How One Corporate Art Workshop Completely Moved Me
- China Jordan
- Jul 10
- 6 min read
I recently held a workshop at MSI for their 50th anniversary celebration. Now, for most corporate art workshops, I don't do much research about them. Why? Because I don't want to make assumptions, I don't want to be that company who see's who they are, and adds extra 0's to the bill. So turning up to this charity, and learning more about them from the source was an truly transformative experience for me. This recent corporate art workshop changed me completely, and let me tell you why.
The Brief
Most charities don't have much funding, and they struggle to give back to their staff like profit driven companies. The people that work in charities give so much to the cause and what they get in return, is usually lower wages and longer hours. But they have the satisfaction knowing they have helped impact peoples lives. People who generally work in charity, are some of the kindest people you know! They deserve a lot.
This charity, MSI Reproduction, focus on supporting women's health, their rights to choose, and take care of themselves independently and to have the choice, the option to choose whether or not they have children. They work in many countries around the world and what I learnt blew me away.
The brief was to allow guests to decorate their own note books as a part of the celebration. A small memorable token that will help them feel proud of the company they work for, and remind themselves of the why they are in this job. The company wanted the theme around the business model and trying to inspire the team by using visuals that would be on brand. At first, I was a little stuck on what to come up with. It's the type of session where there is a lot of freedom for the team choose their own images and inspiration as I always like to have reference pics on hand and a skill / focus to offer.
We eventually settled on some womb art as table inspiration, so we filled the room with botanicals and cool illustrations. The charity also had pictures of true stories of people making an impact around the world, dotted on the tables. These were beautifully taken and got me asking some questions...
The Set Up
It wasn't plane sailing for us and for MSI. The day before, I had to enlist the help of my Dad because my trolley and I could not carry all 200 note books! I hadn't realised how heavy 200 would be, so we took two boxes each on a trolley, and headed across central London. What a nightmare! The trolleys looked like they were about to break, wheels wobbling everywhere and a nervous host hoping it didn't break on the way as we would need to carry them by hand. A disaster did strike on the return home when a wheel fell off during rush hour. Yikes.
So we dropped off the boxes and some materials, had a brief look at the room which suited us perfectly, and then headed back home. A few hours later, the office called with a major issue - the electricity was down! It's typical isn't it, when you have something important going on, that's when shit hits the fan! We were all in panic mode, hoping the workshop could go ahead, but we had to hold our breaths, and wait for a call...
With the potential of having to postpone the class, I got to finishing packing and preping anyway, on the hopeful note of the workshop still going ahead!
The Event Day
In the morning, I assumed no news was good news, and by 10am, I left my house with another trolley load worth of materials. We had aprons, table clothes, acrylic paints, acrylic pens, dabbers, liners - you name it, we brought it. We wanted everyone to to have all the choices and we even printed some templates of wombs in case anyone wants to draw around them and skip the hard part.
After an hour of set up, we had places ready for 20 people and a rotation ready of new students, new books, and fresh paints. Luke and I wondered around, helping with outlines, refreshing the paints, waters, and just hearing more about the company in general.
Luckily, all the electricity came back on and there were no glitches throughout the day!
We saw so so many amazing sketchbooks. Some that I would actually buy myself! The creativity of this company was through the roof, but that's not why I felt so moved by them. That was an added bonus.
The Inspiration
One of the managers wanted to paint from one of the photographs on the table and she chose an amazing picture of a nurse hiking in the mountains in her uniform, with a rucksack full of medical supplies. I drew the outline, and asked her to explain the picture to me and why she chose it. She told me that in remote area's, nurses can hike for days and days to get to remote villages to make sure woman have access to sexual health. Some nurses may have to travel down river for hours, or days just to help women have access to choice, so they can choose to have a baby or not. They carry as many medical supplies as they can, contraception, examination tools. All on their backs!
This story really moved me. The news at the moment is often taking away women's rights more and more. As a woman, where I sometimes feel powerless, and each day I'm seeing more and more women around the world being striped of their basic human rights, these stories show us that there is hope in the world, and humanity does exisit. It's humbling to think that in the UK, we are the lucky ones, and it's certainly looking like we are taking 10 steps backwards.
When I left the student to finish the painting, I didn't expect a masterpiece to be made but this was incredible! She spent so much time looking at the detail, adding bits of grey to show the depth, and making sure the nurse was very consciously represented. I was so impressed. She had never painted properly before, only played around with her kids and she just went with it, experimented and made this! So so stunning.
Who Are MSI Reproductive Choices?
MSI Reproductive Choices is an incredible global charity that has spent over 50 years helping women access contraception, abortion care and reproductive healthcare.
Their teams work across dozens of countries, often reaching communities where healthcare is incredibly difficult to access.
Some nurses walk for days across mountains.
Others travel by boat along rivers for hours just to reach remote villages.
Their work gives millions of women the opportunity to make informed choices about their own bodies and futures.
I'd genuinely encourage you to learn more about the amazing work they do by visiting https://www.msichoices.org.uk/.
After reading about their mission, I understood why celebrating their 50th anniversary meant so much to everyone attending the event.
Other Highlights
Everyone created something totally unique. That's one of the best things about these corporate art classes where everyone can just make what they want. You never know what they will come up with
The Funniest
The one really cracked me up. Everyone that saw it, instantly had a smile on their face and it brought so much joy from such a simple action. This was a real crowd pleasure.
The Cleanest
I loved the stripes, dots, and clear precision on this one. It was satisfying to watch, not over done, and gorgeous colours which incorporate the brand colours as well as a modern style.
The Most Artistic
This lady is guilty of being a crafter and spent a long long time on this painting. It was totally worth it. Just when I thought it couldn't get better, she added a little more and it just kept on coming. This had people in awe!
The Simplest
Simple is sometimes better than complex. This lady drew a womb, and then simply drew around it in one colour. I thought the design, the placement, the complimentary colour worked perfectly. You can see people buying this!
The Most Picasso
I wanted to buy this book! Beautiful bodies on the front, and beautfiful bottoms on the back. Again, so simple, but so stunning showing the female form. Very popular amongst pottery painting and merch at the moment.
Overview
This workshop was hard work to prepare for, heavy to carry in, and eventually, broke my trolley in the middle of rush hour. After a slight meltdown, I did make it home to reflect and actually, I thought it was one of the most rewarding team workshops I've hosted in a long time. So meaningful, so many connections made and happy faces shone. The impact this charity is making on women around the world, is something any wellbeing company like myself can only dream of! I could see the impact on the team, the excitment, the celebration of each others work. It was truley an honour to host for such a marvelous charity. Go and check them out!
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