Periodically, I have the pleasure of writing about the work of my friend, choreographer Allison Orr, and her company, Forklift Danceworks. (Most notably in The Trash Project.) For the purposes of this blog, she is highly . . . bloggable. Ms. Orr has built a career on seeing "ordinary" people and creating dance inspired and performed (!) by them–gondoliers, Japanese women professional baseball players, power company workers, urban foresters, … [Read more...]
Public Art in Erie
Earlier this year I had the pleasure of assisting Erie (PA) Arts and Culture with their strategic planning process. I worked closely with their board and their executive director, Patrick Fisher and was impressed by their collective commitment to meaningful community engagement. My work there came in the middle of a long-term project of commissioning murals for the city. In October one was completed that impressed me so much I had to share it … [Read more...]
Response to The Chasm of Disbelief
The following is an incredibly thoughtful response written by Carter Gilles to my post The Chasm of Disbelief. I am particularly grateful to him for pointing out the important role that doing the arts, participating in the arts, can play in overcoming disbelief. Once again, thanks Carter! Doug Borwick Carter Gilles The idea that ‘the arts are not valuable’ is not simply a statement in isolation but the conclusion from a larger point … [Read more...]
Doomed to Fail
Diversity, equity, and inclusion are–rightly and way too belatedly–important topics in the nonprofit arts world right now. I heartily applaud the focus. However . . . I worry about the way the topics are being approached. If an arts organization attempts to incorporate DEI awareness and efforts without a deep, mission-level commitment to being of the community; to forming mutually beneficial, lasting relationships with new communities; to … [Read more...]
Mission Creep??!!
A colleague recently shared that when they advocate for community engagement in their organization they get pushback about "mission creep." Mission creep??!! If connecting the arts with communities is not an arts organization's mission, what is it?! I know, I know. There is an assumption (conscious or otherwise) on some people's part that arts organizations owe their allegiance to the art they present. I will spare long-time readers (and … [Read more...]
Donor Myopia
In Grass Is Greener? I recounted discoveries about arts organizations with adequate or more-than-adequate government funding. They face problems that might surprise those of us working in the arts in the U.S. And more to the point of this post, my colleagues in South America and Australia were envious of the ability we have to tap private money–individuals, corporations, and foundations. In that earlier post I promised a consideration of the … [Read more...]
The Chasm of Disbelief
Think you (or your organization) don't understand the people you are trying to reach? If you are talking about people other than your current attendees/donors and their peers, you are 100% correct; and they understand you even less. (And if you don't think you don't understand you are probably deluding yourself.) There is, between the general public and those of us on the "inside" of the nonprofit arts industry, a gap in perception that I … [Read more...]
Community Engagement Resources
It has been seven years since I retired from three decades in academia. Yet each year, come fall, I am still aware of back-to-class vibrations in the air and my inner professor seeks to remind me he is there. This year, at the same time, I am reflecting on the materials we have put together to support community engagement work. This thinking was generated by an email I got about one of my books. It said, in part, "I have to be honest, I … [Read more...]
Relationships Checkup
Some time ago, while discussing relationship maintenance, a student of mine shared with her training group a practice she employed to keep community relationships current. (One of the big pitfalls in engagement is losing track of relationships after an event is over.) I commented on what a great idea it was and made a note to visit it further here on the blog and in my own thinking. . . . I promptly forgot about it. Fortunately, the note … [Read more...]
Benefits (Yet Again)
It has been two years since I posted my effort at categorizing the benefits of the arts. In both of my international trips this year the subject came up and people wanted to deal with it at length. The subject is an urgent one both because of the social and political pressures to justify funding (the fallback arguments are "instrumental" ones, "How can the arts improve non-arts outcomes?") and our need to be able to articulate the inherent value … [Read more...]