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In early December the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis brought me in to support its work in community engagement. Several elements were new. One was a discussion of misconceptions about the nature of community engagement. The other was specific one-on-one work with arts organizations in engagement planning.<\/p>\n
Here is the gist of the first part:<\/p>\n
The Myths It\u2019s true that there is an over-focus and, more to the point, an overuse and profound misuse of the word in the arts establishment today. However, the need to connect with a greater portion of our communities than is currently the case will never<\/em> go away.<\/strong><\/p>\n Engagement might be charity work if the only communities the industry needed to address were the homeless or those subsisting on incomes below the poverty line, but there are plenty of other non-participating communities with whom it is valuable to build relationships.<\/strong> The universe of those unassociated with or disaffected from arts organizations is depressingly vast. (Not limited to homeless or poor!)<\/strong><\/p>\n Of course pursuing, welcoming, and achieving diversity is essential for the future of the arts industry. And community engagement is a path to that end. However, community engagement is<\/strong> even broader than traditional understandings of diversity. It\u2019s a really, really big tent, including all populations that are not currently falling all over themselves to take advantage of what we do.<\/strong> (See “Charity Work”)<\/p>\n Some choices might be expensive, but engagement is fundamentally a habit of mind. Rewiring to see how what we already do can serve the end of effective engagement is the first step. Changing habits of thought may be extremely difficult but it is not expensive.<\/p>\n Few things in life have no cost, but many things organizations already do (and for which budgets exist) can be re-purposed with a greater emphasis on communities and relationship building without radically overthrowing the enterprise<\/strong>. Besides, if the things you are doing are not working, is it reasonable to continue doing all you are doing the way you are doing them?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n The common and not infrequently willful misunderstanding\/misrepresentation of community engagement<\/strong>\u2013that it demands\/requires presentation of inferior art\u2013is infuriating and demeaning of the public we seek to reach<\/strong>. I\u2019ve written about this so often here, I\u2019m not going to address it further. This is a \u201cdon\u2019t get me started\u201d topic.<\/p>\n If art is not for people, for what is it? Art gains its deepest meaning in connection with people who experience it. Community engagement is in a very real sense the deep fulfillment of what should be the essence of the mission of the arts.<\/strong><\/p>\n Engagement Planning<\/strong><\/p>\n As for the second part\u2013engagement planning\u2013the work is to assess organizational readiness for engagement (attitudes, commitment, and allocation of resources), devise processes for preparation for engagement, identify communities for new engagement work, and develop and implement plans for more fully engaging with current stakeholders (a core community) as well as the new ones. Relatively simple in principle; long and demanding in practice. It is, however, essential for our futures.<\/p>\n Many thanks to RAC-St. Louis for the opportunity to do some field testing. (If anyone else is interested, feel free to get in touch!)<\/p>\n Engage!<\/p>\n Doug<\/p>\n Work in St. Louis: addressing myths\/misunderstandings about community engagement and beginning to work with organizations on engagement planning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3974,"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":"Notes from St. Louis: addressing myths and planning for engagement. http:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-124","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":[4,5,10],"tags":[12,13,42,48,43,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-3972","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-overview","8":"category-principles","9":"category-the-practice-of-engagement","10":"tag-arts","11":"tag-community-engagement","12":"tag-diversity","13":"tag-mission","14":"tag-programming","15":"tag-relationships","16":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/StLouis-e1418158101316.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-124","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3958,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2015\/01\/engagement-principles-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":3972,"position":0},"title":"Engagement Principles: Current Thoughts","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"January 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Engagement Principles: Humility, respect, reciprocity, mutual benefit, core motivations","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"ThinkerWithSunburst","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/ThinkerWithSunburst.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1477,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2012\/04\/rustbelt-to-artsbelt\/","url_meta":{"origin":3972,"position":1},"title":"Rustbelt to Artsbelt","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"April 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I am attending a conference in St Louis hosted by the Regional Art Commission of St. Louis and the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture of Cleveland. The conference\u2019s title is Rustbelt to Artsbelt: At the Crossroads, Arts-Based Community Development Convening. I attended the initial At the Crossroads conference two\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":5026,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2017\/10\/community-engagement-training\/","url_meta":{"origin":3972,"position":2},"title":"Community Engagement Training","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"October 4, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Community Engagement Training: Training in effective community engagement","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\/08\/I_LoveLearning-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":356,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2011\/08\/cat-institute\/","url_meta":{"origin":3972,"position":3},"title":"CAT Institute","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"August 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Last year I had the good fortune to attend a conference, At the Crossroads, hosted the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis. There I met or got re-acquainted with a number of people active in the community arts movement. I also had the opportunity to get some first-hand insight into\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Examples"","block_context":{"text":"Examples","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/examples\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2328,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/01\/an-engagement-continuum\/","url_meta":{"origin":3972,"position":4},"title":"An Engagement Continuum","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"January 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"[Note to new readers: This is a very old and widely read post. In the interest of providing up-to-date information about thinking on this topic, you can find updated definitions of terminology related to community engagement and related arts management tools on the ArtsEngaged website here.] I'm on a roll\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\/12\/TownHallMeeting-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5113,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2018\/01\/docents-as-engagers\/","url_meta":{"origin":3972,"position":5},"title":"Docents as Engagers","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"January 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Some time ago in a forum discussing community engagement, someone asked me what the role of docents should be in engagement work. It was a light bulb question for me. 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\n<\/strong>Community engagement is<\/em><\/p>\n\n
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<\/a><\/span> Some rights reserved<\/a> by Storm Crypt<\/a><\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"