{"id":2204,"date":"2012-11-14T05:48:08","date_gmt":"2012-11-14T10:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/?p=2204"},"modified":"2012-11-14T05:48:08","modified_gmt":"2012-11-14T10:48:08","slug":"bright-spots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2012\/11\/bright-spots\/","title":{"rendered":"Bright Spots"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I wish I<\/em> had written that. That’s exactly the way I felt when I finished reading Alexis Frasz’ and\u00a0 Holly Sidford’s report for\u00a0The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation: Bright Spots Leadership in the Pacific Northwest<\/a>. <\/em>(Ms. Sidford was also the author the report, Fusing Arts, Culture and Social Change<\/a> for the Committee for Responsive Philanthropy that highlighted the “shocking” news that most arts funding went to wealthy organizations.)<\/p>\n

But, not being a researcher, I could not have, so my hat is simply off to the reports’ authors. Bright Spots<\/em> serves the function of being a management principles treatise for arts organizations along the lines of Jim Collins’ Good to Great.<\/em> (Indeed, many of the principles articulated sound like arts-centric versions of Collins’ essential truths.) It also has some excellent brief case studies, “Bright Spots” doing well in difficult times.<\/p>\n

What tickles my fancy about so much of what is contained in Bright Spots<\/em> (surprise!) is the fact that the Bright Spot organizations cited almost all have community engagement at the core of their missions, explicitly or implicitly. Of the five basic Bright Spot principles identified, one is “Deeply Engaged with Community.”<\/p>\n

Bright Spot organizations “operate in and of their communities, and they possess a deep understanding of their interconnectedness with others and their role as civic leaders.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“They engage with community issues not for audience development reasons but as an investment in the shared social and economic fabric of which they are a part.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“Bright spots see partnerships and collaborations as a way to achieve more for the community and their mission at the same time. Partnering is a core value, not a way to realize efficiencies of time or money (which is often doesn\u2019t, anyway). Bright spots think less about ‘mine’ and more about ‘ours.'”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

. . . . And the people (at least this one) all said, “Amen.”<\/p>\n

OK, some juicy excerpts:<\/p>\n

Trey McIntyre Project<\/strong> (Everyone is writing about them. I will one day. But for now, this will suffice):<\/p>\n

“To convince Boise to make a commitment to\u2028 it, TMP first made a passionate commitment to Boise.” <\/em>One result is “dancers get free YMCA memberships; free haircuts; free M.R.I\u2019s, X-rays, and orthopedic surgery; free hotel accommodations for guests; and a free education at Boise State University.<\/strong> ” <\/em>(! Emphasis mine. Artists, take note.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oregon Shakespeare Festival<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Annual or biannual Town Hall meetings offer time for OSF staff and locals to discuss the upcoming season, programs, and any concerns or questions. As part of its commitment to the inclusion of diverse people, ideas, cultures, and traditions; OSF organizes CultureFest, a celebration of multi-ethnic cultures.<\/em><\/p>\n

A result? “[W]hen the main supporting beam in OSF\u2019s main indoor theater cracked \u2028in mid-season and alternative plans had to be created over night. . . [t]he community completely rallied to this emergency. . . .and amazing things happened. The Parks Department acted in two days to authorize our use of a downtown park, and expedited all the attendant permits and contracts. The business community stepped up, and many, many local residents called or came over to see if there was anything they could do. Of course, no one in town wanted to see this important economic resource threatened, but the overwhelming tenor of the responses was one of neighborliness and good will. We had an unimaginably difficult and exhausting summer, but we feel wonderfully affirmed by the people of Ashland and we are inexpressibly grateful to them.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sun Valley Center for the Arts<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

“We are interested in being of and for this community, rather than just \u2018serving\u2019 this community. We aren\u2019t delivering art because it is good for people and a nice thing. We believe that the arts are helping connect people, that they are necessary for our humanity and our understanding of our world. . . .[W]hen programming things we always question, \u2018How \u2028is this relevant to the people and the life in this town?\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>[Emphasis mine]<\/p>\n

