Bob Madden, an UMSL studio art alum, makes some final adjustments while installing “Requiem” in the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center. Madden, who works at the Missouri Arts Council, made “Requiem” out of found objects, wire, wood, pipe and discarded instruments. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)

Art can be a vehicle to make an impact on the world.

That’s one of the first lessons Bob Madden remembers learning from Associate Teaching Professor Michael Behle at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, and the idea has continued to guide his career in arts engagement. For Madden, who returned to study in the Department of Art and Design in 2021 after a 35-year career in restaurants, a lightbulb immediately went off.

“It just opened my mind to possibilities that I just never in my life considered,” he said. “It was anything from working with community groups to charities to helping people with healing. It was almost endless what you could do. I almost dare anybody to take Mike Behle’s class on Arts Life and not think, ‘Oh yeah, we have to do this. I must bring art to the streets right now.’ Because it’s sort of life-changing.”

Madden, who grew up working in restaurants and opened his own, 50/Fifty Kitchen, in 2018, decided to go back to school amid the COVID-19 pandemic while working in food sales. He had always wanted to be a teacher – and specifically an art teacher – and hearing news reports about teachers dropping out of the workforce because of the challenges of the pandemic provided the final push he needed.

Madden initially enrolled at a local community college before transferring to UMSL. While he planned to pursue a career in art education, Behle’s class helped Madden find his way to the studio art program, which he felt would set him up for a career focusing on art and community service. In order to build on that passion, he helped revive Artists Anonymous, a student-run organization focused on community art projects. The group hosted multiple events both on the UMSL campus, such as a painting art therapy project, a chalking event in collaboration with the Pierre Laclede Honors College and a resource fair in partnership with A Red Circle, and out in the surrounding community, such as painting murals and projects with the Make-a-Wish Foundation and United Way.

 Madden enjoyed learning from professors who are working artists themselves and would frequently connect him with other artists or local arts organizations. He feels strongly that UMSL offered a supportive environment for nontraditional students like him.

“It was definitely a very supportive environment. Because when it came down to it, you’re rewarded for the work,” he said. “It wasn’t about age. UMSL pays a lot of attention to the needs of every student individually. Me being an older student was never part of the issue; it actually made me a better student, and it was not a hindrance at all. I think it might have been a different story and a different kind of a university, but I’d say it was a great experience for me, and a great opportunity for me to be able to do it at that school and at that level.”

Madden says the connections he made at UMSL, including Behle as well as Professor of Printmaking Jeff Sippel, Senior Studio Professor Samantha Hunerlach-Tulin and Associate Professor Phillip Robinson were vital in helping him find a career that allowed him to combine his passions for art and community engagement. After graduating with his bachelor’s degree in studio art in May 2024, he started working as the special initiatives coordinator at the Missouri Arts Council in October. At the state-run agency, which is operated under the Lieutenant Governor’s office, he works to strengthen arts education in Missouri and make art more accessible to non-profits and communities across the state. For one of Madden’s first projects, the “Arts Everywhere” project, he was tasked with helping to distribute arts funding to every house district in Missouri – a milestone the organization ended up hitting for the first time in 60 years.

“We need this work now more than ever,” Madden says. “This is something that helps people in so many ways – it brings hope. It connects community. It brings a little bit of life and a little bit of joy knowing that there are people – not just artists – that may benefit from having that art connection. You can make a difference in the world by connecting art and community.”

To illustrate that point, Madden points to one small community in Missouri with a small theater that has been in business for over 30 years. Funding from the Missouri Arts Council helped alleviate some of the pressure from the self-sustaining theater. In another community, the organization has helped build arts programming, such as murals, to bring community members together and celebrate the local impact. Yet another community has a largely home-schooled population, so the Missouri Arts Council helped put on a local makers’ fair with live music and instruction to bring children together.

“Music and art and dance have this way of speaking to people and cutting through things and communicating with people in a way that you can’t in another way,” Madden said. “It brings people together and helps bond the community a little bit more. It’s an essential part of showing people the need for that humanity that sometimes gets lost in the mix.”

Madden has found that even a small grant of $1,000 can have a profound impact on these communities, and it’s rewarding to make even a small difference in the lives of people across Missouri. The work has further cemented his belief that art can have transformative power in community engagement and education.

“Knowing that we’ve gone into these communities and that we’ve helped in some way by bringing something to the school district, to the library, to the community center, to the town square – knowing that in some way we’ve touched people is a very fulfilling and wonderful feeling,” he said. “You’re not solving the entire problem, but you brought everybody together, and you’ve made a difference in these people’s lives. So it resonates and it continues on. It helps them see that there is a brighter way to do things, and there’s something so satisfying about that.

“Art never disappoints. It constantly brings the love, the passion, the need for life, it opens people up in a way that is just wonderful.”