{"id":504,"date":"2011-09-28T09:43:45","date_gmt":"2011-09-28T13:43:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/?p=504"},"modified":"2011-09-28T09:43:45","modified_gmt":"2011-09-28T13:43:45","slug":"or","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2011\/09\/or\/","title":{"rendered":"Or?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A recent ARTSblog post Civic Engagement in the Arts in Action-Part I<\/a> (thanks Maya Kumazawa) brought to mind a topic that needs to be addressed. The post featured an interesting organization called Dance 4 Peace<\/a>. (I love it when a group nails its mission with its name. It’s hard not to understand what D4P is about\u2013”Dancing to inspire cultures of peace”\u2013even if the methods need explaining.) Their website says that “Dance 4 Peace is a conflict resolution, civic education program that promotes empathy, understanding, mediation skills, anger management, emotional and civic engagement through dance in youth around the world.” One can fairly surmise, even without reading the history of the organization and the bio of the founder, that a dancer was bitten by a passion for promoting peace and has chosen to pursue that passion via her art form. (Yes, I’m on an alliterative roll.) The organization is, then, one that makes use of the arts to make the world a better place.<\/p>\n

There are many such efforts and their number is growing rapidly. This is a trend that I give a standing ovation. The more examples like this that people see, the more they will understand that the arts are not just good for a few “thems” in elegant concert halls or museums but that they have much to offer a very large “us.” The potentially unfortunate part is that individual artists and arts organizations with specifically arts-centered missions (and these are and should be the vast majority of the field) may see these examples and conclude that awareness of the world outside the auditorium or gallery may be good (even laudable) for those so inclined, but that is not what they’re about and, therefore, they need not concern themselves with thoughts about the community.<\/p>\n

This binary thinking (either\/or) is both understandable given the history of the field and unfortunate. I argue (incessantly) that engagement is important for practical reasons\u2013e.g.<\/em>, fundraising, marketing, public policy. (I also believe that it’s important for ethical reasons but I won’t go down that path here.)\u00a0 It is possible for arts organizations to include engagement in planning without becoming social service agencies. In my fevered brain, the ideal model is one in which engagement is the umbrella covering all aspects of an arts organization’s activities: programming, development, etc. And it is through the activities arising from that mindset that the world is made a better place. Ah, Nirvana. But at the very least, engagement should infiltrate its way into the thinking of some<\/em> subset of the whole. So, everyone out there,<\/p>\n

Engage!<\/p>\n

Doug<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ballet slippers (with feet): \"Attribution\"\"Noncommercial\"\"No<\/a> Some rights reserved<\/a> by \u2665 Unlimited
\n<\/a>Dance 4 Peace Logo from website: Dance 4 Peace<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent ARTSblog post Civic Engagement in the Arts in Action-Part I (thanks Maya Kumazawa) brought to mind a topic that needs to be addressed. The post featured an interesting organization called Dance 4 Peace. (I love it when a group nails its mission with its name. It’s hard not to understand what D4P is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"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":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-504","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-examples","7":"category-principles","8":"entry","9":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s1G6h9-or","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3537,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2014\/04\/civic-footprint\/","url_meta":{"origin":504,"position":0},"title":"Civic Footprint","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"April 9, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Civic Footprint: The measure of an organization's impact on the community.","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Footprint","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Footprint-201x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1861,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2012\/07\/civic-practice\/","url_meta":{"origin":504,"position":1},"title":"Civic Practice","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"July 25, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Michael Rohd, the Founding Director of Portland (OR)'s Sojourn Theatre has recently posted an extremely thoughtful reflection on community engagement and theatre: The New Work of Building Civic Practice. As I've said before, I am aware of the danger of echo-chambering in the blog world, especially in this case since\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Overview"","block_context":{"text":"Overview","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/overview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2328,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/01\/an-engagement-continuum\/","url_meta":{"origin":504,"position":2},"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":3928,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2014\/11\/will-and-way\/","url_meta":{"origin":504,"position":3},"title":"Will and Way","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"November 12, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Believe in the value of reaching communities, then seek the how. There are plenty of excuses not to.","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"WhereTheresA_Will","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/WhereTheresA_Will.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4945,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2017\/06\/engagement-terminology\/","url_meta":{"origin":504,"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":4101,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2015\/05\/parsing-engage\/","url_meta":{"origin":504,"position":5},"title":"Parsing “Engage”","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"May 13, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Parsing \"Engage\": considering definitions and implications of similar sounding concepts.","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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504","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=504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}