• Home
  • About
    • Engaging Matters
    • Doug Borwick
    • Backstory-Ground Rules
    • Contact
  • Resources
    • Building Communities, Not Audiences
    • Engage Now! A Guide to Making the Arts Indispensable
  • EM’s List
  • AJBlogs
  • ArtsJournal

Engaging Matters

Doug Borwick on vibrant arts and communities

You are here: Home / Archives for Overview

Connect

January 13, 2021 by Doug Borwick 2 Comments

The viability of our industry depends upon significantly expanding our base. To do so, we must connect with and come to matter to more and more people. This post is a follow up to an earlier one, Getting the Question(s) Right. It would probably be a good idea to read that if you've not done so. Here is an excerpt from the close of that post: So our questions should be, first, "What are our communities feeling/ experiencing?" and second, … [Read more...]

Getting the Question(s) Right

January 6, 2021 by Doug Borwick 2 Comments

As a blogger, I think I'm supposed to begin the New Year with reflections and projections. But the traumas of 2020 are still too fresh for me and the way forward, while bringing hope, is far murkier than it has been at the beginning of almost any year of my life. So I won't try to do either. What I will do is suggest that at least one question I've seen raised about the nonprofit arts industry in 2021 is the wrong one. Roughly put, it is "How … [Read more...]

Are You Paying Attention?

July 8, 2020 by Doug Borwick

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has just announced that it's grant-making will focus entirely on issues related to social justice. Elizabeth Alexander, President of the Foundation, said that their concern will be "Who haven’t we reached? Who haven’t we supported? Who hasn’t felt Mellon was interested in their work?" Here is link to the Artnet article that brought this to my attention: … [Read more...]

Justice

June 3, 2020 by Doug Borwick

It's time (well past time) for old white guys to shut up and to highlight People of Color speaking for themselves about the natural outrage that's all around us. Each of the following references are a exceprts from gifted writers. (But please read all of each article.) New York Times columnist Charles Blow: The Destructive Power of Despair It is exceedingly dangerous to assume that oppression and pain can be inflicted without consequence, to … [Read more...]

What Comes Next? IV

May 20, 2020 by Doug Borwick

The post-pandemic world will be different, probably in significant ways. We have no idea what those ways will be. There may not be a political reckoning as the result of any heightened awareness of inequality and injustice that this crisis has highlighted. I don't expect violent social unrest. (See What Comes Next? I, II, and III.) But I am not the only one imagining the possibility of big changes. Michelle Goldberg, a New York Times columnist … [Read more...]

What Comes Next? III

May 18, 2020 by Doug Borwick

If we as a nation come out of the pandemic with a heightened awareness of and reaction to profound economic inequality and the systemic injustice in which it is rooted, it could be that the arts are in for a difficult time. As I wrote in my last post: In the minds of many, we are closely associated with the economic and social "elite." This may bode ill for our organizations. This association is as old as the U.S. I was first made aware of the … [Read more...]

What Comes Next? II

May 13, 2020 by Doug Borwick

Throughout its history, one of the safety valves for our nation has been a broadly held belief in the "American Dream"–the idea that anyone can rise from nothing to great success. Let's acknowledge that this has never been actually true. Poverty, discrimination, and a host of other social ills have meant that the actual percentage of people for whom that dream was possible was small. However, belief in it has been pervasive among a large section … [Read more...]

What Comes Next?

May 6, 2020 by Doug Borwick

We are all (or maybe I should say most of us are) overcome with unanswerable questions. COVID-19 dominates our thinking and has drastically altered our lives. We are faced with impenetrable uncertainty about what comes next . . . and when it will come. This is true for us as individuals. And while it may be difficult to focus too much on the fact, it is also true for our arts organizations. In both cases, whatever the new normal will be will … [Read more...]

New Year’s Manifesto

January 15, 2020 by Doug Borwick

The New Year seems to be a good time to try to set down some of my basic thoughts about the need for and the path to effective community engagement. As often happens on this blog, this is a very rough first draft. Refinements will follow. Whereas The environment that nurtured the development of the nonprofit arts industry has changed radically. The sum of these changes create an existential threat to the future of that … [Read more...]

Response to The Chasm of Disbelief

November 6, 2019 by Guest Blogger

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 The idea that ‘the arts are not valuable’ is not simply a statement in isolation but the conclusion from a larger point of view. The … [Read more...]

Next Page »

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 …]

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 678 other subscribers

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) […]

Share this:

  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Archives

Recent Comments

  • Jerry Yoshitomi on Connect: “Doug: Thank you again for this. You’re suggesting that we must develop new ‘capacities’ or ‘muscles’ in order to be…” Jan 13, 21:24
  • Alan Harrison on Connect: “Brilliantly put, once again. Thanks, Doug!” Jan 13, 02:43
  • Jackie Mathis on Getting the Question(s) Right: “I have been spending a lot of time thinking about this, and there seems to me a huge opportunity for…” Jan 7, 18:06
  • Trevor O’Donnell on Getting the Question(s) Right: ““Connect and then Matter” Brilliant. Should be the new mantra for every arts organization.” Jan 6, 10:35
  • David Barclay Pankratz on Why Engage?: “Thanks for your very thoughtful post, Penny. And thanks for publishing this, Doug. I’m a steering committee member for the…” Nov 11, 20:39

Tags

and artcentricity artists arts Asia Pacific board of directors box office business model change community engagement creativity dance definitions diversity equity examples excellence funding fundraising future governance grants implementation inclusion instrumental international Intrinsic mainstreaming management marketing mission museums music participation partnership placemaking programming public good public policy relationships research Robert E. Gard Foundation structure terminology theatre
Return to top of page

an ArtsJournal blog

This blog published under a Creative Commons license

Copyright © 2021 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.