{"id":204,"date":"2011-08-10T09:00:23","date_gmt":"2011-08-10T13:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/?p=204"},"modified":"2011-08-10T12:02:00","modified_gmt":"2011-08-10T16:02:00","slug":"winds-of-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2011\/08\/winds-of-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Winds of Change"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\"Attribution\"\"Share<\/a> Some rights reserved<\/a> by m.prinke<\/a><\/p>\n

In my last post, “Click<\/a>,” I wrote about awakening to a disconnect between arts organizations and their communities. There has been little in the arts infrastructure that has encouraged commitment or relationships that went beyond the bounds of the arts establishment. And yet boundary-busting has been the norm in the community arts movement\u2013a grassroots movement focused on community betterment largely unheralded in the arts world. That’s a topic for many other posts. What is heartening is the level of commitment to community that is seen increasingly in relatively traditional arts organizations. I am planning a series of posts, called Winds of Change, that highlight such work.<\/p>\n

I’ll begin, because of its timeliness (and its ease), with Nina Simon’s recent post on her blog, Museum 2.0<\/a>. On July 27 in Public Service, Advocacy, and Institutional Transformation<\/a>, she discusses finding commonalities between Homeless Services of Santa Cruz County and her own Museum of Art and History. I cannot, of course, say what she said better than she said it. A central observation informing their discussion was,<\/p>\n

Both of our organizations are classically seen as insular organizations that serve specific, closed audiences–homeless people in her case, cultural elites and students in mine–and we’re both trying to demonstrate that our institutions not only have value for the whole community but also opportunities for everyone to get involved in a meaningful way.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She points to the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum, the American Visionary Art Museum, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art as examples of museums (two of them art museums) that see their core role as being closely connected to the well-being of their communities. For me, a telling quote from near the end of the post is<\/p>\n

[H]ow many institutions are really aggressively transforming their work away from service to a narrow band of audiences to community-wide advocacy work? These museums work differently. They have different goals they are shooting for.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How many indeed? A key question is, “How many need to be?” Does every arts organization need to have a community engagement agenda? That probably depends upon the framework for the word “need.”\u00a0 I suspect that on a practical level, a viable future for arts organizations is going to have engagement as the only road to sustainability. Marketing, fundraising, and advocacy for arts-friendly public policy are all dependent upon serious and deep engagement. On the philosophical level? . . .\u00a0 Let’s have that conversation another day. In the meantime,<\/p>\n

Engage!<\/p>\n

Doug<\/p>\n

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

Some rights reserved by m.prinke In my last post, “Click,” I wrote about awakening to a disconnect between arts organizations and their communities. There has been little in the arts infrastructure that has encouraged commitment or relationships that went beyond the bounds of the arts establishment. And yet boundary-busting has been the norm in the […]<\/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":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-204","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-examples","7":"category-winds-of-change","8":"entry","9":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-3i","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":517,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2011\/10\/winds-of-change-hgo\/","url_meta":{"origin":204,"position":0},"title":"Winds of Change: Houston Grand Opera","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"October 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"In the minds of the general public, opera is often seen as the most distant and elitist of the arts. (Opera lovers, don't pile on. I'm simply articulating what is a fairly common \"on the street\" perception.) That is why examples of deep community engagement coming from the opera world\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Examples"","block_context":{"text":"Examples","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/examples\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/WindmillsAtSeaCropped.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":436,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2011\/09\/winds-of-change-yerba-buena-center-for-the-arts\/","url_meta":{"origin":204,"position":1},"title":"Winds of Change: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"September 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is taking community engagement seriously and to an extremely individual level. The Center's YBCA: YOU program provides one-on-one introductions to YBCA and contemporary art. (Once again, and clearly not for the last time, I am indebted to Nina Simon's Museum 2.0 for highlighting an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Examples"","block_context":{"text":"Examples","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/examples\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/WindmillsAtSeaCropped.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":356,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2011\/08\/cat-institute\/","url_meta":{"origin":204,"position":2},"title":"CAT Institute","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"August 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Last year I had the good fortune to attend a conference, At the Crossroads, hosted the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis. There I met or got re-acquainted with a number of people active in the community arts movement. I also had the opportunity to get some first-hand insight into\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Examples"","block_context":{"text":"Examples","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/examples\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":841,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2011\/12\/bemis-center\/","url_meta":{"origin":204,"position":3},"title":"Winds of Change: Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"December 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I am sorely tempted to simply post the link to Art Works' blog post about Omaha's Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts\u2013Artists-in-Community at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts\u2013and call it a day. I'm tempted, but in spite of what some of you might wish, I won't succumb. The Bemis Center\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Examples"","block_context":{"text":"Examples","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/examples\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/WindmillsAtSeaCropped.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":333,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2011\/08\/winds-of-change-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":204,"position":4},"title":"Winds of Change-2","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"August 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Some rights reserved by m.prinke Bit by bit, engagement\u2013as a real commitment rather than lip service or a funding ploy\u2013appears to be entering the mainstream of the arts establishment. I have been waiting for years to see this kind of awakening begin. In an earlier post I mentioned how many\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Examples"","block_context":{"text":"Examples","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/examples\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/WindmillsAtSeaCropped.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":209,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2011\/08\/under-the-radar\/","url_meta":{"origin":204,"position":5},"title":"Under the Radar","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"August 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week, in Winds of Change, I began a series of posts sharing examples of established arts organizations committed to substantive community engagement. This week I am introducing another category for your consideration. The arts began engaged with the communities they served. That's the history of the field. The disconnect\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Examples"","block_context":{"text":"Examples","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/examples\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Radar.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204","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=204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}