{"id":3922,"date":"2014-12-03T02:53:20","date_gmt":"2014-12-03T07:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/?p=3922"},"modified":"2014-12-03T02:53:20","modified_gmt":"2014-12-03T07:53:20","slug":"lessons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2014\/12\/lessons\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Homework\"I was honored recently to have Barry Hessenius ask me to contribute to his annual post “What I Have Learned.”<\/a> He asked a number of people to share life lessons from both personal and professional life. The demands of blogging being what they are and the busy season being what it is, it seemed not unreasonable to double dip with my response, so, while you may have seen this in his blog, here it is again.<\/p>\n

Just because you can do something doesn\u2019t mean you should.<\/em><\/strong>
\nMost people are reasonably good at more than one skill. Letting \u201cshould\u201d force you into joyless tasks is soul killing, and, in the long run, counter-productive.<\/p>\n

Work on those things the world most needs done and you most need to do.
\n<\/em><\/strong>The choice of activity in which to invest oneself is best found in those things that maximize benefit to the world and to your satisfaction.<\/p>\n

\u201cCrises\u201d may resolve themselves if benign neglect is applied. <\/strong><\/em>
\nI am predisposed to \u201cdo.\u201d It took holding positions in which too much was coming too quickly for me to learn that some \u201cemergencies\u201d are inappropriately labeled. Patient non-response is sometimes the solution.<\/p>\n

Privilege is systemic and an existential threat to the nonprofit arts industry. <\/em><\/strong>
\nAs recently pointed out in Barry’s Blog<\/a>, the time for viewing diversity and justice as \u201cchallenges\u201d is past. They must become obsessions for practical (e.g.<\/em>, demographic) and moral reasons.<\/p>\n

There is no \u201cthem.\u201d<\/em><\/strong>
\nEvery habit of thought and action that leads to a separation of \u201cus\u201d from \u201cthem\u201d is an impediment to viability in the arts sector. We are integral parts of our communities.<\/p>\n

Excellence is heterogeneous.<\/strong><\/em>
\nTechnique is important in the arts. So are relevance, inclusiveness, and impact\u2013to name only a few additional criteria. Excellence is best sought in everything that matters but it can seldom be achieved in all categories in equal measure.<\/p>\n

Relevance is vital and defined by beneficiaries.<\/em><\/strong>
\nRelevance is critical to the long-term viability of the nonprofit arts industry. It determines the level of public support; and it is the public, not ourselves, that is the arbiter of relevance.<\/p>\n

Engage!<\/p>\n

Doug<\/p>\n

Photo:\"Attribution\"\"Noncommercial\"\"No<\/a><\/span> Some rights reserved<\/a> by henry\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few personal and professional life lessons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3923,"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_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Personal and Professional Life Lessons","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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,13,56],"class_list":["post-3922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-principles","tag-arts","tag-community-engagement","tag-lessons","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s1G6h9-lessons","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Homework-e1415025995293.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3922","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=3922"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3941,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3922\/revisions\/3941"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}