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Engaging Matters

Doug Borwick on vibrant arts and communities

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Matter

January 27, 2021 by Doug Borwick 1 Comment

We have been considering the prospects for making the most of our organizations' post-pandemic potential. (Getting the Question(s) Right and Connect.) The thread that binds these posts together is this quote from Getting the Question(s) Right: So our questions should be, first, "What are our communities feeling/ experiencing?" and second, "How can we help them?" Once we have our questions right, we will need to position ourselves to be of … [Read more...]

Connect

January 13, 2021 by Doug Borwick 2 Comments

The viability of our industry depends upon significantly expanding our base. To do so, we must connect with and come to matter to more and more people. This post is a follow up to an earlier one, Getting the Question(s) Right. It would probably be a good idea to read that if you've not done so. Here is an excerpt from the close of that post: So our questions should be, first, "What are our communities feeling/ experiencing?" and second, … [Read more...]

Getting the Question(s) Right

January 6, 2021 by Doug Borwick 2 Comments

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...]

Why Engage?

November 11, 2020 by Guest Blogger

Guest Post by Penny Brill When we investigate the disconnect between what we are doing with our art and what we might do, we become aware of who has been left out of what we present, preserve and protect, what has been disregarded, who does or does not benefit using our current model, and who has been harmed by our decisions. We have excluded large segments of our communities and have not demonstrated that we value their … [Read more...]

Viability

October 7, 2020 by Doug Borwick

For years, my work has been built on three simple premises. First, the combination of skyrocketing costs and rapidly withering traditional arts funding represents an unavoidable, near-term, existential crisis for arts organizations. Second, the only path to viability is a dramatic increase of arts organizations' reach–the pool of people who could realistically become arts supporters. Third, the means to that end is the development of trusting, … [Read more...]

Trust

September 30, 2020 by Doug Borwick

Crazy-making. So much so that, of course, it's hard to concentrate on issues around community engagement. The troubles are simply too numerous, too big. Even so, occasionally something bubbles up that returns me to my CE thinking. One such instance was a New York Times article about masks and vaccines: How to Actually Talk to Anti-Maskers. The initial story was about doctors trying to get Guineans to take the vaccine for Ebola in 2014. There … [Read more...]

Community Engagement Network

September 2, 2020 by Doug Borwick

Two years ago ArtsEngaged created a mechanism for people interested in community engagement in the arts to learn and share. (Facebook group Become Indispensable.) The intent behind it was (and still is) to be a resource for information and to serve as a support group for anyone involved in (or desiring to be involved in) this work. [See Note below about our first event.] To date, through no one's fault but my own, it has not been particularly … [Read more...]

Closet Cleaning

August 12, 2020 by Doug Borwick

For a lot of us, these last few months have provided an opportunity to clean out and organize our closets, cupboards, garages, and workshops. The process involves resolving to do it (!), clearing everything out, choosing what things we don't need, and putting the remainder back. In some cases, we also choose to add things that will help us make those spaces more functional. Stick with me, there will be a point to this. The culling process … [Read more...]

Are You Paying Attention?

July 8, 2020 by Doug Borwick

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has just announced that it's grant-making will focus entirely on issues related to social justice. Elizabeth Alexander, President of the Foundation, said that their concern will be "Who haven’t we reached? Who haven’t we supported? Who hasn’t felt Mellon was interested in their work?" Here is link to the Artnet article that brought this to my attention: … [Read more...]

There Is No “Try”

June 10, 2020 by Doug Borwick

My post last week (Justice) prompted Jerry Yoshitomi to comment, "It seems that we must ask our Black colleagues to share some benchmarks/metrics that we as a field might strive to meet." So maybe this could be the catalyst to get us past good intentions (the industry equivalent of "thoughts and prayers") to action. Long ago Barry Hessenius charged us to move from thinking of the pursuit of equity as a "issue" to making it an obsession. So, if … [Read more...]

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About Doug Borwick

Doug Borwick is a past President of the Board of the Association of Arts Administration Educators and was for nearly 30 years Director of the Arts Management and Not-for-Profit Management Programs at Salem College in Winston-Salem, NC. He is CEO of Outfitters4, Inc., providing management services to nonprofit organizations and ArtsEngaged providing training and consultation to artists and arts organization to help them more effectively engage with their communities. [Read More …]

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About Engaging Matters

The arts began as collective activity around the campfire, expressions of community. In a very real sense, the community owned that expression. Over time, with increasing specialization of labor, the arts– especially Western “high arts”– became … [Read More...]

Books

Community Engagement: Why and How

Building Communities, Not Audiences: The Future of the Arts in the United States Engage Now! A Guide to Making the Arts Indispensable[Purchase info below] I have to be honest, I haven’t finished it yet because I’m constantly having to digest the ‘YES’ and ‘AMEN’ moments I get from each … [Read More...]

Gard Foundation Calls for Stories

The Robert E. Gard Foundation is dedicated to fostering healthy communities through arts-based development, it is currently seeking stories from communities in which the arts have improved the lives of citizens in remarkable ways. These stories can either be full descriptions (400-900 words) with photos, video, and web links or mini stories (ca. 200 words) […]

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Archives

Recent Comments

  • Alan Harrison on Matter: “Brilliant once again. I think the issue of inward-facing acclaim (instead of outward-facing impact) being so prevalent among dying arts…” Jan 27, 07:17
  • Jerry Yoshitomi on Connect: “Doug: Thank you again for this. You’re suggesting that we must develop new ‘capacities’ or ‘muscles’ in order to be…” Jan 13, 21:24
  • Alan Harrison on Connect: “Brilliantly put, once again. Thanks, Doug!” Jan 13, 02:43
  • Jackie Mathis on Getting the Question(s) Right: “I have been spending a lot of time thinking about this, and there seems to me a huge opportunity for…” Jan 7, 18:06
  • Trevor O’Donnell on Getting the Question(s) Right: ““Connect and then Matter” Brilliant. Should be the new mantra for every arts organization.” Jan 6, 10:35

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