Keith Bender

Background

About Keith Bender

Emerging sculptor based in the Canberra region. Graduated from the ANU School of Art with a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Sculpture Major) in 2016. Exploring my passion for the environment through assembled, constructed and cast forms. In 2016, I installed the first contemporary sculpture at Norwood Park entitled Mourning in Time and Space. In 2018 my work Confluence was installed in the Gift of Life Garden at Canberra's National Aboretum. In 2016 I received a number Emerging Artist Support Scheme Awards including a year long residency at the Art, Design and Technology Centre at Canberra Grammar School. Before I went to art school I was working in the Australian Public Service (APS). Prior to retiring from the APS I led a Project Board which successfully steered the implementation of new Human Resources software in the then Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC). The software helps agencies get the most out of their people by integrating performance management, recruitment, learning, talent management and training. Often employees do not have performance agreements with clearly specified roles and performance expectations aligned to their organisation's strategy and related goals. Sometimes the agreements are in place but clear measures of what is expected are often lacking leading to sub-optimal performance assessments and development and growth of people in the workplace. The software was designed to help address this in DIAC. Software is only an enabler good leaders listen to and get the most from their people with or without enabling software.