![\"Half-Baked\"](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Half-Baked-300x243.jpg\")
One of the best things about blogging (especially in the summer when so many of my colleagues in academia are paying less attention) is the opportunity to experiment with ideas that are, shall we say, not fully baked.<\/p>\nOne of the best things about blogging (especially in the summer when so many of my colleagues in academia are paying less attention) is the opportunity to experiment with ideas that are, shall we say, not fully baked.<\/p>\n
Careful (and long-time) readers of this blog may recall that in my post Art for Art’s Sake? There’s No Such Thing<\/a>, I expressed some discomfort with the notions of intrinsic and instrumental benefits of the arts. That construct from the Rand Corporation’s Gifts of the Muse\u00a0<\/em>has always given me pause because, in my way of thinking, any real benefit is “instrumental” in some way.<\/p>\n Recently, in considering issues of mission in the arts, I’ve returned to this question. Here’s my latest thinking:<\/p>\n Those for whom art has deep meaning have difficulty understanding\/relating to people for whom that is not the case. As a result, we sometimes assume that simply putting forth our<\/i> work or medium\/genre is<\/i> serving the community. So, in spite of our intent, the effect can be what I call artcentric, disconnected from humanity and off-putting to those who are not true believers. In contrast, 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.<\/p>\n The core benefits<\/strong> of the arts<\/strong> are their impact on people<\/strong>\u2013individually and collectively. For individuals the arts provide (or enhance) internal congruence<\/i><\/strong>\u2013self-understanding, self-acceptance, identity, and pleasure to name a few. Between individuals, the arts aid relational alignment<\/i><\/strong>\u2013facilitating relationship-building and understanding. In the community\/society<\/strong> context, the arts foster social capital<\/i><\/strong>\u2013both bonding among people of similar interests and backgrounds and bridging across lines of difference.<\/p>\n I would hold that all other forms of benefit<\/strong>\u2013economic development principal among them\u2013are ancillary benefits<\/strong>. These are valuable to communities but are not central to our mission of serving people through the arts.<\/p>\n This core\/ancillary classification of benefits can satisfy the essence of the \u201carts for arts sake\u201d position without forcing us to focus on the arts rather than on their benefits for people. We can then envision the deep mission of arts organizations as doing things that impact people\u2019s lives in ways they cannot help but see.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is early enough in my thinking that I don’t even know if I believe all of the above, but the core\/ancillary distinction solves my discomfort with intrinsic\/instrumental. Whether that makes it meaningful is another issue altogether.<\/p>\n Engage!<\/p>\n Doug<\/p>\n Image: One of the best things about blogging (especially in the summer when so many of my colleagues in academia are paying less attention) is the opportunity to experiment with ideas that are, shall we say, not fully baked. Careful (and long-time) readers of this blog may recall that in my post Art for Art’s Sake? […]<\/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":[4],"tags":[12,13,24,23,18],"class_list":{"0":"post-2970","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-overview","7":"tag-arts","8":"tag-community-engagement","9":"tag-instrumental","10":"tag-intrinsic","11":"tag-terminology","12":"entry","13":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-LU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3102,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/08\/benefits-of-the-arts-follow-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":2970,"position":0},"title":"Benefits of the Arts Follow-Up","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"August 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"A commenter on Benefits of the Arts asked a great question: observing the similarities between the Rand Corporation\u2019s Gifts of the Muse intrinsic\/instrumental categories, wasn't my core\/ancillary division simply a re-naming? (And Ian David Moss's later comment was in a similar vein.) Here was\u00a0 my semi-immediate response: While the whole\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Half-Baked","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Half-Baked-300x243.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4608,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2016\/08\/fifth-anniversary-highlights-art-for-arts-sake\/","url_meta":{"origin":2970,"position":1},"title":"Fifth Anniversary Highlights: Art for Art’s Sake?","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"August 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Fifth Anniversary Highlights: Art for Art's Sake?","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\/2016\/07\/FiveCandles.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1005,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2012\/01\/art-for-arts-sake\/","url_meta":{"origin":2970,"position":2},"title":"Art for Art’s Sake? There’s No Such Thing","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"January 11, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"So here is a bit of heresy for the New Year. A recent post by Clayton Lord on his blog New Beans, This Is Your Brain on Art (sizzle, sizzle), reminded me of my first exposure to the Rand Corporation's 2005 Gifts of the Muse study. A distinction was made\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\/01\/PaintBrushes.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2851,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/06\/the-locus-of-value\/","url_meta":{"origin":2970,"position":3},"title":"The Locus of Value","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"June 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"It's an amazing thing to be the parent of an adult child, read something they have written, and say, \"Wow! That's brilliant.\" My son, John Borwick, is an IT consultant for the higher ed world. He is also a blogger who recently wrote about MOOC's, Massive Online Open Courses. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Gold","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Gold-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4960,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2017\/07\/benefits-of-the-arts-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":2970,"position":4},"title":"Benefits of the Arts (Again)","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"July 26, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The essential benefits of the arts are: enhancing the human spirit and improving social relationships. All other forms of benefit are ancillary, important but not core.","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\/2017\/05\/Dancer-e1495045883104.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1765,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2012\/06\/valuing-public-good\/","url_meta":{"origin":2970,"position":5},"title":"Valuing Public Good","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"June 27, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"In preparing my last post [Structures and Models in Blogs, Oh My] about the recent discussions of structural and business models for arts organizations, I was gradually overcome with an uncomfortable sensation. The argument that the intrinsic benefits of the arts are undermined by the need to serve the public\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Overview"","block_context":{"text":"Overview","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/overview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2970","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=2970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2970\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2970"}],"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 Krissy.Venosdale<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"