‘Togetherness’: Goodwill of Orange County hosts its first employee art show

Goodwill of Orange County believes there is power in working together, and that belief influenced the theme of its first employee art show.

“The theme of the show is ‘Togetherness’,” said Nicole Morrison, communication manager at Goodwill of Orange County. “The team put together this show because of the past couple years, we have all been so disconnected. We’ve all been on Zoom, we haven’t been able to see each other. We wanted to come up with some kind of fun employee engagement program that gave people a way to connect with each other and maybe show off some skills that we haven’t seen before.”

The result is more than 25 one-of-a-kind art pieces on display at the nonprofit organization’s corporate campus in Santa Ana, ranging from paintings on canvas and cardboard, to sewn costumes and blankets and collages.

A life-sized mannequin by Adrian Fonseca dressed as a Star Wars character on display at the Goodwill of Orange County during its first employee art show at the corporate campus in Santa Ana. Goodwill launched this creative campaign with the theme of “Togetherness” as a way for team members to express themselves and build connections with peers after two challenging years.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

The call for art was open to individuals participating on their own or to teams.

“We were so excited to see so many teams work together,” said Morrison.

One of Goodwill’s community-based service program groups helps individuals with developmental disabilities find jobs. A job coach and her group of 16 worked together to create a large format drawing modeled after Frida Kahlo’s “Self-Portrait with Monkey.”

“Every program participant did a different square inspired by this picture,” Morrison said.

An individual participant, Kristiana Gingras, development assistant and grant relations coordinator at Goodwill of Orange County, used tiny photos of co-workers, volunteers and program participants to create a photo mosaic of the Goodwill logo.

“Obviously the past few years have been tough for everyone. I think we have seen all of us who work here at Goodwill try to continue creating good in our community,” Gingras said. “As I was trying to think of what ‘togetherness’ means, I was thinking of our logo and really all who work here, volunteer here, every program participant, makes up what it means to be Goodwill.”

One of more than 25 one-of-a-kind art pieces on display at the Goodwill of Orange County during its first employee art show at the corporate campus in Santa Ana.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

Goodwill of Orange County’s compound on Fairview Street is home to a donation center, store and corporate offices. Goodwill emphasizes it is more than just a thrift store. Its programs aid those with developmental disabilities and veterans in tackling barriers to finding and keeping meaningful employment.

Morrison said the company’s sense of community felt weakened after the pandemic.

“The pandemic, it has really pulled us a part a lot with people having to work from home, for our program participants because they are a vulnerable population not being able to be back here with us in the office,” Morrison said.

For a work force whose job is to enhance community, Morrison said it was important for people to reconnect.

“We created this employee engagement program to keep those connections alive between us all,” Morrison said. “So many of our team members have been here for 10, 20 years so this is really an extension of their family. We felt this was so important just so we could still be a part of each others lives.”

The art show can be viewed via a virtual gallery tour on Goodwill of Orange County’s YouTube channel.

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