To date I've avoided a direct answer to the unspoken question some of you may have about all of this. Even if engagement is important for some arts organizations, do I really think it is essential for all? After my Quality and Community posts (Quality and Community; Quality and Community-2), it's probably time to face this. And, to save myself some time, I will, once again, quote myself (from Building Communities, Not Audiences). Colleagues whom … [Read more...]
Quality and Community-2
Must "quality" and "community" be mutually exclusive? Clearly I believe not, in spite of a widespread opinion to the contrary on the part of many in the established arts world. That prejudice against community is the elephant in the room I called out in my earlier Quality and Community post. In it I addressed, at least in a preliminary way, two of the three questions I put forward to begin the discussion: Who decides what quality is? and What do … [Read more...]
Brooklyn Philharmonic
A recent guest post by Katherine Gressel on Createquity (The new Brooklyn Philharmonic: A “Site-Specific” Orchestra?) discusses the Brooklyn Philharmonic's efforts to become more deeply involved with the neighborhoods that make up the borough. The BP is re-emerging after a budget-induced two-year hiatus. In doing so, the orchestra is programming in venues around Brooklyn, attempting in each to present music that matters to the residents "with … [Read more...]
Quality and Community
A respondent to an earlier post raised the issue of "quality" with respect to community engagement, suggesting in essence that engagement efforts inevitably result in a reduction in the artistic merit of the work. My response was, among other things, that if there is a decline in artistic quality in the arts engagement process, it's not engagement's fault. In fairness, I need to elaborate on that. We've got to address this elephant in the room … [Read more...]
Or?
A recent ARTSblog post Civic Engagement in the Arts in Action-Part I (thanks Maya Kumazawa) brought to mind a topic that needs to be addressed. The post featured an interesting organization called Dance 4 Peace. (I love it when a group nails its mission with its name. It's hard not to understand what D4P is about–"Dancing to inspire cultures of peace"–even if the methods need explaining.) Their website says that "Dance 4 Peace is a conflict … [Read more...]
Public Value, Public Funds
Fear and trembling I have. Yes. Talk of public funding for the arts. Happy no one will be. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Some time ago, Kelly Kleiman wrote a blog post for the Stanford Social Innovation Review that I only recently discovered: Second (and Third) Thoughts about Public Funding for the Arts. It has the entertainment value of presenting some pretty controversial (in the arts community) ideas, and it has the benefit of saying some … [Read more...]
The Eightfold Path to Community Engagement
OK, The Arts' Four Noble Truths was entertaining but contained little if any real substance. I'll grant you that. I hope this continuation of my trope on the essential tenets of Buddhism will be a little more nourishing. And let me acknowledge to those of you who are Buddhist that I know this all has little, if anything, to do with actual Buddhist teachings. Engagement, to me the key tool for healthy arts organizations, is a relationship … [Read more...]
Slow Food, Engaged Arts
One of the coolest things about the book I'm working on is the way I've been able to finagle really smart people into contributing. Then I get to read what they write and (up to a point) steal their ideas. Today's victim is Diane Ragsdale. (Yes, I've already cited Diane–see ArtsJournal's Jumper blog–as a source once here. Now that she is back from her honeymoon and can defend herself, in the future I'll need to steal from others for a … [Read more...]
The Arts’ Four Noble Truths
For those of you who have seen the first few posts, I guess it's now time to get on with the interesting task of providing some kind of systematic overview of what we'll be considering here. I could be very serious and professorial about it, . . . but who would want to read it? (And my students would probably not recognize me.) For the record, I would like to be clear that this post and the follow-up on the Eightfold Path to Community Engagement … [Read more...]
Click
There is a thought experiment I give students in a not-for-profit governance class: A nameless, generic not-for-profit board recognized the need for more diversity in its membership. Aware that they functioned in a community with a large Hispanic/Latino population but had no members from that group, they placed an add in the local H/L paper to recruit someone to the board. What is wrong with this picture? When I first began posing the … [Read more...]