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Engaging Matters

Doug Borwick on vibrant arts and communities

We Wish (A Lot of Things)

May 11, 2022 by Doug Borwick

Fantasyland

As is fairly common for me, I’ve been thinking recently about Stephen Sondheim lyrics. The Prologue to Into the Woods contains long lists of wishes. Here’s just one list from Jack (and the Beanstalk)’s mother:

I wish my son were not a fool.
I wish my house was not a mess.
I wish the cow was full of milk.
I wish the house was full of gold-
I wish a lot of things…

There are so many things for which we wish.

We wish:

  • Everyone (or at least many more people) valued the arts the way we do.
  • Government funded the arts at levels that made it unnecessary to barely scrape by from day to day and year to year.
  • K-12 schools provided all students with significant educational opportunities in the arts.
  • That the arts were central to the collective life of our country.

Yet despite our wishing, these are not true. And they will not be in our lifetimes.

We can spend time arguing about why they’re not true, but, ultimately, that’s not productive. We could also expend our energy wishing that “someone” or “something” would make them come true; but that is even less productive. This wishful thinking is a neighborhood of Fantasyland in which we sometimes find ourselves wandering.

Many religious and philosophical traditions teach that wisdom begins with accepting reality and moving on from there. The only psychologically healthy response to the situation is to devote ourselves to doing things over which we have some control–the work of our arts organizations. If you look at the wish list, the common denominator is that far too few people to see the arts as important to them. The only solution available to us is to do things that make the arts important to more people. And we can’t do that unless we know them, work with them.

Community engagement is the means to that end.

Engage!

Doug

For another post: I originally wrote the “we wish” list with “the arts (that we value)” in every line. We should probably explore that another day.

Photo:

Some rights reserved by NormLanier – Publisher DailyDisneyPhoto.com

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Filed Under: Principles Tagged With: arts, community engagement, focus

About Doug Borwick

Doug Borwick is a past President of the Board of the Association of Arts Administration Educators and was for nearly 30 years Director of the Arts Management and Not-for-Profit Management Programs at Salem College in Winston-Salem, NC. He is CEO of Outfitters4, Inc., providing management services to nonprofit organizations and ArtsEngaged providing training and consultation to artists and arts organization to help them more effectively engage with their communities. [Read More …]

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About Engaging Matters

The arts began as collective activity around the campfire, expressions of community. In a very real sense, the community owned that expression. Over time, with increasing specialization of labor, the arts– especially Western “high arts”– became … [Read More...]

Books

Community Engagement: Why and How

Building Communities, Not Audiences: The Future of the Arts in the United States Engage Now! A Guide to Making the Arts Indispensable[Purchase info below] I have to be honest, I haven’t finished it yet because I’m constantly having to digest the ‘YES’ and ‘AMEN’ moments I get from each … [Read More...]

Gard Foundation Calls for Stories

The Robert E. Gard Foundation is dedicated to fostering healthy communities through arts-based development, it is currently seeking stories from communities in which the arts have improved the lives of citizens in remarkable ways. These stories can either be full descriptions (400-900 words) with photos, video, and web links or mini stories (ca. 200 words) […]

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