{"id":4839,"date":"2017-02-22T02:00:58","date_gmt":"2017-02-22T07:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/?p=4839"},"modified":"2017-02-20T15:29:49","modified_gmt":"2017-02-20T20:29:49","slug":"engagement-is-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2017\/02\/engagement-is-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Engagement Is Not . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"There are, of course, many things that community engagement is not. High on that list is “a magical elixir to cure all of the nonprofit arts industry’s ills.” At best it can position organizations for greater viability by significantly increasing donor and attendee reach. That comes to pass by being seen as valuable by much<\/em> larger percentages of the population than is the case at the moment.<\/p>\n

Addressing more common and smaller issues, engagement need not be expensive (especially at the beginning)<\/a> or “charity work<\/a>” or code for “diversity”<\/a> or any of a number of other things that critics ascribe to it. But the rant du jour<\/em> here is about my old nemesis “pandering.” I get wound up about this a good deal (including The “Pandering” Straw Man<\/a> and R E S P E C T<\/a>), but it’s been a while now and so I thought it was time to briefly revisit this hoary old chestnut. Here is my go-to statement about the issue.<\/p>\n

Community engagement is not<\/em> \u201cgiving them what (we think) they want.\u201d <\/strong>It does demand learning enough about “them” <\/strong>to know what work of the international cultural canon will be meaningful to them.<\/strong> And then programming that with them<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The notion that anyone would take a poll of what orchestral works or plays or paintings or ballets a community unfamiliar with the art form wants and then program that is or should be<\/strong><\/em> ludicrous. It would be artistically irresponsible. It would also be, if I may say, disrespectful of the community (assuming that they couldn’t possibly be moved by works they don’t know) and, not to put too fine a point on it, lazy. True engagement, learning about new communities, is without a doubt time consuming on the front end. It takes work.<\/p>\n

But more than work, it takes commitment, belief, and respect for communities and the process of building relationships with them. With those basic building blocks engagement is possible and its benefits attainable.<\/p>\n

Engage!<\/p>\n

Doug<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taking a poll of what works a community unfamiliar with an art form wants should be ludicrous. It would be artistically irresponsible, disrespectful of the community, and just plain lazy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4844,"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":"Engagement Is Not . . .givin' 'em what (we think) they want","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":[12,13,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-4839","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-excellence","11":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/WhatTheyWantTransparent-e1486672457368.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-1g3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2328,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/01\/an-engagement-continuum\/","url_meta":{"origin":4839,"position":0},"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":4272,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2015\/09\/artcentric-engagement\/","url_meta":{"origin":4839,"position":1},"title":"Artcentric Engagement","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"September 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"In artcentric engagement the community engages with the arts. In transformative engagement, the arts engage with the community.","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"EngagementRing","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/EngagementRing-e1429555281389.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1602,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2012\/05\/signs-of-engagement\/","url_meta":{"origin":4839,"position":2},"title":"Signs of Engagement","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"May 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"While I'm on a roll with posts dissecting the meaning and nature of engagement (Engagement Is, Audience Development \u201cvs.\u201d Community Engagement, Audience Engagement-Community Engagement), I've got some more issues to raise (or repeat). I have made much of the fact that substantive community engagement (as opposed to audience engagement) is\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":4733,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2016\/11\/who-benefits\/","url_meta":{"origin":4839,"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 "Principles"","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":4945,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2017\/06\/engagement-terminology\/","url_meta":{"origin":4839,"position":4},"title":"Engagement Terminology","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"June 21, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"We need good definitions to make our work more effective. Here is an updated set from my perspective, for what it's worth.","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\/2015\/08\/Dictionary-300x202.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2818,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/05\/engagement-vocabulary\/","url_meta":{"origin":4839,"position":5},"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 "Principles"","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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4839","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=4839"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4846,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4839\/revisions\/4846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}