A colleague recently shared that when they advocate for community engagement in their organization they get pushback about "mission creep." Mission creep??!! If connecting the arts with communities is not an arts organization's mission, what is it?! I know, I know. There is an assumption (conscious or otherwise) on some people's part that arts organizations owe their allegiance to the art they present. I will spare long-time readers (and … [Read more...]
Donor Myopia
In Grass Is Greener? I recounted discoveries about arts organizations with adequate or more-than-adequate government funding. They face problems that might surprise those of us working in the arts in the U.S. And more to the point of this post, my colleagues in South America and Australia were envious of the ability we have to tap private money–individuals, corporations, and foundations. In that earlier post I promised a consideration of the … [Read more...]
The Chasm of Disbelief
Think you (or your organization) don't understand the people you are trying to reach? If you are talking about people other than your current attendees/donors and their peers, you are 100% correct; and they understand you even less. (And if you don't think you don't understand you are probably deluding yourself.) There is, between the general public and those of us on the "inside" of the nonprofit arts industry, a gap in perception that I … [Read more...]
Community Engagement Resources
It has been seven years since I retired from three decades in academia. Yet each year, come fall, I am still aware of back-to-class vibrations in the air and my inner professor seeks to remind me he is there. This year, at the same time, I am reflecting on the materials we have put together to support community engagement work. This thinking was generated by an email I got about one of my books. It said, in part, "I have to be honest, I … [Read more...]
Relationships Checkup
Some time ago, while discussing relationship maintenance, a student of mine shared with her training group a practice she employed to keep community relationships current. (One of the big pitfalls in engagement is losing track of relationships after an event is over.) I commented on what a great idea it was and made a note to visit it further here on the blog and in my own thinking. . . . I promptly forgot about it. Fortunately, the note … [Read more...]
Benefits (Yet Again)
It has been two years since I posted my effort at categorizing the benefits of the arts. In both of my international trips this year the subject came up and people wanted to deal with it at length. The subject is an urgent one both because of the social and political pressures to justify funding (the fallback arguments are "instrumental" ones, "How can the arts improve non-arts outcomes?") and our need to be able to articulate the inherent value … [Read more...]
The Long Road
Several months ago Joe Patti of Butts In Seats blogging fame posted a reflection on advice from Seth Godin about why businesses might not be connecting with customers. While I've not met Mr. Patti, it seems that we not infrequently seem to be channeling each other on topics related to community engagement. He pulled out, from Mr. Godin's article, a list of problems that sounded way too familiar to me in my work attempting to get arts … [Read more...]
Grass Is Greener?
In my recent travels to Australia and Chile I saw two places where government funding for the arts is far more generous than is true in the U.S. (Yes, we know that is not a very high bar to leap.) In one, Australia, funding is by our standards significant. In the other, funding is nearly total, so much so that even basic concepts like audience development and audience engagement are foreign. My hosts in Santiago told me that patron loyalty is not … [Read more...]
Deep Engagement
International PresentersII International Seminar on Cultural Mangement In June it was my privilege to be a presenter at the II International Seminar on Cultural Management at GAM Center for the Arts in Santiago, Chile. The focus was on territories (neighborhoods, regions, towns/cites) and communities and it provided me with a great learning opportunity to observe the practice of community engagement in South America. (There were presenters … [Read more...]
Shades of Meaning
At long last I am back from my journeys to Australia and Chile. It has been an exhilarating time full of making new friends, learning about the practice of community engagement around the world, and uncovering insights into new ways of thinking and working in this field. As is typical, I have several weeks of material for blog posts. CircuitWest Showcase 2019 Attendees At the CircuitWest Showcase in Perth, Australia artists, producers, and … [Read more...]