![\"Rural-Urban\"](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Rural-Urban-153x300.jpg\")
(Note: I’m just back from a fascinating trip to Beijing, speaking to arts management educators from around China at the China Conservatory of Music. I’ll have some to say about what I learned in the future. For now, I was struck, once again, by how the concern for community engagement in the arts is by no means limited to the U.S.)<\/p>\n
——————–<\/p>\n
Last time (Lessons from the Road<\/a>) I gave an overview of the lessons of my last four months of travels. I wanted to pull out a couple in particular to highlight here. Working with arts leaders in Wisconsin at a workshop sponsored by Arts Wisconsin<\/a>, I met people from both cities and from very small towns. In particular, there were two stories that are just too good not to share. The first had to do with a presenter from a small town who reported on going to a marketing workshop earlier in the year. She had been asked how she communicated information to her constituents about performances and, responded, somewhat baffled, “I call them.” There are real advantages to being in a small<\/em> town.<\/p>\n While that’s primarily just a good story (although it reminds us that word of mouth is always the best advertising, if you can tap it), a related story is both fun and<\/em> valuable. Kelli Tatum, the Executive Director of the Widespot Performing Arts Center<\/a>, participated in the workshop. She explained to the attendees that her venue had a seating capacity of 120. That’s not so unusual, but they are located in Stockholm, WI which has a population of 66. Clearly, the only<\/em> way to survive in that situation is to be highly<\/em> engaged with the entire population (and then some).<\/p>\n And when I was in Cincinnati I had the pleasure of meeting with the leaders of the many community arts centers in that city. Each had different needs, but all were concerned with effectively reaching their particular neighborhood or area. I realized very quickly that their approach needed to be nearly identical to that taken by the leaders of arts organizations in Wisconsin’s small towns.<\/p>\n A particularly interesting development in my meeting with them had to do with their angst about the new approach to funding, based on community outcomes, that ArtsWave has initiated there. They were, to a person, concerned that they could not compete with the major arts institutions in Cincinnati. Their attendance numbers are small (relatively) and they felt that would put them at a disadvantage. I suggested considering another metric. (I never<\/em> imagined I’d actually use that<\/em> word.) I asked them to identify the total number of people in the communities they were designed to serve and note the percentage of that population they served. That number, their reach percentage, will be, I am confident, far higher than that of their major institution competitors. That’s also not a bad way for rural arts leaders to demonstrate effectiveness to outsiders.<\/p>\n I’ve said for a long time that arts leaders in small communities are far better at understanding and implementing community engagement than their peers in larger settings. They have to be. But it is also true that local arts centers in urban areas are similarly attuned to their constituents. There are valuable lessons to be learned from them as we seek to be better community engagers.<\/p>\n Engage!<\/p>\n Doug<\/p>\n Photo: (Note: I’m just back from a fascinating trip to Beijing, speaking to arts management educators from around China at the China Conservatory of Music. I’ll have some to say about what I learned in the future. For now, I was struck, once again, by how the concern for community engagement in the arts is by […]<\/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":[5,10],"tags":[12,13,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-2884","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-principles","7":"category-the-practice-of-engagement","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-community-engagement","10":"tag-examples-2","11":"entry","12":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-Kw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2873,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/05\/lessons-from-the-road\/","url_meta":{"origin":2884,"position":0},"title":"Lessons from the Road","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"May 22, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Since mid-January I have been on a whirlwind tour of the U.S. (and Toronto). I have kept thinking I am going to stop and reflect on all I've learned. So far, though, there's not been time. But I thought I'd at least take a few moments to thank all of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Practice of Engagement"","block_context":{"text":"The Practice of Engagement","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/the-practice-of-engagement\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"north america - Google Maps","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/NorthAmerica-300x152.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4674,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2016\/09\/gard-foundation-symposium-our-communities-day-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":2884,"position":1},"title":"Gard Foundation Symposium\u2013Our Communities: Day 3","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"September 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Gard Foundation Symposium\u2013Our Communities: Day 3","rel":"","context":"In "The Arts and . . ."","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":2627,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/04\/the-engagement-quiz\/","url_meta":{"origin":2884,"position":2},"title":"The Engagement Quiz","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"April 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I am in the midst of a series of workshops and speaking engagements, centered around the theme of Mainstreaming Engagement. One early sponsor, Anne Katz of Arts Wisconsin, asked me to come up with questions for workshop participants to consider ahead of time, and I realized that a set of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Overview"","block_context":{"text":"Overview","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/overview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"FinalExam","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/FinalExam-300x151.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5381,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2018\/09\/reach-and-frequency\/","url_meta":{"origin":2884,"position":3},"title":"Reach and Frequency","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"September 12, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Community engagement is not just a worthy effort to pursue at the margins. It is critical to the future of individual arts organizations and to our industry as a whole.","rel":"","context":"In "The Practice of Engagement"","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\/2013\/04\/Dictionary.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4570,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2016\/06\/gard-foundation-symposium-at-wingspread\/","url_meta":{"origin":2884,"position":4},"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 "The Arts and . . ."","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":1925,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2012\/09\/on-the-road\/","url_meta":{"origin":2884,"position":5},"title":"On the Road: The DIY Book Tour","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"September 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Beginning this month (September) I am undertaking a DIY (do-it-yourself) tour for my book Building Communities, Not Audiences. Having taken the print-on-demand route for publishing it, there is not a deep pockets (or even shallow pockets) publisher funding a tour. So, when I am going to be someplace anyway, I'm\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Building Communities Not Audiences"","block_context":{"text":"Building Communities Not Audiences","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/building-communities\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/BCNA_Cover-200x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2884","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=2884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2884\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Attribution\"](\"http:\/\/l.yimg.com\/g\/images\/cc_icon_attribution_small.gif\" "\\"Attribution\\""){kind=icon}
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<\/a> Some rights reserved<\/a> by JLA Klich\u00e9<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"