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...]
On the Road
As you read this, if all has gone well, I will have begun a six week stretch of travel. The two principal stops are Perth, Australia (Western Australia Showcase) and Santiago, Chile (II International Seminar of Arts Management at Central Gabriela Mistral, GAM). In each city I am speaking at a conference that will be focusing on community engagement in the context of the host country (or region, in the case of Western Australia). Interestingly, … [Read more...]
Gaia, Healthcare, and the Arts
The arts will always exist. Wherever there are human beings the arts will be there. It is far less clear that today’s arts organizations will survive through the next several generations.(You know you are old when you begin to use self-quotes as epigrams.) This post responds to three things I've read recently that have me stewing (again) about the future of big- (and medium-) box nonprofit arts organizations, the ones that bear the DNA of the … [Read more...]
Presenter Engagement
When thinking about arts organizations and community engagement, it is easy to get stuck on producer organizations–symphonies, theatres, dance companies, and (most of the time) museums. But there is another major constituency under the heading "arts organizations"–presenters, usually performing arts venues. (When museums host traveling exhibitions they are, similarly, presenters.) I have spoken with staff members of presenting organizations … [Read more...]
Eureka!
A member of a current cohort of our Community Engagement Training is a professional musician who is passionate about connecting with communities and has been so for years. Even before running across my books she was intuitively aware of the need for deeper relationships between musicians and people outside the artiverse. She has been an eager and very perceptive participant in the training. All of that is why it was so revealing when she … [Read more...]
On the Horizon
Earlier this month I highlighted three factors fueling a growing international interest in community engagement and the arts: economics (the “cost disease”); demographics (the declining percentage of people with European cultural backgrounds); and funders' demands for much broader community impact than is typical with Eurocentric arts organizations. It seems like a little expansion on these existential threats to the status quo might be in … [Read more...]