{"id":1165,"date":"2012-02-15T11:04:13","date_gmt":"2012-02-15T16:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/?p=1165"},"modified":"2012-02-15T11:04:13","modified_gmt":"2012-02-15T16:04:13","slug":"authority-based-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2012\/02\/authority-based-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Authority-based Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"One of the real pleasures of working on the book Building Communities, Not Audiences<\/em><\/a>\u2013that will indeed be complete before too much more time passes\u2013is reading the insights of my contributors. I’ve recently been working with David Dombrosky, Chief Marketing Officer at InstantEncore.com<\/a> and former Executive Director at Carnegie Mellon’s Center for Arts Management and Technology. His article for the book is about social media, the arts, and community engagement. I’ll say more about some of the article’s conclusions in another post, but the process of reading it illuminated something for me.<\/p>\n

As a society, we have for decades been moving away from an authority-based environment. The upheaval of the Sixties and the public scandals of which Watergate was a prime example voided the social contract in which institutions and authority figures were given the benefit of the doubt. This is not news. Police, teachers, doctors, pastors and priests all have less unquestioned respect than was true in the 1950’s.<\/p>\n

The technologically-mediated means of individual communication available today have amplified that trend. Each of us (that have access to the Internet) have a ready platform to voice our questions if not our outright mistrust. Web 2.0 (the online sharing of ideas, opinions, and information) has created an environment in which increasing numbers of people expect<\/em> to be heard. Again, that is not a particularly new idea.<\/p>\n

What is<\/em> a relatively new thought for me is a particular way this applies to the arts. Ours has been an authority-based industry. Experts decide what cultural experiences to provide. The public’s job (when the public has had a job) has been to appreciate them. While, as I have often remarked, this is not true of the whole history of the arts in all cultures, it is<\/em> true of the European-rooted art forms that are the focus of much of the not-for-profit arts industry in the U.S. With the rise of “participatory culture” built upon online communication tools, people are no longer content to passively accept what experts offer them. They have an expectation of input. This is not a trend that will fade.<\/p>\n

Demographic, economic, political, and social changes are necessitating an increased focus by arts organizations on the cultural needs and interests of the broad public. The “new” for me here is that technologically-rooted changes in the relationship between individuals and the organizations with which they interact are doing so as well. There may be those who rail against this new world, but the railing won’t make the need to alter our approaches (and mindset) go away. The good news is that the mechanisms that have precipitated this particular shift also provide us the means for addressing it. Social media are a cause; they are also an answer. It is far easier to interact with large numbers of constituents than ever before in history.<\/p>\n

Let’s not try to deny (or ignore) the inevitable.<\/p>\n

Engage!<\/p>\n

Doug<\/p>\n

Photo \"Attribution\"<\/a> Some rights reserved<\/a> by humberpike<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the real pleasures of working on the book Building Communities, Not Audiences\u2013that will indeed be complete before too much more time passes\u2013is reading the insights of my contributors. I’ve recently been working with David Dombrosky, Chief Marketing Officer at InstantEncore.com and former Executive Director at Carnegie Mellon’s Center for Arts Management and Technology. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","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,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-arts-2-0","7":"category-principles","8":"entry","9":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-iN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1242,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2012\/02\/participatory-culture\/","url_meta":{"origin":1165,"position":0},"title":"Participatory Culture","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"February 25, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"In Authority-based Culture, I referenced some work by David Dombrosky having to do with the rise of participatory culture. It's probably a good idea to present a little more of his thinking. He cites access to production tools (like earlier advances that brought desktop publishing to homes and small businesses)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Arts 2.0"","block_context":{"text":"Arts 2.0","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/arts-2-0\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/ChristmasTreeFlashMob.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4733,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2016\/11\/who-benefits\/","url_meta":{"origin":1165,"position":1},"title":"Who Benefits?","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"November 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Definitions are important to me. That's probably a reflection of my former life as an academic. (Or, I suppose, it could be why I was an academic.) They've also become critical to my work as an advocate for community engagement. I have presented numerous attempts at defining things like audience\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Dictionary","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Dictionary.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3236,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/10\/trading-in-the-studebaker\/","url_meta":{"origin":1165,"position":2},"title":"Trading in the Studebaker","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"October 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Frequent readers of this blog know that I am in the midst of a series of posts dealing with core mission in the arts. 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Gard's 1966 classic book.","rel":"","context":"In "Guest Post"","block_context":{"text":"Guest Post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/guest-post\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Gard sketch","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Gard-sketch-e1456762274296.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4126,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2015\/05\/engage-now\/","url_meta":{"origin":1165,"position":4},"title":"Engage Now!","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"May 6, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Arts organizations cannot long survive without earning impassioned support from the communities they serve. Communities cannot reach their full potential without the benefits the arts can provide.","rel":"","context":"In "Engage Now"","block_context":{"text":"Engage Now","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/engage-now\/"},"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":3456,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2014\/02\/the-relevance-test\/","url_meta":{"origin":1165,"position":5},"title":"The Relevance Test","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"February 26, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Substantive community engagement is based on being valuable to people in ways that are meaningful to them. Such relevance forms the basis for individual, institutional, and community support.","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"WillWorkForRelevance","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/WillWorkForRelevance-e1392667268139.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1165\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}