El Sistema seems to be everywhere these days. The Venezuelan musical and music education phenomenon has recently been featured in at least three NY Times articles plus a video feature. I am guilty of fanning the flames (in my very small way) by having written about the group several times. This post is not directly about El Sistema, but the rash of coverage is reminding me of something I thought early on and it gives me an excuse to raise the … [Read more...]
Identity as Marketing
Marketing has been on my mind a lot lately, notably in my last post, Systemic Marketing. Several comments on that post expressed surprise (and, frankly, disbelief) that anyone in the arts community could (or ever did) think negative thoughts about marketing. Once upon a time there were some who did not want to identify marketing as a needed element of our work (or wished it could be avoided); now the field has grown up. Marketing is (and is seen … [Read more...]
Systemic Marketing
I have an innate tendency to believe that subdividing or categorizing things leads to more problems than doing so solves. I have throughout my career quietly disbelieved that a liberal arts education is served by breaking it up into separate departments. The structure leads to division, competitiveness, and, most importantly, missed opportunities for larger understanding. There is no such thing as self-contained knowledge. Everything is … [Read more...]
Mainstreaming Engagement
In a (very) recent post (Shut Up and Listen) I alluded to the article that Sandra Bernhard has written about Houston Grand Opera's HGOco for Building Communities Not Audiences. I also promised (some might say threatened) to follow up on it. One of my very real concerns about the current burgeoning (and gratifying) acceptance of community engagement in the arts community is that it is somehow understood either as an organizational add-on or simply … [Read more...]
Participatory Culture
In Authority-based Culture, I referenced some work by David Dombrosky having to do with the rise of participatory culture. It's probably a good idea to present a little more of his thinking. He cites access to production tools (like earlier advances that brought desktop publishing to homes and small businesses) and expansion of distribution channels (YouTube, Facebook, etc.) as together providing cost-effective means of getting individuals' … [Read more...]
Wrapping Themselves in the Arts
Occasionally (albeit rarely) a post nearly writes itself. . . . The New York Times recently ran an article about Venezuela's famed El Sistema becoming a political football: Music Meets Chávez Politics and Critics Frown. The LA Philharmonic's current tour of Venezuela with native son conductor, El Sistema graduate, and classical music phenomenon Gustavo Dudamel has raised the issue of who gets credit for El Sistema. Socialist President Hugo … [Read more...]
Shut Up and Listen
In this blog I attempt to highlight essential principles of effective community engagement work. In my recent posts Lead or Follow? and Equality in Engagement, I have tried to make the point that communities have valuable things to tell us when we work with them–not just about topics or issues to be pursued but about content, form, and media of the art that comes out of the collaboration. In the last week two things have gotten me focused even … [Read more...]
Authority-based Culture
One of the real pleasures of working on the book Building Communities, Not Audiences–that will indeed be complete before too much more time passes–is reading the insights of my contributors. I've recently been working with David Dombrosky, Chief Marketing Officer at InstantEncore.com and former Executive Director at Carnegie Mellon's Center for Arts Management and Technology. His article for the book is about social media, the arts, and community … [Read more...]
Equality in Engagement
Ever since my Lead or Follow? post, I've been stewing a bit on its central premise. I suspect that a bit of amplification or clarification might be in order. The danger in trying to say several things in a single blog post is that the individual points can get lost. So, at the risk of being way over-repetitious, let me reiterate what is, I think, the critical foundation for successfully engaging with one's community. Engagement is built upon a … [Read more...]
Pop-Ups
Coming from a performing arts background, I'm always especially fascinated to read about cool stuff going on in the visual arts. Recently I've seen a couple of posts about "pop-ups." Letitia Fernandez Ivins, a civic art project manager with the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, describes these as "artwork that 'pops–up' in unexpected places" in her ARTSblog post Emerging Ideas: Pop-Ups for the Populi. As I understand it, these are intentionally … [Read more...]