The board of directors of a nonprofit arts organization can and should play an important role in planning for and adopting community engagement as a crucial mission strategy. There is a tendency on the part of some (I have been guilty of this myself) to view the board as an obstacle to be overcome in this work. Yet the board’s potential as a resource for furthering the work of community engagement is considerable and we owe it to ourselves to … [Read more...]
Who’da Thunk?
I don't like spending money. I'm leery of signing up for ongoing contracts for service unless I really, really have to (want to). So when we bought a new "pre-owned" car that came with a three-month trial subscription to SiriusXM™ satellite radio I was not overwhelmed with joy. But here's what happened. I kinda like the Sixties radio station, the Margaritaville station, the Classic Vinyl station, and my wife loves the Seventies station. When the … [Read more...]
Benefits of the Arts (Again)
Summer is an excellent time to review topics covered before and evaluate whether they should be raised again. Four years ago I offered a preliminary overview of a way of discussing the benefits of the arts. The subject keeps coming up in conference presentations and workshops so I thought it would be appropriate to revisit it now and to add a brief update at the end. Here is a passage from my 2013 post Benefits of the Arts: Those for whom art … [Read more...]
One Jupiter
Jupiter, Florida in northern Palm Beach County is home to a very large population of Guatemalan immigrants. In April 2015, Onesimo Lopez-Ramos, an 18-year-old member of that community, was murdered outside his home by a group of young men who later told police they were out “Guat’ hunting.” In response to this tragedy, El Sol, a local resource center for Guatemalan immigrants, Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and Museum, and the Lighthouse ArtCenter … [Read more...]
Social Silos
"I don't know anyone who . . . ." Recently, a colleague presented a workshop on nonprofit financial management to a group of board members of and volunteers for very small grassroots social service organizations. In the course of one of their discussions a participant observed, "I don't know anyone who is not working two jobs." My colleague's first reaction was that this was highly atypical. The nonprofit board members many of us are used … [Read more...]
Communities as Data Points?
Sometimes a blog post derives from seeing something that only tangentially relates to its point. Such is the case with this one. A while ago I saw an article on the Wallace Foundation's support of a project for Ballet Austin. It is an interesting and valuable marketing study related to audiences, arts industry assumptions about them, and new ways to draw more people into new work based on the research. It is a fascinating report and an important … [Read more...]
Engagement Terminology
Since I got into the weeds of defining development terms last week (Development Terminology), I thought it was time to present the latest in my thinking about terminology related to community engagement. Over the nearly six years that I've been writing this blog I've been working on definitions that help explain engagement's place in the arts management tool box. There has been much confusion and misunderstanding about exactly what community … [Read more...]
Development Terminology
Fools rush in . . . . I may just be a glutton for punishment. However, over the (many) years I taught arts management and the many more in which I have engaged with colleagues in discussions of marketing, sales, development, fundraising–you know, the fun part of the arts (!?)–I've been troubled by what has seemed to me to be a fuzziness about the way we use all the terms. While all of this is not directly related to community engagement, the … [Read more...]
Riverside Art Museum
In May I was invited to speak at a convening of the Irvine Foundation's New California Arts Fund grantees. Each of the cohort's 14 arts organizations really gets engagement and is extremely active living out the work of connecting with communities. There were many, many wonderful stories of effective community engagement. However, one in particular made a deep impression upon me. One part of the impression was the power of an example that … [Read more...]
Pillow Talk
I had planned this post before Trevor O'Donnell wrote this: Is Marketing about the Consumer or the Product? Really I had. We recently bought new pillows. Not expensive ones, mind you. Just basic pillows. The photo accompanying this post is of the bag the pillows came in. Who out there can now write the next few paragraphs for me? What consumes well over the half of available space? You are correct. A picture of someone using (and enjoying–in … [Read more...]