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For the last four years my professional life has been focused almost exclusively on community engagement advocacy, workshops, and training. Most of the work has been advocacy and workshops, along with some one-on-one work with arts organizations.<\/p>\n
State and local arts agencies\u2013due to their broad accountability to communities and to public officials\u2013most consistently see the need to change our mental models for doing business in the arts. Individual arts organizations, as a result of the press of day-to-day operations and habits of thought, are sometimes less open to and have less ability to change. This is compounded by confirmation bias, in which we tend to see what we are doing as what needs to be done. [Yep, We Do That<\/a>; Yep, We Do That-Sequel (Part I)<\/a>; Yep, We Do That-Sequel (Part II)<\/a>] Audience development is thus sometimes seen as community engagement. (Both are important but they are not the same.) As a result, there is limited readiness for movement to a more community-aware framework for their role.<\/p>\n I have also observed that significant numbers of young professionals and pre-professionals in the arts are individually passionate about making the arts meaningful to their communities. They sometimes feel frustrated by the nature of their organization\u2019s commitment to community engagement.<\/p>\n This has led me and my company, ArtsEngaged, to consider implementing a program or programs to provide individuals with arguments supporting deeper engagement, examples of successful engagement work, principles of effective engagement, and skills necessary to lead arts organizations in connecting more deeply with their communities. <\/b>The operative word in that overlong sentence is \u201cconsider.\u201d It is not certain that there is a market for such organizationally-focused training. To help us address that question, we are seeking a group of people interested in encouraging arts organizations to develop stronger relationships with their communities. From them we will be looking for advice<\/b> on need, content, delivery modes, and related services.<\/p>\n If you are interested in participating in this process, please contact us at <\/b>info@artsengaged.com<\/b><\/a>.<\/b> Since the summertime is a down time for us all we may repeat this request in the fall. However, anyone reading a blog post about community engagement in the summer is, by definition, someone we would like to participate in evaluating the options. We would welcome your input.<\/p>\n Engage!<\/p>\n Doug<\/p>\n Photo: Engaging Matters will take the week off next week. See you in August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A request for advice on the need for and nature of community engagement training for the field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4605,"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":"Community Engagement Training\u2013Needed? If so, what modes?","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":[12,13,65],"class_list":{"0":"post-4595","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-training","11":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Help-e1467384634528.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-1c7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3526,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2014\/04\/but-how\/","url_meta":{"origin":4595,"position":0},"title":"But . . . How?","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"April 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Moving arts organizations to greater community involvement is a doable but gradual process.","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":"Questions","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Questions-143x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5411,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2018\/10\/the-state-of-engagement-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":4595,"position":1},"title":"Needs of the Field","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"October 10, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"What needs to happen to more fully embed nonprofit arts organizations in their communities.","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":2250,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2012\/12\/playin-in-peoria\/","url_meta":{"origin":4595,"position":2},"title":"Playin’ in Peoria","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"December 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"In mid-November I had the pleasure of presenting two workshops for Illinois' Local Arts Network, an organization of local arts agencies supported by the Illinois Arts Council and Arts Alliance Illinois. These two gigs, in Oak Park and Peoria, were the shakedown cruise on a new workshop, \"Mainstreaming Engagement,\" designed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","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\/2012\/11\/Peoria.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":204,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2011\/08\/winds-of-change\/","url_meta":{"origin":4595,"position":3},"title":"Winds of Change","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"August 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Some rights reserved by m.prinke In my last post, \"Click,\" I wrote about awakening to a disconnect between arts organizations and their communities. There has been little in the arts infrastructure that has encouraged commitment or relationships that went beyond the bounds of the arts establishment. And yet boundary-busting has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Examples"","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\/2011\/08\/WindmillsAtSeaCropped.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5402,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2018\/10\/the-state-of-engagement\/","url_meta":{"origin":4595,"position":4},"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":6651,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2022\/09\/cutting-back\/","url_meta":{"origin":4595,"position":5},"title":"Cutting Back","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"September 28, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"A new perspective and approach from the author of Engaging Matters.","rel":"","context":"In \"arts\"","block_context":{"text":"arts","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/tag\/arts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/HedgeTrimming.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4595","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=4595"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4625,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4595\/revisions\/4625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Attribution\"](\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/pw\/images\/cc_icon_attribution_small.gif\" "\\"Attribution\\""){kind=icon}
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<\/a><\/span> Some rights reserved<\/a> by elycefeliz<\/a><\/p>\n
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