For the many of us reeling from the recent election, middle class communities are much on our minds. I've written about it twice already: Blindsided and Should We Bother? I thought it might be good to dig a little deeper into what this might mean for community engagement. The beauty of my operating definition of community–a group of people with something in common–is its flexibility. I know it is woefully inadequate in sociological (or most … [Read more...]
Keep It Simple
In speeches, presentations, and workshops, I frequently get to the Q&A session and find myself faced with not a few perplexed expressions. In general, people understand the importance of community engagement. However, staff members of arts organizations in which substantive CE (as opposed to re-titled audience development) is a newish concept have difficulty getting their heads around what to do. My first response is to assure them that the … [Read more...]
The Art of Relevance
I purchased my copy of Nina Simon’s The Art of Relevance on the first day it was available. I am only now posting comments about it because, frankly, I know more people are paying attention in September than are in July and August. Let me begin by saying that Ms. Simon is a gifted, compelling writer. She brings great passion and eloquence to bear on the need for far greater community awareness in the work of arts and cultural organizations. She … [Read more...]
Community Engagement Training?–Request for Assistance
For the last four years my professional life has been focused almost exclusively on community engagement advocacy, workshops, and training. Most of the work has been advocacy and workshops, along with some one-on-one work with arts organizations. State and local arts agencies–due to their broad accountability to communities and to public officials–most consistently see the need to change our mental models for doing business in the arts. … [Read more...]
Relationship Maintenance
The arts industry is event-oriented, if not event-obsessed. Our principal contribution to public life is in the presentation of events. On the very deepest level we are “do-ers.” There is an inbred impatience with anything that delays doing. This is why, when discussing the process of building relationships with communities, a common question is how to “exit” the relationship when the event is over. (Insert my scream of pain here.) To be clear, … [Read more...]
Community Learning
As I discussed in Transformative Engagement, the foundation of successful community engagement is deep understanding of the communities with which an organization is engaging. This body of information–key players, concerns, identity, etc.–is not necessarily common knowledge among an arts organization's staff and board. Indeed, it is often far off the radar. As a result, community learning is an essential component in preparing for and … [Read more...]
Committing to Engagement
In Engage Now! I discuss the importance of making a public commitment to engagement. When new communities meet representatives of arts organizations they often assume the intent of the latter is to get them to buy tickets or make donations. That's many people's experience with the arts. Successful community engagement needs to be based on mutual benefit. An official statement of the organization's reasons for engaging and a dedication to … [Read more...]
Transformative Engagement
In Artcentric Engagement I discussed a kind of engagement in which an arts organization is attempting to bring people to it. As I said there, nothing is wrong with that; it's simply not the goal toward which I and many others in the arts who are deeply committed to community engagement are working. Upon a very little reflection, it becomes clear that the engagement about which I write and speak is intended to change the organization or at least … [Read more...]
Fracking and Arts Marketing
This is part of a series of blog posts in conjunction with TRG Arts on the interrelationships among marketing, development, fundraising, and community engagement. (Cross-post can be found at Analysis from TRG Arts.) The point of the series is that they are all rooted in relationship building and maintenance. Can’t wait to see where I’m going with this, can you? As I understand it, fracking is a technique to get at hydrocarbon reserves that have … [Read more...]
Making My Peace with Sales
This is part of a series of blog posts in conjunction with TRG Arts on the interrelationships among marketing, development, fundraising, and community engagement. (Cross-post can be found at Analysis from TRG Arts.) The point of the series is that they are all rooted in relationship building and maintenance. Nearly four years ago, shortly after I started Engaging Matters, I published a post (What Is Arts Marketing?) in which I outlined a … [Read more...]