Another highlight for me of the recent American Association of Museums Conference was a brief presentation by Ford Bell, President of AAM. In a very short welcoming speech, he said two things that will stick with me for a long time. A while back (in Bimodal Engagement) I mentioned that I have been hearing leaders of national service organizations weighing in on the importance of substantively engaging with or involving community. Dr. Bell, in … [Read more...]
Signs of Engagement
While I'm on a roll with posts dissecting the meaning and nature of engagement (Engagement Is, Audience Development “vs.” Community Engagement, Audience Engagement-Community Engagement), I've got some more issues to raise (or repeat). I have made much of the fact that substantive community engagement (as opposed to audience engagement) is extremely rare among established arts organizations. In an effort to stave off arguments about that, here are … [Read more...]
Audience Engagement-Community Engagement
[Note to new readers: This is a very old and widely read post. In the interest of providing up-to-date information about thinking on this topic, you can find updated definitions of terminology related to community engagement and related arts management tools on the ArtsEngaged website here.] OK, I lied. I said I wasn't going to post while in Singapore, but I worked on this on the way here and I can't make myself wait. Last week, Karina … [Read more...]
Audience Development “vs.” Community Engagement
[Note to new readers: This is a very old and widely read post. In the interest of providing up-to-date information about thinking on this topic, you can find updated definitions of terminology related to community engagement and related arts management tools on the ArtsEngaged website here.] Earlier (in Engagement Is) I introduced a chart I ran across last month at the American Association of Museums conference, prepared by Candace Tangorra … [Read more...]
Cash Mobs
There is a danger of "echo chambering" when bloggers blog about other bloggers' blog posts. And anyone who reads this blog knows I do it all the time. (It saves having to think up stuff.) That said, here is a stunningly cool idea, the ramifications of which for the arts I can only vaguely imagine. On the Technology in the Arts blog, Andre Bouchard introduced the idea of Cash Mobs. In a nutshell, it is a flash mob that shows up at a local store … [Read more...]
Engagement Is
April 29-May 1 I attended the American Association of Museum's Annual Meeting and MuseumExpo in Minneapolis. It's a huge event, with more than 3000 attendees. (Remember "museum" includes zoos, aquariums, history museums, etc.) It's also a long-running show. The first meeting was something like 106 years ago. Coming from a performing arts background, it's fascinating to see what's up in the museum world. But the main hooks for me were the … [Read more...]
Community Philanthropy
I have for a number of years felt like an ambassador serving as liaison between the arts world and the broader not-for-profit world. (This comes from my roles as director of an arts management degree program as well as director of a not-for-profit management degree program.) To some that seems like an odd thing to say. "Aren't the arts a part of the not-for-profit world?" In a technical, legal sense, yes. However, there have, at least until … [Read more...]
The Magic of Small Groups
In early April, as part of Americans for the Arts' Emerging Leaders blog salon, Gregory Burbage posted an article on small group organization in mega-churches and the lessons to be learned from them: Group Therapy in the Arts. The point he was presenting is that huge churches (the one he cited has a membership of 24,000!) organize (and grow) themselves through the establishment of small support groups unified around interests or age. This is a … [Read more...]
One Way
I barely know where (or how) to begin. In a recent article in the Huffington Post, Michael Kaiser writes about engagement. (Engaging Audiences) So far so good, although see below regarding the title of the article. He also ends the article with the following: "[T]his effort will not be sustained if there isn't real commitment to on-going implementation of the engagement strategy. Audience engagement cannot be the flavor of the week; it must … [Read more...]
EM’s List: Museum of Contemporary Art-Chicago
EM's List Member A Community Engagement Residency [This post is by EM's List Editor/Curator, Stephanie Moore] The mission of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago positions it as an innovative and compelling contemporary art center where diverse audiences can experience works and ideas of contemporary artists as well as understand the context in which the art was made. This includes creating a space for open discussion and contemplation … [Read more...]