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Over two and a half years ago, I began this blog as a means of advocacy for community engagement on the part of arts organizations. While that’s not been the sole topic of the posts, it has dominated. I am now beginning a new phase of my work (to which I have alluded before) in which I will try to be somewhat more practical\u2013focusing on the process of helping arts organizations transition to a more community-focused way of being.<\/p>\n
When I do introductory workshops about community engagement, an extremely common response (either in Q & A sessions or more privately in one-on-one post-workshop conversations) is something along the lines of “I get this, but how can I get [fill in the blank] to buy in to this?” Another common response is “We are doing this now.” The interesting thing is that it is sometimes [fill in the blank] that says that. The disconnect on this topic inside organizations can be quite stunning. Where community engagement is understood to be a valuable thing, inertial forces in the industry tend to make people invested in “things as they are” identify what they are doing as community engagement, even when it is demonstrably not. (This is, I believe, labeled “confirmation bias.” It has also contributed to the profound confusion about what community engagement is.) There is not room in a single blog post to address this issue.<\/p>\n
I want to reassure those who have the first question that there are things to be done to move organizations toward greater community focused efforts. I will give below a very<\/em> brief outline of one way the process might work.<\/p>\n For organizations that do not already have a mission-based focus on engagement, engagement efforts cannot be sufficiently successful to make a difference unless there is serious, systemic commitment to it, commitment that demands change in thinking and action. The requisite work to that end is internal<\/p>\n When commitment to engagement is made, the external work can begin.<\/p>\n Simple, right? Seriously, each of these is a long, slow process consisting of many parts. Fortunately (I guess), successful engagement cannot<\/em> happen quickly so the fact that each of these is time-consuming builds needed breathing space into the process. I’ll expand on these steps in future posts, particularly as I learn more working with organizations to implement them.<\/p>\n Engage!<\/p>\n Doug<\/p>\n Moving arts organizations to greater community involvement is a doable but gradual process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3527,"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":"But . . . How? Moving organizations to greater community focus: http:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-US","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":[10],"tags":[12,13,51],"class_list":{"0":"post-3526","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-practice-of-engagement","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-community-engagement","10":"tag-implementation","11":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Questions-e1395671613896.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-US","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4660,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2016\/10\/abcd-and-community-engagement\/","url_meta":{"origin":3526,"position":0},"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":1602,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2012\/05\/signs-of-engagement\/","url_meta":{"origin":3526,"position":1},"title":"Signs of Engagement","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"May 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"While I'm on a roll with posts dissecting the meaning and nature of engagement (Engagement Is, Audience Development \u201cvs.\u201d Community Engagement, Audience Engagement-Community Engagement), I've got some more issues to raise (or repeat). I have made much of the fact that substantive community engagement (as opposed to audience engagement) is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5402,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2018\/10\/the-state-of-engagement\/","url_meta":{"origin":3526,"position":2},"title":"The State of Engagement","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"October 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"For too many arts organizations, their level of self-focus apparently makes understanding that effective community engagement is something substantially different from traditional sales\/marketing\/fundraising\/education approaches nearly impossible.","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\/09\/PonderingVista.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6612,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2022\/04\/assessing-engagement\/","url_meta":{"origin":3526,"position":3},"title":"Assessing Engagement","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"April 13, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The time has come to apply greater rigor to evaluating engagement processes, results, and the state of community engagement in the nonprofit arts industry.","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\/2017\/04\/Clipboard.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4409,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2016\/02\/engagement-is-a-means-not-an-end\/","url_meta":{"origin":3526,"position":4},"title":"Engagement Is a Means, Not an End","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"February 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Engagement is a means to the end of better arts and better lives, not an end in itself.","rel":"","context":"In "Overview"","block_context":{"text":"Overview","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/overview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"CorpsDeBallet","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/CorpsDeBallet.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3720,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2014\/07\/community-engagement-%e2%89%a0-charity\/","url_meta":{"origin":3526,"position":5},"title":"Community Engagement \u2260 Charity","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"July 30, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A couple of weeks ago my blogging buddy Trevor O'Donnell posted one of his parting essays, \"Community Engagement is a Lousy Way to Sell\u00a0Tickets.\" [Disclosure: we had been corresponding on the subject in the days ahead of that post.] In it he highlights the fact that community engagement does not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Overview"","block_context":{"text":"Overview","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/overview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"090806-N-6220J-004","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/SoupKitchen-e1404330931502.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3526","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=3526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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<\/a> Some rights reserved<\/a> by marsmet552<\/a><\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"