A colleague recently reminded me of a wonderful keynote speech given many moons ago about arts advocacy and connecting the arts to their communities. I’m usually not a big fan of lists (the seven habits of highly effective habit-book writers, for example), but this one is useful for describing an essential management skillset.
Diane Mataraza used to run the Locals program at the National Endowment for the Arts, then moved to the NARAS Foundation, and finally into consulting, where she remains today. I’ve seen her in action on a few occassions, and heard her talk about what she does. In terms of connecting and being connected to a broad constituency, she’s at the top of the game.
So, having her list her ‘ten commandments of advocacy’ is something worth a moment of time. And here they are, in cryptic form:
- Know thy cause
- Know thy issues
- Be well organized
- Know thy community
- Know thy public officials
- Know thy process
- Remember that the levels of success are directly proportional to the numbers involved
- Be persistent
- Forget not the characteristics of human nature
- Lead by example.
Details of each commandment are halfway through the speech (jump right to that section, if you like). So, go ye into all the world, raise ye money, schmooze ye legislators, and make ye powerful friends.
