Air Fryers: I

Bear with me. I’ll explain this. 🙂

There are some things that we don’t need to learn more about to know that we need. Refrigerators, for instance. When we need one, we know it and don’t have to be convinced of the fact.

Other things are either new or unfamiliar and it takes some explanation and experience to see why we would want them. As but one example . . . the air fryer. Several years ago my children were raving about them. I thought to myself, “Oh boy, yet another kitchen gadget!” Upon seeing that I hadn’t “bitten,” the kids decided to give us one as a Christmas gift.

It sat in the kitchen for a while and I used it once or twice, but I just didn’t “get it.” Then, since we don’t (and can’t–we live in a condo) have a grill I tried it for steak. That worked very well and became my “go to” on those one or two occasions a year when we had steak. Later I read about using an air fryer for crisping up tofu. Now that got my attention and the results were spectacular. The appliance became a more regular part of the cooking rotation. Recently, in an effort to be healthier, we’ve been trying to cut back on using so much oil for sautéing vegetables for many dishes. I investigated using an air fryer and, good grief, it’s amazing. That thing may now be active on our kitchen counter several times a week.

Here it comes.

In the third quarter of the Twentieth Century there were enough people who understood the arts that marketing could be semi-successful by merely “getting the word out” about upcoming events. Due to profound changes in demographics, economics, and education, that is no longer the case. If we are to remain viable, we must gain considerable support from the pool of people who look on the nonprofit arts industry as “air fryers”–unknown and/or unappealing.

“Selling” me on an air fryer took years of experience and the breaking of many cooking habits. Both took a lot of time–far, far more than is necessary to get me to buy a refrigerator when mine breaks down. (That’s an almost instantaneous sell.) Similarly, “selling” the nonprofit arts to enough people to support the work is not simply a matter of “getting the word out.” It takes a serious commitment to community engagement: educating ourselves about the interests and needs of the many people who need convincing, developing trusting relationships with them (more on that next time), and crafting messages for them that address their interests. In addition, I would argue that developing experiences in doing the arts is going to be a crucial part of our work in the next generation.

This ground laying in advance of any possible “sell” takes time. Convincing me of the value of an air fryer took years. It is not the fault of community engagement that some of the results take time. It is the incalculable value of community engagement that it is the only way to fill the increasing viability gap that we face.

Next time I’ll talk about the difficulties faced when the “manufacturer” of a product is suspect in the eyes of a potential customer. There’s a completely different, complicating factor.

Engage!

Doug

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