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Engaging Matters

Doug Borwick on vibrant arts and communities

You are here: Home / Archives for community engagement

Be What You Are

January 24, 2018 by Doug Borwick

Be What You Are

This is part of a series, introduced in Baby Steps, about arts organizations’ initial efforts in community engagement. The premises are twofold. First, since relationship building is the core of community engagement, attempting to do too much too fast (before the relationship is established) will likely not be productive and, in fact, may be counter-productive. Second, there are many things that can be done to support engagement that do not … [Read more...]

Baby Steps

January 17, 2018 by Doug Borwick

Baby Steps

Over the last eighteen months I have begun to put greater emphasis on the need for (and advantages of) simplicity and gradualism in beginning community engagement efforts. [Keep It Simple, Essential Gradualism] Major community engagement efforts (commissioning work, massive collaborations, large-scale productions) are cool but daunting (and sometimes off-putting to the communities we are trying to reach) to organizations new to substantive … [Read more...]

What You Need to Know

January 10, 2018 by Doug Borwick

What You Need to Know

Community engagement and its potential for enhancing the viability of arts organizations is too often poorly understood or just plain misunderstood. It is conflated with other tasks and minimized by people who cannot envision its potential. I have become increasingly aware of the need for a (relatively) brief and simple overview of the essentials in order to see what community engagement is and can be and, importantly, what it is not. Over the … [Read more...]

Docents as Engagers

January 3, 2018 by Doug Borwick

Docents as Engagers

Some time ago in a forum discussing community engagement, someone asked me what the role of docents should be in engagement work. It was a light bulb question for me. My professional background is primarily in the performing arts so I have always viewed box office workers and ushers as important elements in contact with the public and, therefore, in engagement efforts. The question opened up to me a whole world of possibilities since docents are … [Read more...]

Robert Gard on Arts and Communities

December 12, 2017 by Doug Borwick

Robert Gard on Arts and Communities

When my good friend Maryo Gard Ewell asked me to write a reflection on the Gard Foundation/Americans for the Arts collaborative collection of Robert Gard's writings (To Change the Face & Heart of America), I was more than willing. Eager would probably not be a stretch. When I began teaching arts management, I remember Gard's The Arts in the Small Community almost leaping off the library shelf at me. His insistence on the importance of the … [Read more...]

First You Talk

December 6, 2017 by Doug Borwick

First You Talk

Typically, when I see a headline like this: Opera Memphis Kicks Off Effort to Diversify Audience, I cringe. Not because I don't believe in diversifying our audiences. I clearly do. However, too often it is done badly and for pretty poor reasons. (See The Self-Centered Pursuit of Diversity) I can't speak to the company's motivations or even to much extent about their practices in attempting this. However–stop the presses–if you read the article … [Read more...]

Education and Engagement

November 29, 2017 by Doug Borwick

Education and Engagement

Speaking of education and engagement (as I did in my last post, External Connections), there is topic (or two or three) specific to them that probably bears addressing. Like marketing/sales and fundraising, education and engagement are externally oriented. However, since they do not necessarily have an immediate impact on the bottom line they can be viewed as less important in the arts organization hierarchy. In addition, they are both relative … [Read more...]

External Connections

November 15, 2017 by Doug Borwick

External Connections

Fundraising, sales, education, and engagement. All are concerned with making connections between an arts organization and individuals (and groups) outside the organization. The first two have long been focused most on people who have historically been supportive of arts of the European aristocratic cultural tradition. The latter two have spent somewhat more time dealing with those who have not. Fundraising and sales are further related in that … [Read more...]

Community Knowledge

November 8, 2017 by Doug Borwick

Community Knowledge

It's no secret that I advocate for arts organizations addressing community interests. (Well, duh!) And, in order to do that, we have to know what those interests are. (Again, duh!) On my website I address some of the ways we can start to discover those interests. (Community Learning) Of course, the simple answer is to talk to members of those communities. And we absolutely should do so. But if this is so important, here's another thing we could … [Read more...]

From Mileposts to Through Line

November 1, 2017 by Doug Borwick

From Mileposts to Through Line

Mileposts are those small signs we see (or, usually, ignore) as we speed along the interstate that indicate how far we've travelled. It's only in the rarest instances that anyone pays them any attention. Some people probably never do. Arts organizations are event-driven. We maintain in our heads an often unacknowledged chronology of progress from one event to the next. We pay extreme attention to the content and production of each event but this … [Read more...]

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About Doug Borwick

Doug Borwick is a past President of the Board of the Association of Arts Administration Educators and was for nearly 30 years Director of the Arts Management and Not-for-Profit Management Programs at Salem College in Winston-Salem, NC. He is CEO of Outfitters4, Inc., providing management services to nonprofit organizations and ArtsEngaged providing training and consultation to artists and arts organization to help them more effectively engage with their communities. [Read More …]

About Engaging Matters

The arts began as collective activity around the campfire, expressions of community. In a very real sense, the community owned that expression. Over time, with increasing specialization of labor, the arts– especially Western “high arts”– became … [Read More...]

Books

Books

Building Communities, Not Audiences: The Future of the Arts in the United States was published in 2012 as a “why to” book on community engagement. Engage Now! A Guide to Making the Arts Indispensable is a “how to” manual for the arts organization seeking to become invaluable. Doug is … [Read More...]

Gard Foundation Calls for Stories

The Robert E. Gard Foundation is dedicated to fostering healthy communities through arts-based development, it is currently seeking stories from communities in which the arts have improved the lives of citizens in remarkable ways. These stories can either be full descriptions (400-900 words) with photos, video, and web links or mini stories (ca. 200 words) […]

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Archives

Recent Comments

  • Doug Borwick on Systemically Privileged: “Thanks for your thoughtful response. You are right that a central issue is the use of the description. I'm constantly…” Mar 9, 08:48
  • Edward Brennan on Systemically Privileged: “There is the question as to the purpose of the label. "systematically privileged" comes across as a desire to shame…” Mar 8, 16:30
  • Carter Gillies on Systemically Privileged: “You write this in the interest of landing on a better 'label' for these institutions, but I am worried. It…” Mar 7, 09:16
  • Ned Canty on First You Talk: “Thanks, Doug. We will.” Dec 14, 10:36
  • Doug Borwick on First You Talk: “Thanks for giving this more context. Congratulations on a good start. Keep us posted on how this goes!” Dec 14, 08:12

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