I was recently involved in a conversation in which the topic of shoes came up. (Yes, shoes.) Someone said they had read an article that the first thing people notice about someone else was their shoes. Shoes. Really? To be honest, I don't remember ever noticing someone's shoes, unless it was a clown with giant floppy ones. Years ago I had a friend who had said that was true of them but I sort of wrote that off as an odd idiosyncrasy. But … [Read more...]
Getting the Question(s) Right
As a blogger, I think I'm supposed to begin the New Year with reflections and projections. But the traumas of 2020 are still too fresh for me and the way forward, while bringing hope, is far murkier than it has been at the beginning of almost any year of my life. So I won't try to do either. What I will do is suggest that at least one question I've seen raised about the nonprofit arts industry in 2021 is the wrong one. Roughly put, it is "How … [Read more...]
Know Your Communities
This is part of a series, introduced in Baby Steps, about arts organizations’ initial efforts in community engagement. For details about the premises upon which these posts are based, see below. The essence is that simple, inexpensive initial steps offer the best way to embark upon community engagement. Know Your Communities: Community-Aware Marketing This is a sneaky post. The emphasis of this series is on the small, simple, inexpensive things … [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...]
Cry of the Heart
Several months ago in its weekly newsletter, ArtsJournal.com, the host of this blog, posted an article about opera in Great Britain that had the following teaser title: Opera Is *Not* Too Posh And Exclusive, And If You Think It Is, It’s Your Own Damn Fault, Says Opera Boss. That title was, without a doubt, (successful) clickbait. As readers of Engaging Matters might expect, a title suggesting that those not interested in opera (or any other art … [Read more...]
Fifth Anniversary Highlights: The “Pandering” Straw Man
During the month of August, Engaging Matters is republishing some of the most widely read articles from the five years this blog has been in existence. The criticism that community engagement is "just giving people what they want" is, in some circles, as pervasive as it is maddening. A February 2014 post, The "Pandering" Straw Man addressed that issue. This post is not part of a series, so it may seem a bit out of context. I’ve addressed the … [Read more...]
Rorschach Test
We’re all artists now Quick. What's your reaction to that sentence? This was the title of a September 2015 New York Times article that considered expanded definitions of and options for creativity and the increasingly participatory nature of culture (among other things). But my immediate interest here is with the range of reactions to that premise: We're all artists now. What is your immediate response? While the options run on a continuum, … [Read more...]
Artcentric Engagement
In Parsing "Engage" I addressed the fact that the meaning of the word engagement is dependent upon who is engaging with whom toward what end. This is a quick followup to that meditation. I recently ran across the following headline in an arts newsletter: "2015–The Year You Become Engaged in the Arts." This fairly clearly shows that the intent is to bring people who are outside in. There is no indication of an awareness of a need for the arts to … [Read more...]
Reflections on a Conference
In November I participated in a conference sponsored jointly by New Mexico MainStreet, the New Mexico Historic Preservation Division, and New Mexico Arts. It was a multi-disciplinary gathering to cheer my liberal arts soul. It was also–as a result, I believe–one of the most productive conferences I have attended in years. At the close, the principal presenters were asked to summarize their takeaways as a prelude to participant discussion. What … [Read more...]
Partners
In my last three posts (Outreach, Self-Made Barriers, Engagement Research: Talk to Them) I have been addressing vocabulary and habits of mind that separate us from the public we need to reach. In each case, the issue is seeing ourselves (unconsciously or not) as isolated from–not a part of–the communities we serve. Some of this has to do with a sense of "specialness" that accompanies being an artist or arts worker, and certainly the arts are … [Read more...]