In this blog I attempt to highlight essential principles of effective community engagement work. In my recent posts Lead or Follow? and Equality in Engagement, I have tried to make the point that communities have valuable things to tell us when we work with them–not just about topics or issues to be pursued but about content, form, and media of the art that comes out of the collaboration. In the last week two things have gotten me focused even more than usual on the fact that to engage well we need to think this is true, be in the community, and, wait for it, listen!
Postcard Spotlight
ArtsForward had a recent post entitled Postcard Spotlight in which they highlight 2011 Rockefeller Foundation Cultural Innovation Fund grantees. All of the organizations included were what I call “Under the Radar” organizations, those working outside of the arts establishment. The post featured several projects that highlighted the merits of listening.
El Puente, a Brooklyn peace and justice organization, conducted a door-to-door campaign in which staffers and volunteers talked one-on-one with community residents to get their input on a visioning process for the future of South Williamsburg. While not specifically an arts project, the arts are part of this in that questions about leisure activities and celebrations were central to the process. El Puente, which has a vibrant arts arm, understands 1) that successful community planning needs to come from the grassroots up and 2) that the arts are an essential part of any cultural revitalization project. The notion of door-to-door canvassing as a prelude to (or part of) community engagement work is one worth remembering.
Casita Maria and Dancing in the Streets of the South Bronx are two organizations jointly working to create a cultural trail in an area credited as the birth place of Hip-Hop and Latin-American music but which has been “buried by decades of neighborhood development.” They are going into the neighborhoods and interviewing residents about important locations in the area’s cultural history. From this material, site-specific dance will be created that will be featured on the cultural trail. [NOTE: This was the first time I had seen “site specific” applied to dance. That’s a fascinating idea.]
Dancing in the Streets’ Executive Director, Aviva Davidson, says of this process:
We’re going in with an idea and we have a project outline and we have goals… but it’s a process of inquiry. So we’re not going to come and say we’re going to put on a show and it might fail because they hate it. We’re going go in and saying we’re going to create a show in response to what we find out. It’s a process of inquiry and if it’s a process of inquiry you can’t fail. [Emphasis added.]
Chimpanzee Productions has organized the Digital Diaspora Family Reunion for the purpose of capturing history, via the pictures and stories of community members, that would otherwise be lost. One staff member described it as “Antiques Roadshow meets StoryCorps.” Family photographs and stories are collected and made available both online and “offline.” This project reminded me (a bit) of one of the popup museums described by Michelle DelCarlo in my post Pop-Ups.
Obviously, the common thread here is “getting out” into the community. Even if these do not all serve as the basis for creation of works of art, they are reminders that community input is a valuable thing and talking with the community is a valuable tool.
HGOco
But I said there had been two things in the last week that got me thinking about the “Listen” element of engagement. In editing Sandra Bernhard’s article about Houston Grand Opera’s HGOco program (the community engagement arm of HGO) for Building Communities, Not Audiences, I came across her advice for effective engagement: “The secret is to show up, keep showing up, shut up, and listen . . . and never leave.” That may not be all you need to know about engagement, but it will get you farther than almost any other single sentence–except, perhaps, “Believe it’s worth it and respect your partners.”
Believe, listen, and then
Engage!
Doug
Photo: Jen’s Ear 
Some rights reserved by Dr Stephen Dann
Doug,
The Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival in Ontario, Canada, has been presenting site-specific works for over a decade. This is one of their most popular programming concepts and it is delightful to watch families, seniors, students enjoying dance in both interesting and mundane locations.
Thanks for the mention Doug! At ArtsFwd.org, our goal is to share stories about innovation in arts organization so that arts leaders, funders, policymakers, and more can learn from each other. Too often innovative strategies happen in isolation. We’ll be following many of the 2011 Rockefeller Cultural Innovation Fund grantees over the next two years as they complete their projects, so stay tuned to find out how these “shut up and listen” strategies play out.
Karina Mangu-Ward
Director, ArtsFwd.org
Wild Space Dance Company in Milwaukee has been creating and performing site specific work for 25 years in pools, parks, historic buildings and more. Check them out!
I think that the idea of approaching the community for ideas could have countless benefits for the community and its members. These benefits go beyond that of city structure and planning. The members of the community are an untapped resource that many city leaders do not take advantage of. They are familiar with different aspects of the area and interests of others that are otherwise unknown by those in higher decision making positions. A fresh set of minds set to tackle such concepts may be just what a community needs to be more successful and enjoyable to its inhabitants.