Experience: On Display 2020
By Adam Barak Kleinberger and Teresa Ralicki ![](https://ioa.memberclicks.net/assets/2019-IOA-Conference/IOA-experience-on-display-art-piece1.png)
Ombuds work is confidential. It can be an isolating profession. Office holiday parties, social nights, or bowling leagues with other departments do not always seem ubiquitous when we talk with ombuds colleagues. In many ombuds workplaces there sits a solo practitioner, or perhaps two ombuds. Because of the small number of staff and confidential nature of the work, office or company culture can sometimes wane. Engaging with colleagues usually needs to be quite intentional if it is to be a constant part of your world as an ombuds.
When we connect around our ombuds work in a creative way, it brings new thoughts, new ideas and perpetual learning about who we are as practitioners and what we can offer to visitors and the profession. By sharing ourselves through a creative endeavor, by learning about others through our creative pursuits, we can find that connection.
With the upcoming conference we have the opportunity to allay some of these ideas and struggles, to convert them into a physical form. We are looking forward to working on a piece of art to express what 2019 was like as an ombuds or even what life is like as an ombuds. We will then share it with our colleagues and other ombuds artists who complete a submission for the upcoming conference in Portland, Oregon.