{"id":1117,"date":"2008-01-16T08:42:02","date_gmt":"2008-01-16T16:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/2008\/01\/curating_impact_through_artist\/"},"modified":"2008-01-16T08:42:02","modified_gmt":"2008-01-16T16:42:02","slug":"curating_impact_through_artist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/curating_impact_through_artist.php","title":{"rendered":"Curating impact through artists"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the more radical phrases spoken during the recent Arts Presenters conference seemed to breeze over the room without much attention. In describing <a href=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/078829.php\">his collaborative research project<\/a>, exploring the intrinsic impacts of live performing arts attendance, Alan Brown suggested that the cultural manager&#8217;s role was &#8221;curating impact through artists.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In other words, our ultimate goal is not finding, filtering, fostering, preserving, and presenting cultural works, but delivering the human and social impacts that engagement with those works provide. It may sound like a semantic distinction, but it&#8217;s a fundamental reshuffling of how most arts managers align their resources.<\/p>\n<p>In this view, a compelling arts experience is not the end of our efforts, but the means by which our true product is produced.<\/p>\n<p>Consider the following mission statements, for example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Playhouse Square Foundation is a not-for-profit performing arts center whose mission is presenting and producing a wide variety of quality performing arts&#8230; [ <a href=\"http:\/\/www.playhousesquare.org\/About\/About.aspx\">full mission here<\/a> ]\n<li>The Clarice Smith Center transforms lives through sustained engagement with the arts. [ <a href=\"http:\/\/claricesmithcenter.umd.edu\/2007\/c\/visitors\/whatwedo\">related &#8221;key messages&#8221; here<\/a> ]\n<\/ul>\n<p>One is in the business of presenting and producing art. The other is in the business of transforming lives.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll admit to being rather fond of the inversion, given its implications for how we measure and manage our organizations. But I can also see the challenge of the phrase in connecting with the core expressive power that drives that impact.<\/p>\n<p>So many extraordinary expressive works are the result of creative self-indulgence, detachment from the expected, and even disregard for how they might be received. The dangers of defining our work through its impact are two-fold (at least): First, we might begin to assume we know in advance where and how that impact will arise. Second, we might compress the time in which we expect that impact to show itself (Will we transform lives this quarter? Or will it take several decades to transform even one? And is our board ready for that kind of long view?).<\/p>\n<p>Despite these dangers, I&#8217;d encourage everyone to ask themselves, their co-workers, and their boards about the core and ultimate purpose of what you do. Do you present art? Or do you curate human impact through the arts?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the more radical phrases spoken during the recent Arts Presenters conference seemed to breeze over the room without much attention. In describing his collaborative research project, exploring the intrinsic impacts of live performing arts attendance, Alan Brown suggested that the cultural manager&#8217;s role was &#8221;curating impact through artists.&#8221; In other words, our ultimate [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1117","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}