{"id":4616,"date":"2016-07-13T02:00:21","date_gmt":"2016-07-13T06:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/?p=4616"},"modified":"2016-07-12T10:19:58","modified_gmt":"2016-07-12T14:19:58","slug":"responding-to-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2016\/07\/responding-to-pain\/","title":{"rendered":"Responding to Pain"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DramaMasks-Tears\"Communities are hurting.<\/strong><\/p>\n

African-American. Other communities of color. Their allies. Law enforcement. You don’t need to be particularly “tuned in” to know this.<\/p>\n

What is your arts organization doing in response?<\/strong> The answer to this question is a powerful indicator (forgive me: “metric”) of the depth and quality of institutional commitment to and capacity for engagement.<\/p>\n

“Nothing” may indicate an assumption (even an unconscious one) that arts organizations should not involve themselves in “non-arts” matters; or it could stem from an awareness that no relationship exists with any of these communities. In the former case, a cursory review of the history of the arts should put that idea to rest. Moreover, viability for this century demands<\/em> being “of” the community. In the latter case, caution in proceeding when no relationship exists is warranted; however, if there are not relationships with any<\/em> of the groups affected . . . . Substantial work needs to be done moving forward.<\/p>\n

For those organizations in which many staff, board, and volunteers are talking with or even making joint plans with communities, I say Godspeed and bless you. Reaching out to friends who are in pain is what we do in relationships.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the rest, if you hope to be a vital member of your community in the future, you need to learn to be<\/em> a vital member now.<\/strong> Develop relationships on which to build. Caution in the current circumstances is necessary. Strangers are seldom welcomed to a wake. But it might be worthwhile to reach out expressing concern, a desire to learn, and a willingness to lend aid in whatever way may one day be appropriate. Done with humility and full recognition of how much you don’t know, this might be appreciated. And if not, remember that to many our industry represents power and that moments of crisis are times of pain.<\/p>\n

Importantly, this is a time for listening. The temptation to “do” is almost overpowering<\/strong> for us. Unilateral “doing” is often counterproductive.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Engage (with sensitivity)!<\/p>\n

Doug<\/p>\n

Photo (edited): \"Attribution\"\"Share<\/a><\/span> Some rights reserved<\/a> by mikecogh<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Communities are hurting. What is your arts organization doing in response?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4618,"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":"Responding to Pain: How is your arts organization responding to hurting communities?","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":[12,13,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-4616","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-relationships","11":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/DramaMasks-Tears.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-1cs","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4409,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2016\/02\/engagement-is-a-means-not-an-end\/","url_meta":{"origin":4616,"position":0},"title":"Engagement Is a Means, Not an End","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"February 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Engagement is a means to the end of better arts and better lives, not an end in itself.","rel":"","context":"In "Overview"","block_context":{"text":"Overview","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/overview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"CorpsDeBallet","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/CorpsDeBallet.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5274,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2018\/05\/the-problem-of-engagement\/","url_meta":{"origin":4616,"position":1},"title":"The Problem of “Engagement”","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"May 9, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Effective engagement is rooted in relationship building with new communities, pursuit of mutual benefit with them, and inclusion of them in the design and implementation of projects.","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\/03\/ProblemPostit-300x224.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2831,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/05\/engagement-vocabulary-in-action\/","url_meta":{"origin":4616,"position":2},"title":"Engagement Vocabulary in Action","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"May 8, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"In an effort to clarify the points from my last two posts (Engagement Vocabulary and Parsing Vocabulary), I'm going to try to describe the differences among audience development, audience engagement, and community engagement by using a specific work produced by an arts organization as an example. 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