaiser Permanente Colorado. “We’re proud to support the creative and cultural arts communities in this state which are pivotal to health and healing.”

Every year, Americans for the Arts, through its Business Committee for the Arts (BCA) program, recognizes 10 businesses of all sizes for their exceptional involvement with the arts that enriches the workplace, education, and the community. These companies set the standard for excellence and serve as role models for others to follow.

For a full list of this year’s BCA 10 Awards winners, please visit: americansforthearts.org/events/bca-10

Kaiser Permanente Colorado’s work to improve the health of its communities through the arts comes in many forms:

• In 2015, the state’s largest nonprofit health plan provided the Denver Art Museum a one-year $150,000 grant to provide free general admission to all youth, 18 and under, for the next year. This support allowed for a 15 percent spike in youth admission with more than 28,000 visits in 2015.
• Kaiser Permanente was a founding funder of the Denver Botanic Garden’s ‘Community Supported Agriculture’—a program that provides fresh local produce to Colorado families–made possible through a three-year, $500,000 grant.
• The organization started the Kaiser Permanente Colorado Arts Program. The program features more than 700 Colorado artists and 900 unique pieces throughout the 31 Kaiser Permanente medical offices in Colorado. The program was meticulously designed, down to color scheme and placement of each piece.
• The organization participates in the Colorado Business Committee for the Arts’ “On My Own Time” Art Show—a two-decade long program that’s featured more than 1,000 Kaiser Permanente employee’s art work. Several pieces of Kaiser Permanente employee art are part of the permanent art collection displayed in the organization’s medical and administrative office buildings.
• Kaiser Permanente Colorado’s Arts Integrated Resources (AIR) department works with schools, employers and others to leverage the arts as a vehicle to improve health and wellbeing. For 32 years, AIR has provided award-winning theatrical productions, experiential learning workshops and youth engagement initiatives for young people and adults in schools and community groups across Colorado. This work reached more than 183,000 Coloradans in 2014. This is an annual investment of $1.8 million.

In addition to the work being done in Colorado to support the arts, Kaiser Permanente nationally partners with organizations and local communities across the country to improve access to the arts for their estimated 10.6 million members and the more than 60 million residents of the communities in which they live. To learn more about Kaiser Permanente’s work to support the arts nationally, visit: kp.org/share