A former professor of mine used to say that there are two kinds of people in the world: those who divide the world into kinds of people, and those who don't. Now as a professor myself, I would add a third kind: those who cautiously categorize, but feel bad about it. That would be me. Faced with seemingly random complexity, it can be handy to group behaviors and tendencies (not people), but only for a specific and time-limited problem at hand, and only if you feel wary all along the way. … [Read more...]

One of the core actions of aesthetic/artistic attention is to step back – to make a little space between yourself and the object of your attention, so you can see it as it is, rather than see it as you are. Stephen Sondheim captures this imperative (and its implications) in "Finishing the Hat" from Sunday in the Park with George (here's Mandy Patinkin's reprise of his original Broadway role): … [Read more...]

If you work in the arts in higher education (or any education, for that matter), you are likely talking or hearing more about "complex problems," or perhaps "wicked problems." These are shorthand for a wide range of messy, persistent, usually negative aspects of civil or global society -- hunger, inequity, racism, terrorism, climate change, sectarianism, and so on. And these phrases are the latest reason to value and integrate the arts. … [Read more...]

The idea of "belonging" has long been a key point of aspiration and advocacy for the arts. Art builds empathy. Art builds community. Art infuses a sense of belonging into a world so desperate for it. In these conversations, the problem is framed as a "lack of belonging," and arts experiences are the solution. But history and human behavior suggest a more complex truth. … [Read more...]

Arts initiatives that seek social change often face an identity crisis: They are driven by passion, purpose, meaning, and making, but they are generally described and evaluated by more traditional measures. Worse than the challenge of a square peg in a round hole, "arts for change" projects aren't pegs at all, but multi-dimensional efforts that defy (or are deflated by) the narrow language of program design: how many people are served, from what demographic, by what logistical process, according to what linear logic model. … [Read more...]

We talk a lot in the arts about being "accessible" -- which tends to mean open and available to many different people. The assumption (and often the experience) is that a lot of artistic work is difficult to approach and challenging to engage, whether in the content itself, or in the places and practices we share it. The frequent reaction to "accessible" is that it means "dumbing down" the work, making it less rich, less complex, and less unique so that more people will consume it. That leads conversations to an impasse. … [Read more...]

One of my favorite moments in any planning or strategy meeting is when someone looks suddenly resolute, and says something like: "You know what the problem is? The problem is that we don't have a system to [do or decide or develop the thing we're talking about]." … [Read more...]

When faced with stress or dramatic change in our environment, we humans have a tendency to conflate things in our thinking -- to bundle two or more separate ideas or issues or observations into one. It's a coping response when the universe around us gets more complex or shifts faster than we can process. … [Read more...]

I haven't been able to assemble many words since November, so I'm grateful for those who have. On the one hand, thoughtful rhetoric and reasoned language seem increasingly discounted and disdained as core values. On the other, talk seems empty when focused and persistent action is so clearly required. … [Read more...]

I've offered a few posts recently on the craft and qualities of language in advancing purposeful work. Torbert et al's "four parts of speech" described the different colors on the palette of a well-crafted conversation. Schein's four forms of inquiry added detail and depth to one of those types of speech. But to me, the most essential and the most often missing aspect of any productive conversation is the frame. … [Read more...]