![\"Compass\"](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Compass-300x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In Engaged Mission: I<\/a>, I suggested that service to people is\/ought to be a fundamental element of the understanding of our mission, whether or not it is formally articulated in a mission statement. I think that is probably not too controversial. It\u2019s the extent of the service and the way we carry it out that could be a little more challenging for us.<\/p>\n In the simplistic graphic I presented last time, I tried to show that art as only service (community focused), while there are people and organizations with such a mission, is not the ground I am claiming when I speak of community engagement. It is the middle ground\u2013where mutual interests (the arts\u2019 and the community\u2019s) are advanced\u2013that is the focus of my work.<\/p>\n People for whom a particular art form or a specific work has deep meaning have difficulty understanding\/relating to people for whom that is not the case. As a result, they assume that simply putting forth their<\/i> work or medium\/genre is<\/i> serving the community. As a result, in spite of their intent, the effect can be artcentric. The key for the future of the arts lies in finding ways to serve people who do not already feel the arts are important to them\u2013ways that they<\/i> recognize. Surreptitious service (service that is invisible to the \u201crecipient\u201d) is not beneficial for practical reasons; it is also, in many cases, not actually service<\/i> if the people being \u201cserved\u201d are not aware they are benefiting.<\/p>\n From a practical standpoint, service exclusively to those who already understand the value might be sufficient if there were far larger numbers of people in that category than there are. But even if there were unmanageable multitudes already hooked, wouldn\u2019t there still be a moral argument to do more? If we do this work because we are aware of its great power for good, don\u2019t we have some obligation to share it with those who are not aware? If so, then we are faced \u201csimply\u201d with the issue of how to do so.<\/p>\n This brings us back to the second question from my previous post. To what extent do we serve people?<\/b> Since mutuality of benefit is the hallmark of effective community engagement, one-way service to others at the expense of the art, artists, or arts organization is not the answer. Every organization will make its own choices on the continuum. So long as work begins somewhere to the right of Artcentric, progress is being made. Simply asking, in the context of every programming decision, \u201cIn what ways can our art be made personally meaningful to people unfamiliar with it or with its benefits?<\/b>\u201d will be helpful. The benefits will be increasingly valuable the more the responses to that question are based on direct knowledge and relationship with the community.<\/p>\n Any sincere desire to serve is a great beginning. As experience is gained and training is received, the quality (and benefits) of the engagement will improve.<\/p>\n Engage!<\/p>\n Doug<\/p>\n Photo: In Engaged Mission: I, I suggested that service to people is\/ought to be a fundamental element of the understanding of our mission, whether or not it is formally articulated in a mission statement. I think that is probably not too controversial. It\u2019s the extent of the service and the way we carry it out that […]<\/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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,13,31],"class_list":{"0":"post-2795","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-principles","7":"tag-arts","8":"tag-community-engagement","9":"tag-mainstreaming","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-J5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2785,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/04\/engaged-mission-i\/","url_meta":{"origin":2795,"position":0},"title":"Engaged Mission: I","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"April 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"When I first outlined my series of posts on mainstreaming community engagement I had not intended to address mission. I did not want to (nor did I think it necessary) to \u201ctake on\u201d the definition of our core principles in addressing modes of mainstreaming engagement. However, as the posts and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Compass","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Compass-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2811,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/04\/engaged-mission-iii\/","url_meta":{"origin":2795,"position":1},"title":"Engaged Mission: III","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"April 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019d like to take a different approach to consideration of mission in this post from the previous two. This one is less directly about the relationship between mission and community engagement (although two of the examples deal, very explicitly, with that). What I\u2019m interested in here is the power that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Compass","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Compass-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2665,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/03\/engaged-marketing-introduction\/","url_meta":{"origin":2795,"position":2},"title":"Engaged Marketing: Introduction","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"March 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Talk about \"where angels fear to tread.\" OK, I'm going to start a series of posts dealing with marketing from a community engagement perspective. I simply ask for a little forbearance. I believe my difficulty is that people have in their heads so many different ideas about what marketing is.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bazaar","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Bazaar-300x174.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3506,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2014\/03\/deconstructing-a-revelation\/","url_meta":{"origin":2795,"position":3},"title":"Deconstructing a Revelation","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"March 19, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Community engagement does require taking community awareness seriously, but never to the exclusion of quality art making.","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"LightBulb","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/LightBulb-e1394129630406.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4660,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2016\/10\/abcd-and-community-engagement\/","url_meta":{"origin":2795,"position":4},"title":"ABCD and Community Engagement","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"October 5, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Arts-based community development is a vital part of community engagement but it is not the whole of it.","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Let's start from the very beginning, a very good place to start. When we read, we begin with \"A, B, C...\" ( we can also add D =D)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/ABCD.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3659,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2014\/08\/rationales\/","url_meta":{"origin":2795,"position":5},"title":"Rationales","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"August 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Which reasons are more important in becoming more effectively engaged with the community\u2013the \"moral\" ones or the practical ones?","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Why?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Why-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2795","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=2795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2795\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"MissionContinuum\"](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/MissionContinuum1-300x58.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Attribution\"](\"http:\/\/l.yimg.com\/g\/images\/cc_icon_attribution_small.gif\" "\\"Attribution\\""){kind=icon}
![\"Noncommercial\"](\"http:\/\/l.yimg.com\/g\/images\/cc_icon_noncomm_small.gif\" "\\"Noncommercial\\""){kind=icon}
<\/a> Some rights reserved<\/a> by Roland Urbanek<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"