When thinking about arts organizations and community engagement, it is easy to get stuck on producer organizations–symphonies, theatres, dance companies, and (most of the time) museums. But there is another major constituency under the heading "arts organizations"–presenters, usually performing arts venues. (When museums host traveling exhibitions they are, similarly, presenters.) I have spoken with staff members of presenting organizations … [Read more...]
Eureka!
A member of a current cohort of our Community Engagement Training is a professional musician who is passionate about connecting with communities and has been so for years. Even before running across my books she was intuitively aware of the need for deeper relationships between musicians and people outside the artiverse. She has been an eager and very perceptive participant in the training. All of that is why it was so revealing when she … [Read more...]
On the Horizon
Earlier this month I highlighted three factors fueling a growing international interest in community engagement and the arts: economics (the “cost disease”); demographics (the declining percentage of people with European cultural backgrounds); and funders' demands for much broader community impact than is typical with Eurocentric arts organizations. It seems like a little expansion on these existential threats to the status quo might be in … [Read more...]
ArtPlace America Engagement Resources
As I mentioned in an earlier post I recently had the opportunity to engage with Lyz Crane of ArtPlace America in a discussion about creative placemaking and community engagement. In the course of that discussion she shared some resources that ArtPlace has made available that can be of considerable benefit to anyone involved in community engagement. The first is a blog post about crowdsourced funding for community-based projects. It offers a … [Read more...]
Global Engagement
I began pondering issues related to community engagement almost 30 years ago. I began writing material that led to my first book on the subject about 10 years ago. And I started this blog about 7 and a half years ago. In all that time I assumed that my messages were pretty specific to the cultural and social history of the United States and to its arts institutions. To my considerable surprise, in the last six years I have been asked to be a … [Read more...]
Creative Placemaking
Recently I had the pleasure of reconnecting with a friend and colleague. The Community Engagement Network hosted a conversation with Lyz Crane addressing the topic of creative placemaking and community engagement. (To join the Network, click here or email us a CEN@artsengaged.com.) Lyz is Deputy Director of ArtPlace America, the private agency whose ten-year mission is to encourage and support creative placemaking. She is also a friend whose … [Read more...]
Trees, Arts, and Communities
In January Joe Patti (Butts in Seats) wrote an exceptionally valuable post (Trees Come with Unexpected Baggage). It was about a nonprofit organization in Detroit planting trees in neighborhoods. It turns out that, for a wide variety of reasons, many people did not want the trees. For many of us, a free tree sounds like an unequivocally good thing. Why would anyone not want one? It turns out that there are a number of reasons. But a common … [Read more...]
Existential Threats
I have written about this basic topic on numerous occasions but I keep getting asked related questions in new ways. Toward the end of last year someone asked what was the most important reason for arts organizations to embrace community engagement: economic viability or cultural justice. Before I try to address the question, let me summarize the basic points. The first is that due to rapidly increasing costs, demographic shifts in the … [Read more...]
Mission Commitment
One of the most basic elements of effective community engagement is commitment to community well-being at the mission level. Without this, virtually all other efforts will be marginal at best or counter-productive at worst. The nature of this commitment can be expressed in whatever way is most authentic to the organization and its communities. The generic template I sometimes suggest can be found here. It's so general, it's more of a sentiment … [Read more...]
Listen vs. Tell
Over a year ago I began presented a somewhat tongue-in-cheek means of differentiating among two vastly different styles of approaching sales, audience development, audience engagement, and community engagement–the means by which we connect with the public. It was rooted in the difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, the "tell" and "interact" versions of the internet. In sharing the concept with people I realized that basing it on Web 1.0 and Web … [Read more...]