I am particularly struck by the way they responded to reaching the town’s construction workers and craftsmen for a show of fine woodwork by George Nakoshima. They threw a kegger! “Sun Valley bought a keg of beer and invited the guys to come in after work. Poole says, ‘They were down on their knees examining his work. It was the most engaged audience we could have hoped for.'”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Icicle Creek Center for the Arts<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not enough to say, \u2018We want to survive.\u2019 We have to be able to answer the question, \u2018Why?\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Portland Center Stage<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we set about to design a new building for the theater, we wanted it to help us reinvent our relationship with the community.\u201d PCS built its theater in a renovated Armory, which has now become an important community gathering place, open 10 am to midnight, six days a week. . . . “[I]t connects us to multiple conversations in the community. On a daily basis, this informs decisions we make about what to put on stage and who we want to work with.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You get the idea. It can be (and is being) done and it pays off for the arts. Engagement is not just a buzz word or a path to funding. It’s a way of thinking and being that presents a means of ensuring a vibrant future for the arts, breaking the logjam separating us from the broad community. Thank you Alexis Frasz and\u00a0 Holly Sidford for recording these stories. (And thanks to Karen Gahl-Mills of Cuyahoga Arts and Culture for breaking my own logjam with respect to Bright Spots<\/em>. Inertia had it sitting “unopened” on my shelf.)<\/p>\n

Engage!<\/p>\n

Doug<\/p>\n

Photo: \"Attribution\"\"Noncommercial\"\"No<\/a> Some rights reserved<\/a> by nuanc<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wish I had written that. That’s exactly the way I felt when I finished reading Alexis Frasz’ and\u00a0 Holly Sidford’s report for\u00a0The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation: Bright Spots Leadership in the Pacific Northwest. (Ms. Sidford was also the author the report, Fusing Arts, Culture and Social Change for the Committee for Responsive Philanthropy […]<\/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":[6,5,10],"tags":[12,13,17,22],"class_list":{"0":"post-2204","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-examples","7":"category-principles","8":"category-the-practice-of-engagement","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-community-engagement","11":"tag-examples-2","12":"tag-public-good","13":"entry","14":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-zy","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2298,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/01\/communities-take-care-of-things\/","url_meta":{"origin":2204,"position":0},"title":"Communities Take Care of Things","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"January 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Communities take care of things . . . that matter to them. That sentence, without the ellipses, made it into my notes from some conference in the last year or so. I have no idea what conference. That's one of the big problems with a life lived in conference sessions\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Overview"","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\/SandbagBrigade.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5244,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2018\/03\/frames\/","url_meta":{"origin":2204,"position":1},"title":"Frames","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"March 28, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Frames: Clarifying the focus, roots of this work for me.","rel":"","context":"In "Overview"","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\/2018\/02\/Frames-300x199.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6700,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2023\/02\/saving-virtue\/","url_meta":{"origin":2204,"position":2},"title":"Saving Virtue","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"February 22, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"There is no substitute for the listening and learning that effective engagement requires and there is no substitute for effective engagement if we are to make our organizations viable for the long term.","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/humility.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4255,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2015\/09\/best-practices\/","url_meta":{"origin":2204,"position":3},"title":"Best Practices","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"September 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Examples of community engagement success are often not transferable.","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"BestPracitces?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/BestPracitces-e1437663788937.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":504,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2011\/09\/or\/","url_meta":{"origin":2204,"position":4},"title":"Or?","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"September 28, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"A recent ARTSblog post Civic Engagement in the Arts in Action-Part I (thanks Maya Kumazawa) brought to mind a topic that needs to be addressed. The post featured an interesting organization called Dance 4 Peace. (I love it when a group nails its mission with its name. It's hard not\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\/09\/DanceChoice-300x128.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4126,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2015\/05\/engage-now\/","url_meta":{"origin":2204,"position":5},"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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2204","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=2204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2204\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}