{"id":4272,"date":"2015-09-09T05:28:16","date_gmt":"2015-09-09T09:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/?p=4272"},"modified":"2015-09-09T05:28:16","modified_gmt":"2015-09-09T09:28:16","slug":"artcentric-engagement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2015\/09\/artcentric-engagement\/","title":{"rendered":"Artcentric Engagement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-4105 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/EngagementRing-e1429555281389.jpg\" alt=\"EngagementRing\" width=\"200\" height=\"267\" \/>In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2015\/05\/parsing-engage\/\" target=\"_blank\">Parsing &#8220;Engage&#8221;<\/a> I addressed the fact that the meaning of the word engagement is dependent upon who is engaging with whom toward what end. This is a quick followup\u00a0to that meditation. I recently ran across the following headline in an arts newsletter: &#8220;2015\u2013The Year You Become Engaged in the Arts.&#8221; This fairly clearly shows that the intent is to bring people who are outside in. There is no indication of an awareness of a need for the arts to do any moving or adjusting. There is a desire to get the community engaged, but the heavy lifting is left to the community member to see the light and come enjoy the wonders of the arts.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I can see people understanding this to be community engagement. This is a marketing effort to get uninvolved community members to participate in the arts: the community engages with the arts. This assumes that there are large numbers of people who want to do that and they just need to learn about the opportunities. Certainly there are some, but it&#8217;s not likely that there are enough to have the kind of impact that&#8217;s going to be necessary to affect long-term sustainability.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Community engagement as it&#8217;s understood here and by my many colleagues who are laboring to move the dial on the arts&#8217; relevance to society means that the arts engage with their various communities. It is a learning process whereby arts organizations come to better understand the community and thereby develop ways of being of greater value to it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">There is absolutely nothing wrong with artcentric engagement. It simply will do little to improve the arts&#8217; prospects or perceived value. And it&#8217;s <em>not<\/em> what the engagement buzz is truly about.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Engage!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Doug<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Photo:<span class=\"ccIcn ccIcnSmall\"><a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/2.0\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"Attribution\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/pw\/images\/cc_icon_attribution_small.gif\" alt=\"Attribution\" border=\"0\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"Noncommercial\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/pw\/images\/cc_icon_noncomm_small.gif\" alt=\"Noncommercial\" border=\"0\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"Share Alike\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/pw\/images\/cc_icon_sharealike_small.gif\" alt=\"Share Alike\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/span> <a title=\"Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/2.0\/\" target=\"_blank\">Some rights reserved<\/a> by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/joshbousel\/\" target=\"_blank\">joshbousel<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In artcentric engagement the community engages with the arts. In transformative engagement, the arts engage with the community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4105,"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":"Artcentric Engagement\u2013The community engages with the arts.","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":[53,12,13,27,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-4272","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-principles","8":"tag-artcentricity","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-community-engagement","11":"tag-marketing","12":"tag-relationships","13":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/EngagementRing-e1429555281389.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-16U","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2795,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/04\/engaged-mission-ii\/","url_meta":{"origin":4272,"position":0},"title":"Engaged Mission: II","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"April 20, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"In Engaged Mission: I, I suggested that service to people is\/ought to be a fundamental element of the understanding of our mission, whether or not it is formally articulated in a mission statement. I think that is probably not too controversial. It\u2019s the extent of the service and the way\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Principles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Compass","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Compass-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2818,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/05\/engagement-vocabulary\/","url_meta":{"origin":4272,"position":1},"title":"Engagement Vocabulary","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"May 1, 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 have on a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Principles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Dictionary","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Dictionary-300x153.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4370,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2016\/02\/definitions-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":4272,"position":2},"title":"Definitions, Again","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"February 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"My latest take on definitions of audience development, audience engagement, and community engagement.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Overview&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Overview","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/overview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Dictionary","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Dictionary.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4733,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2016\/11\/who-benefits\/","url_meta":{"origin":4272,"position":3},"title":"Who Benefits?","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"November 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Definitions are important to me. That's probably a reflection of my former life as an academic. (Or, I suppose, it could be why I was an academic.) They've also become critical to my work as an advocate for community engagement. I have presented numerous attempts at defining things like audience\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Principles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Dictionary","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Dictionary.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4305,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2015\/12\/transformative-engagement\/","url_meta":{"origin":4272,"position":4},"title":"Transformative Engagement","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"December 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Transformative Engagement\u2013Community engagement (built on community learning) that influences the organization's programming and\/or ways of doing business. Only transformative engagement builds an organization's relevance.","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\/2015\/09\/Caterpillar-Butterfyl-e1443036832677.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4631,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2016\/08\/fifth-anniversary-highlights-transformative-engagement\/","url_meta":{"origin":4272,"position":5},"title":"Fifth Anniversary Highlights: Transformative Engagement","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"August 31, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"If an organization is not doing anything differently as a result of its engagement efforts, it\u2019s not focused on the community. It\u2019s focused on itself.","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\/2016\/07\/FiveCandles.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4272","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=4272"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4299,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4272\/revisions\/4299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}