{"id":1861,"date":"2012-07-25T06:49:16","date_gmt":"2012-07-25T10:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/?p=1861"},"modified":"2012-07-25T06:49:16","modified_gmt":"2012-07-25T10:49:16","slug":"civic-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2012\/07\/civic-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"Civic Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Michael Rohd, the Founding Director of Portland (OR)&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sojourntheatre.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Sojourn Theatre<\/a> has recently posted an extremely thoughtful reflection on community engagement and theatre: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.howlround.com\/the-new-work-of-building-civic-practice-by-michael-rohd\/\" target=\"_blank\">The New Work of Building Civic Practice<\/a>. As I&#8217;ve said before, I am aware of the danger of echo-chambering in the blog world, especially in this case since the things he says sound so much like my rants. But, as in the past, I simply can&#8217;t help myself.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Rohd identifies the central issue I have with most efforts at audience engagement. They are &#8220;developed to implement programming that surrounds mainstage productions&#8221; and &#8220;operate in a mode of discourse closer to a monologue than a dialogue.&#8221; (See <a title=\"One Way\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2012\/04\/one-way\/\" target=\"_blank\">One Way<\/a>) Partnerships developed for these purposes are often (usually) not on-going. They are resuscitated when a similarly themed work again appears on the arts organization&#8217;s schedule. (In other words, when it is in the arts organization&#8217;s interest to do so.) A point that he does not make is that the non-arts partner is crystal clear that the effort is self-serving for the arts organization and won&#8217;t invest much in the relationship. This is one example of why those outside the arts community are sometimes leery of or even antagonistic to the arts. They&#8217;ve been burned.<\/p>\n<p>Successful civic practice is first focused on the relationship, not the art. Mr. Rohd highlights a key skill for engagement that good arts ensembles have in abundance, the capacity to listen. If this skill is applied to relationship-building, the quality of the engagement can be quite stunning.<\/p>\n<p>Civic practice is a concept and area of endeavor very much like what some in the visual arts world refer to as social practice\u2013roughly, the application of art to community concerns. Mr. Rohd defines this as &#8220;activity where a theater artist employs the assets of his\/her craft in response to the needs of non-arts partners as determined through ongoing, relationship-based dialogue.&#8221; The language in this field is not standardized within arts disciplines and certainly not across the arts, but his definition sounds very much like my definition of community arts: &#8220;arts-based projects intentionally designed to address community issues.&#8221; I then go on to define community engagement as &#8220;A process whereby institutions enter into mutually beneficial relationships with other organizations, informal community groups, or individuals. . . .[T]his normally implies arts organizations developing relationships outside of the arts community.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Rohd&#8217;s essay contains a great framework and rationale for\u2013along with good examples of\u2013civic practice in theatre. I am thrilled to have this addition to the discussion of the arts and civic engagement.<\/p>\n<p>Engage!<\/p>\n<p>Doug<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michael Rohd, the Founding Director of Portland (OR)&#8217;s Sojourn Theatre has recently posted an extremely thoughtful reflection on community engagement and theatre: The New Work of Building Civic Practice. As I&#8217;ve said before, I am aware of the danger of echo-chambering in the blog world, especially in this case since the things he says sound [&hellip;]<\/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":[4,5,10],"tags":[12,26,13,18,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-1861","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-overview","7":"category-principles","8":"category-the-practice-of-engagement","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-change","11":"tag-community-engagement","12":"tag-terminology","13":"tag-theatre","14":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-u1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4890,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2017\/03\/the-nea-and-other-things\/","url_meta":{"origin":1861,"position":0},"title":"The NEA (and Other Things)","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"March 22, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"My hat is off to Michael Rohd: We must not shout- save the arts! We must sing - we stand together working towards equity, inclusion and resources for those most vulnerable among us.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Overview&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Overview","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/overview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/NEA_Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/NEA_Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/NEA_Logo.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/NEA_Logo.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4060,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2015\/04\/the-ethics-of-engagement\/","url_meta":{"origin":1861,"position":1},"title":"The Ethics of Engagement","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"April 1, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Engaging with communities demands thinking through what to and not to do.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Principles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4570,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2016\/06\/gard-foundation-symposium-at-wingspread\/","url_meta":{"origin":1861,"position":2},"title":"Gard Foundation Symposium at Wingspread","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"June 15, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Gard Foundation Symposium at Wingspread: Considering the Past, Present, and Future of community arts development.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;The Arts and . . .&quot;","block_context":{"text":"The Arts and . . .","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/the-arts-and\/"},"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":[]},{"id":2328,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/01\/an-engagement-continuum\/","url_meta":{"origin":1861,"position":3},"title":"An Engagement Continuum","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"January 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"[Note to new readers: This is a very old and widely read post. In the interest of providing up-to-date information about thinking on this topic, you can find updated definitions of terminology related to community engagement and related arts management tools on the ArtsEngaged website here.] I'm on a roll\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Overview&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Overview","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/overview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/TownHallMeeting-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4945,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2017\/06\/engagement-terminology\/","url_meta":{"origin":1861,"position":4},"title":"Engagement Terminology","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"June 21, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"We need good definitions to make our work more effective. Here is an updated set from my perspective, for what it's worth.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;The Practice of Engagement&quot;","block_context":{"text":"The Practice of Engagement","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/the-practice-of-engagement\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Dictionary-300x202.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3593,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2014\/05\/first-believe\/","url_meta":{"origin":1861,"position":5},"title":"First, Believe","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"May 7, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"There is one, and only one, first principle in effective engagement with communities. That is believing that doing so is a good thing\u2013for the organization, for the community, and for art.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;The Practice of Engagement&quot;","block_context":{"text":"The Practice of Engagement","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/the-practice-of-engagement\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Halo-Reflection","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Halo-Reflection-300x195.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1861","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=1861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1861\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}