Building Communities, Not Audiences

[For those of you clicking in here from Rocco Landesman's post, welcome!]

As I’ve mentioned, I’m writing/editing a book entitled Building Communities, Not Audiences: The Future of the Arts in the U.S.  (Not a bit of hyperbole there, huh?)

Here’s the idea:

The central premise of Building Communities, Not Audiences is that established arts organizations, for practical and moral reasons, need to be more deeply connected to their communities. The target market for the book is the personnel of established arts organizations and organizations serving them, along with the rest of that art world’s stakeholders. The intended tasks of the book are to analyze the sources of separation between communities and the Western “high art” tradition, to consider the benefits to communities and to the arts of reducing that separation, and to provide an introduction to the means of doing so.

So when is it going to be ready? As of early April 2012, all the principal text is in, the designer has finished inputting the text, and we are finalizing the layout and cover. (Hallelujah!) We are hoping for a release of print and electronic versions of it by mid-year 2012. It will be available in hard copy form (ca. $20-25) from Amazon and the website for ArtsEngaged. (The ArtsEngaged site is under development, so don’t go looking for it right now.) It will be available as an ebook (under $10 for Kindle, Nook, and, I think, pdf) from Amazon, B & N, and the ArtsEngaged site. If you want to be informed immediately when it becomes available, send email to info@artsengaged.com.

Tidbits from the book:

I think the days of the arts in ivory towers are behind us;
the very best arts organizations are . . . connecting communities with artists . . . .
Not only can the arts build communities, I think we must.

Rocco Landesman, Chairman
National Endowment for the Arts
———————-

Doug Borwick calls for substantive rather than superficial efforts, authentic and systemic changes.
The challenge is not whether to build communities or audiences but how to build communities and audiences together.

Robert L. Lynch, President and CEO
Americans for the Arts
———————-

The future of the arts, indeed the future of a healthy world, lies in artists and communities embracing each other. . . .

New habits of mind and practice may be necessary for artists; new habits of thought and work may be needed in communities. But when they succeed in finding and fulfilling their common purpose, we will have reclaimed the legacy of community that sprang forth around pre-historical campfires, the flames next to which the arts were born.

Ben Cameron, Program Director for the Arts
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
———————-

I would suggest that relevance . . . is not a goal that arts institutions can pursue directly;
rather, it is a side effect of transcending the need to be appreciated, preserved, and supported in perpetuity
and, instead, eagerly serving the needs of their communities.
Doing so requires preparation for and commitment to engagement as described in this book.

Diane Ragsdale
Cultural critic, author, speaker
———————-

There has never been a time when we needed to be in communities with one another more,
and the arts can lead the way.

Russell Willis Taylor, President and CEO
National Arts Strategies
———————-

Contributors:
Forewords by Rocco Landesman, Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts; Robert Lynch, President and CEO, Americans for the Arts
Barbara Schaffer Bacon: Co-Director, Animating Democracy-Americans for the Arts
Sandra Bernhard: Director, HGOco of Houston Grand Opera
Susan Badger Booth: Assistant Professor, Communications, Media & Theatre Arts Department, Eastern Michigan University
Tom Borrup: Principal, Creative Community Builders
Ben Cameron: Program Director for the Arts, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
Bill Cleveland: Director, Center for the Study of Art and Community
Lyz Crane: Former Director of Program Development, Partners for Livable Communities
David Dombrosky: Chief Marketing Officer for InstantEncore; former director, Carnegie Mellon’s Center for Arts Management and Technology
Maryo Gard Ewell: Community Arts Consultant
Tom Finkelpearl: Executive Director, Queens Museum of Art
Jonathan Katz (Interview): CEO, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies
Pam Korza: Co-Director, Animating Democracy-Americans for the Arts
Helen Lessick: artist and civic art advocate specializing in public art working in the U.S., Europe, and Africa
Stephanie Moore: freelance arts and culture researcher based in Los Angeles, CA
Dorothy Gunther Pugh: Founder & Artistic Director, Ballet Memphis
Diane Ragsdale: Former Associate Program Officer, Performing Arts, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Noel Raymond: Co-Director, Pillsbury House Theatre, St. Paul, MN
Preranna Reddy: Director of Public Events, Queens Museum of Art
Sandra Ruppert (Interview): Director, Art Education Partnership
Sebastian Ruth: Founder & Artistic Director, Community MusicWorks, Providence, RI
Russell Willis Taylor: President and CEO, National Arts Strategies
James Undercofler: Professor, Drexel University, Westphal College of Media Arts and Design; former President and CEO, Philadelphia Orchestra; former director, Eastman School of Music
Roseann Weiss: Director, Community Arts Training Institute, Regional Arts Commission, St. Louis, MO