I come to this discussion and to this work as a product of the arts establishment in the United States. My early arts experiences were in children\u2019s choirs in church, private piano and trumpet lessons, and, later, public school arts\u2013music and theatre\u2013in the Midwest of the 1960\u2019s. This led me to pursue a career in music and, as I am continually telling workshop attendees, colleagues, friends, and strangers on the street, I am as over-educated as a musician can be. I have a Ph.D. in composition from the Eastman School of Music. I do not say that with any sense of pride or superiority. To be honest, as may become clear later in this blog, my feeling is at least somewhat to the contrary. My reason for laying that particular card on the table is to head off any argument that I do not understand the arts.<\/p>\n
For nearly thirty years I was an educator serving as Director of the Arts Management Program and, more recently, the Not-for-Profit Management Program, at Salem College in Winston-Salem, NC. I have served as President of the Board of the Association of Arts Administration Educators, an international coalition of college and university programs (2010-2012), and as Chair of the Board of the ECHO Network (2011), a group dedicated to fostering bridging social capital in Forsyth County (NC). I am author and editor of Building Communities, Not Audiences: The Future of the Arts in the U.S.<\/em><\/a> and Engage Now! A Guide to Making the Arts Indispensable<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I come to this discussion and to this work as a product of the arts establishment in the United States. My early arts experiences were in children\u2019s choirs in church, private piano and trumpet lessons, and, later, public school arts\u2013music and theatre\u2013in the Midwest of the 1960\u2019s. This led me to pursue a career in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":{"0":"post-4","1":"page","2":"type-page","3":"status-publish","5":"entry"},"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P1G6h9-4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":174,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/building-communities-not-audiences\/","url_meta":{"origin":4,"position":0},"title":"Building Communities, Not Audiences","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"August 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Available Formats: Paperback-Order Here Ebook-Kindle, Nook, available at iBookstore (using iBook app) For information on bulk purchases (\u2265 10), click here Online Excerpts Building Communities, Not Audiences: The Future of the Arts in the U.S., written and edited by Doug Borwick, holds that established arts organizations, for practical and moral\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 5 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 5 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/building-communities-not-audiences\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/9780972780421-200x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5140,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/resources\/community-engagement-what-you-need-to-know\/","url_meta":{"origin":4,"position":1},"title":"Community Engagement: What You Need to Know","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"December 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is a summary of community engagement essentials as put together by ArtsEngaged. It is available as a pdf to download here:\u00a0What You Need to Know Community Engagement: What You Need to Know Nonprofit arts organizations are facing an existential crisis stemming from skyrocketing expenses, rapidly changing demographics, and vastly\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Essentials-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4083,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/engage-now\/","url_meta":{"origin":4,"position":2},"title":"Engage Now! A Guide to Making the Arts Indispensable","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"May 4, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Available Formats: Paperback-Order Here Ebook-Kindle For information on bulk purchases (\u2265 10), click here. For some, the arts as indispensable is a preposterous idea, yet nearly every stakeholder in the industry believes the arts\u2019 value to be unquestionable. That gap accounts for most of the challenges arts organizations face. As\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"EngageNowCoverFinal","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/EngageNowCoverFinal-e1429285807202.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1434,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/ems-list\/","url_meta":{"origin":4,"position":3},"title":"EM’s List","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"April 18, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"EM's list exists to recognize arts organizations and arts programs that promote substantive engagement between the arts and the community. Its goals are to: Encourage arts programs that effectively engage their communities Reward and promote arts organizations that are committed to substantive engagement Highlight the effectiveness of community engagement programs\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/StephanieMooreColor.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6077,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/community-engagement-network\/","url_meta":{"origin":4,"position":4},"title":"Community Engagement Network","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"October 12, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The Community Engagement Network exists to strengthen the quality of community engagement work in arts organizations and to foster understanding of and support for CE in the nonprofit arts industry. We hope to create a space for practitioners and administrators to share ideas and learn from each other. To learn\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3795,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/resources\/robert-e-gard-foundation-calls-for-stories\/","url_meta":{"origin":4,"position":5},"title":"Robert E. Gard Foundation Calls for Stories","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"September 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Gard Foundation logo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Gard-Foundation-logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4154,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4\/revisions\/4154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}