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Building Relationships Between Businesses and the Arts

in Uncategorized 2 min read

Blake Headshot_May 2016

Blake Compton, CEO & founder of Compton Construction

By Blake Compton

The Columbus community is at the center of everything we do at Compton Construction. We continually support local organizations and causes in order to strengthen our connection to the city we help build. When the Harmony Project came to Franklinton in 2014 for its One Neighborhood project, we had the opportunity to work with them at both the community and business levels.

Volunteers were active throughout the neighborhood, cleaning up parks, planting trees, painting murals, and engaging in various acts of neighborhood beautification – all things central to Compton’s passions. When the Harmony Project needed last minute volunteers, we dropped what we were doing and went to help, providing both supplies and manpower.

The Harmony Project’s One Neighborhood program is central to Compton’s values of connecting neighbors and neighborhoods through their environment and art. We were humbled when David Brown, founder and creative director at The Harmony Project, nominated our team for a Greater Columbus Arts Council’s Community Arts Partnership Award, and we were honored to win in the Small Business Category. To us, this win meant that what we were doing was valued. This was just the beginning.

We were honored to win, but we didn’t want that to be the top of the mountain. We wanted to continue to increase awareness for the arts community in Columbus and beyond. Compton builds throughout different pockets in Columbus, and when we do so, we want to get involved in the neighborhood in which we’re working. We don’t just want to build and leave; we want to learn what’s important to each community and do what it takes to support their mission. Working with arts organizations is one of our favorite ways to achieve that. In addition to the Harmony Project, we’re proud to support more than a dozen arts organizations, including Wild Goose Creative, Urban Scrawl, and CAW: Creative Arts of Women.

The arts make creativity accessible to everyone. They are an outlet for expression that fundamentally impact, how you relate to your environment. It connects businesses with their customers and connects individuals to each other, regardless of where they come from. Art is truly a platform for engagement at every socioeconomic level.

This is where we call on the Compton community and beyond. If you know an individual or an organization that’s going all in for the arts, nominate them for a Community Arts Partnership Award. Let the wider community know the difference they’re making in your organization and, hopefully, inspire others to support the arts community in Columbus.

Blake Compton is the CEO & founder of Compton Construction, a creative and collaborative design and build construction company focused on helping emerging businesses design and create environments that bring brand experiences to life.