{"id":4255,"date":"2015-09-02T00:04:58","date_gmt":"2015-09-02T04:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/?p=4255"},"modified":"2015-09-02T00:04:58","modified_gmt":"2015-09-02T04:04:58","slug":"best-practices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2015\/09\/best-practices\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Practices"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-4258 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/BestPracitces-e1437663788937.png\" alt=\"BestPracitces?\" width=\"200\" height=\"209\" \/>There is a concept that has become extremely popular in management circles over the last decade or so: best practices. By that people mean the set of structures or programs that are most effective in achieving a particular desired end. Generally, these will be approaches that have resulted in success in numerous different situations in a number of different places. It is a popular concept because it prevents people from having to &#8220;reinvent the wheel.&#8221; If there are pitfalls that can be avoided and better ways already proven, we should do the things that work and eschew those that don&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">No argument here.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">However (and you knew this was coming, didn&#8217;t you?), in a field where success is tied to the idiosyncratic facts on the ground, the idea of best practices can be misleading and, in some cases, counterproductive. Community engagement is about the development of relationships with specific communities in a particular location. Virtually all facts about background, history, characters involved, and current concerns will be unique. Programming that grows out of those relationships should, similarly, be unique.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I am aware of a downtown development consulting team that, years ago, suggested that a city with no particular legacy of jazz develop a row of jazz clubs to stimulate traffic and vitality in its urban core. It worked in Memphis! Fortunately, city leaders did not follow that advice. They took a different approach, more closely related to the character of the city, that proved highly successful.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In community engagement, there are, of course, principles of effective practice. Relationship building requires respect, humility, ability to listen and hear, and skills in collaboration. There are even structural principles that are important\u2013<em>e.g.<\/em>, community engagement must have a seat at the table in internal decision making\u00a0in arts organizations.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It is even true that examples of success can be helpful in simulating the imagination. There is not a broad public awareness of the potential the arts have for addressing community concerns; plus examples can fuel envy. Not a bad outcome.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">So, when I am asked to give examples of successful community engagement projects, I pause and then provide a disclaimer. The purpose of the examples is to demonstrate that community engagement can be a valuable force in improving lives. However, no example should be taken as a template to be replicated. The program that works brilliantly in Peoria may fail miserably in Des Moines.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Engage (with specificity)!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Doug<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Examples of community engagement success are often not transferable. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4258,"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":"Best Practices\u2013Examples of community engagement success are often\/usually not transferable.","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],"tags":[12,13,17,18],"class_list":{"0":"post-4255","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-principles","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-community-engagement","10":"tag-examples-2","11":"tag-terminology","12":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/BestPracitces-e1437663788937.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-16D","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1576,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2012\/05\/museums-engage\/","url_meta":{"origin":4255,"position":0},"title":"Museums Engage","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"May 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The number of articles I have posted on the American Association of Museum Conference is indicative of the merit I found in much that went on there. This one, reporting about the panel on which I served, will (I think) be the last one. The panelists included Prerana Reddy (a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Examples&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Examples","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/examples\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3612,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2014\/05\/engagement-working-group\/","url_meta":{"origin":4255,"position":1},"title":"Engagement Working Group","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"May 28, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Assembling a core team and assessing readiness on the path to engagement.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;The Practice of Engagement&quot;","block_context":{"text":"The Practice of Engagement","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/the-practice-of-engagement\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"PenguinConspiracy","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/PenguinConspiracy-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1079,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2012\/01\/the-results-are-in\/","url_meta":{"origin":4255,"position":2},"title":"The Results Are In","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"January 28, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Even very casual readers of this blog have seen numerous mentions of Nina Simon, her blog Museum 2.0, and references to her work at The Museum of Art & History in Santa Cruz. There are at least two reasons for that. First, she writes well and often in her blog.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Examples&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Examples","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/examples\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/BallotBox.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5817,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2020\/01\/new-years-manifesto\/","url_meta":{"origin":4255,"position":3},"title":"New Year&#8217;s Manifesto","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"January 15, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"First draft of a statement on the need for and the path to effective community engagement.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Overview&quot;","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\/2020\/01\/Quill.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5053,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2017\/10\/excellence-and-engagement-iii\/","url_meta":{"origin":4255,"position":4},"title":"Excellence and Engagement: III","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"October 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Excellence and Engagement: Considering equity and respect.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Principles&quot;","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\/2013\/02\/ExcellenceSign.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3001,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/07\/afta-2013-thoughts-ii\/","url_meta":{"origin":4255,"position":5},"title":"AftA (2013) Thoughts: II","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"July 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"In AftA Thoughts (2013) : I I began to debrief on my Americans for the Arts 2013 Conference experience. On the second day I had a moment of cognitive dissonance worth exploring. Two back-to-back sessions were inspiring. The Town Hall meeting featuring Bill Strickland of Manchester Bidwell Corporation highlighted wonderful\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Principles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Pittsburgh","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Pittsburgh-300x133.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4255","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=4255"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4290,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4255\/revisions\/4290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}