When dealing with new communities, staff and board members of nonprofit arts organizations are sometimes puzzled when things they thought would work crash and burn. Often, there is really no mystery. We offered free tickets but no one came!We performed at the community center but no one came!We invited people to our offices to discuss how we can work together, but no one came!We sponsored a town hall meeting to present our new ideas but no one … [Read more...]
Why and How
A couple of months ago, a new reader of one of my books got in touch to say “I haven’t finished it yet because I’m constantly having to digest the ‘YES’ and ‘AMEN’ moments I get from each section.” She, like many passionate new readers, went on to ask why they and their colleagues had not heard of the books before. The blame, of course, is on us at ArtsEngaged®. Building Communities, Not Audiences: The Future of the Arts in the United States … [Read more...]
Radical Empathy
I have a hard time doing new, unfamiliar things. I wish that were not the case, but . . . . Traveling in Europe, for instance, I often go to the train station the day before I'm catching a train to see what it's going to be like. If I don't I lose sleep imagining how any things could go wrong. I'm not Mr. Spontaneity. Last December I was in Seattle visiting family and in one day I did two things I'd never done before. I survived, but it took a … [Read more...]
Planting Vineyards
A community engagement mindset can yield immediate results if the selected "community" is people not too unlike current patrons. You can reach thirty-year-old accountants by crafting marketing materials that are focused on them rather than on the organization. That should be a simple and effective switch as Aubrey Bergauer demonstrated at the California Symphony has demonstrated. (Although experience shows that arts organizations have a tough … [Read more...]
Beware Arrogance
As a teenager I was a huge (huge) fan of Peter, Paul, and Mary. Their folk music roots, musicianship, social consciousness, and wry humor blew me away. They had a number of breakout hits (slightly unusual in the late 1960s for what was essentially a folk music group). And one of these was a song I (and I guess many others) heard as funny: Peter,Paul & Mary I Dig Rock & Roll Music (1968). I had not thought about it much since then but … [Read more...]
New Year’s Manifesto
The New Year seems to be a good time to try to set down some of my basic thoughts about the need for and the path to effective community engagement. As often happens on this blog, this is a very rough first draft. Refinements will follow. Whereas The environment that nurtured the development of the nonprofit arts industry has changed radically. The sum of these changes create an existential threat to the future of that … [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...]
DEI Statements
Recently (Doomed to Fail), I wrote about the essential increase in conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion. I discussed the important role that commitment to community engagement can play in providing a foundation for an arts organization's work. More importantly, a succinct statement and commitment to equity and inclusion is essential for at least two reasons. Internally, it provides a common understanding for all stakeholders … [Read more...]
From the Ground Up
Periodically, I have the pleasure of writing about the work of my friend, choreographer Allison Orr, and her company, Forklift Danceworks. (Most notably in The Trash Project.) For the purposes of this blog, she is highly . . . bloggable. Ms. Orr has built a career on seeing "ordinary" people and creating dance inspired and performed (!) by them–gondoliers, Japanese women professional baseball players, power company workers, urban foresters, … [Read more...]
Public Art in Erie
Earlier this year I had the pleasure of assisting Erie (PA) Arts and Culture with their strategic planning process. I worked closely with their board and their executive director, Patrick Fisher and was impressed by their collective commitment to meaningful community engagement. My work there came in the middle of a long-term project of commissioning murals for the city. In October one was completed that impressed me so much I had to share it … [Read more...]