Greetings. Very long time, no post. And I'm going to address that. Ten years ago I began focusing full time on issues related to the arts and community engagement. My work has involved authoring two books–Building Communities, Not Audiences: The Future of the Arts in the U.S. and Engage Now! A Guide to Making the Arts Indispensable–and authoring/editing this blog, Engaging Matters. Through my company, ArtsEngaged, I have provided advocacy, … [Read more...]
Ask
Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country. Like most people on the planet, I have been consumed with reports on the pandemic threatening us all. I have also been trying to figure out what I can do, both in reducing the spread and in making things better for people. I've had much more success with the former. I've also been watching with great interest the number of arts organizations making content … [Read more...]
Fare Well
With the arrival of the New Year it is time for ArtsEngaged to bid goodbye (most regretfully) to Achia Floyd. For two years, she has been responsible for marketing at AE. Among many other things she brought our website into the 21st Century, created and maintained our Facebook and Twitter presence, and formed the Community Engagement Network. Achia has taken an exciting job (Development Manager) with the Atlanta Music Project. (To be honest, … [Read more...]
On the Road
As you read this, if all has gone well, I will have begun a six week stretch of travel. The two principal stops are Perth, Australia (Western Australia Showcase) and Santiago, Chile (II International Seminar of Arts Management at Central Gabriela Mistral, GAM). In each city I am speaking at a conference that will be focusing on community engagement in the context of the host country (or region, in the case of Western Australia). Interestingly, … [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...]
Introducing
Join us in welcoming Achia Floyd to ArtsEngaged. Here she introduces herself in her own words: I believe in the transformative power of the arts, and I truly believe Community Engagement is a respectful way to push arts and cultural organizations toward a sustainable future. Accordingly, I jumped at the chance to promote Community Engagement for ArtsEngaged. Who am I? My name is Achia Floyd, and I have been a classical musician since 3 years … [Read more...]
ICYMI: Announcing
This was posted in July. Summer is a time when many of us are slightly less focused on things professional, so, in case you missed it, here is a repeat: It's official. As predicted in Changes, ArtsEngaged has a new and, to my eyes, snazzy website. The snazziness is entirely due to the efforts of our Marketing and Sales specialist, Achia Floyd. Many, many thanks Achia! While new is always (well, often) fun, what is most important to me about … [Read more...]
Announcing
It's official. As predicted in Changes, ArtsEngaged has a new and, to my eyes, snazzy website. The snazziness is entirely due to the efforts of our Marketing and Sales specialist, Achia Floyd. Many, many thanks Achia! While new is always (well, often) fun, what is most important to me about this website upgrade is the opportunity to share many more resources with the community engagement field. The Engagement Essentials page is packed with … [Read more...]
Chillin’
I know I'm the only person who is really interested in what I am going to say here, however, on the off chance that anyone notices, I'm taking a couple of weeks to sit on a beach in Belize. (Yes, the very one pictured here. It's a photo I took myself some years ago.) Internet access is limited plus I just don't wanna think all that much when I'm down there! When I do choose to ruminate, I may give a bit of thought to the future of this blog and … [Read more...]
Happy Birthday
This week, Engaging Matters is one year old. Where has the time gone? And to date, according to the list in the administrative home for this blog, there have been (including this one) 97 posts. No wonder I sometimes can't remember if I've discussed a topic. Much has happened in this year. I've retired, started a business (or two), published a book, traveled halfway around the world, attended a zillion conferences, and written nearly 100 short … [Read more...]