{"id":5047,"date":"2017-10-18T02:00:56","date_gmt":"2017-10-18T06:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/?p=5047"},"modified":"2017-10-16T09:33:17","modified_gmt":"2017-10-16T13:33:17","slug":"excellence-and-engagement-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2017\/10\/excellence-and-engagement-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Excellence and Engagement: II"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Last time<\/a> I began a discussion of excellence in community engagement, saying “Advocates for community engagement in the arts often get pushback from people who assume that concern for the interests of our communities necessitates a ‘lowering of standards.'” This time I continue with a consideration of three potential categories of excellence that are often not part of our discussions in the arts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Participatory Experiences
\n<\/span><\/span>Rather than focus on all categories of excellence, I\u2019d like to consider just three that are particularly important to community engagement. The first is the ability to craft participatory arts experiences for members of the community. <\/span><\/p>\n

The arts of the European aristocratic cultural tradition have skewed toward passive observation rather than direct participation, especially in the last two generations with the decline of public school arts programs and private instruction in the arts. A strong case can be made that increasing opportunities for arts participation is vital to the future of the nonprofit arts industry. Regardless of that, presentation of spectator-oriented arts experiences is vastly different from creating effective participatory ones. It is not easy to do the latter. Excellence in participatory program design and implementation can (and I would argue should) be viewed as being as important as presenting performances and exhibitions. The fact that the resulting artistic product will likely not be technically proficient is irrelevant. It is the excellence of the experience for the participant and the resulting benefits to the arts that are key. It could even be argued that this is <\/span>more<\/span><\/i> important for the future of the arts, the well-being of society, and the viability of the arts organization than technical and expressive excellence. To drive the point home, the organization typically focused on traditional views of artistic excellence could be described as inferior in this category<\/em><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Community Benefit
\n<\/span><\/span>The capacity to develop and maintain awareness of the interests and needs of the communities we serve is important for the health of arts organizations. To be effective, this must then be paired with the ability to create and present programming that serves the community. Many (if not most) arts organizations are skilled at presenting work that is excellent with respect to technique and expression. Unfortunately, too many are oblivious to community concerns or somewhat hamfisted in attempts to be of service. Improving skills in these areas can be an important step in ensuring a better future for the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n

Personal Meaning
\n<\/span><\/span>The impact of the art we present on the individuals who experience it is, or should be, the core concern of what we do. However, some in our industry are so focused on the art that they ignore this or unconsciously assume that the art will work its magic spontaneously. There is some question as to whether the latter was ever true for anyone who was not an arts aficionado. However, due to cultural issues addressed above and the pervasive lack of arts education and participation we have seen develop over the last fifty years, it is clearly not the case today. The ability of an arts organization to help people connect with the art they present is another category of excellence not directly related to technical\/expressive proficiency, but it, too, is a skill critical to sustainability.<\/span><\/p>\n

The ability to craft effective participatory experiences, to serve the interests of communities, and to make connections between people and the art we present are three categories (but only three of many categories) not directly related to technique and expressiveness. When speaking of excellence in our field we need to remember that there are a variety of things to consider, each of which are important. Technique and expressiveness <\/span>are<\/span><\/i> vitally important and for most organizations will continue to be the bedrock of their practice. However, the tendency to be almost exclusively focused on them is short-sighted and, in the long run, detrimental to the industry.<\/span><\/p>\n

[Next time: Equity and respect.]<\/em><\/p>\n

Engage!<\/p>\n

Doug<\/p>\n

Photo:\"Attribution\"\"Share<\/a><\/span> Some rights reserved<\/a> by mikecogh<\/a><\/p>\n

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

Excellence and Engagement: Participatory activities, community benefit, and personal meaning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2578,"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":"Excellence and Engagement: Participatory activities, community benefit, and personal meaning.","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-5047","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\/2013\/02\/ExcellenceSign.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-1jp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3934,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2014\/12\/excellence-is-heterogeneous\/","url_meta":{"origin":5047,"position":0},"title":"Excellence Is Heterogeneous","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"December 10, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Categories of excellence and of engagement goals, thanks to Nina Simon.","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\/2013\/02\/ExcellenceSign.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5041,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2017\/10\/excellence-and-engagement-i\/","url_meta":{"origin":5047,"position":1},"title":"Excellence and Engagement: I","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"October 11, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Excellence and Engagement: Thoughts on Excellence","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\/2013\/02\/ExcellenceSign.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":392,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2011\/10\/quality-and-community\/","url_meta":{"origin":5047,"position":2},"title":"Quality and Community","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"October 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"A respondent to an earlier post raised the issue of \"quality\" with respect to community engagement, suggesting in essence that engagement efforts inevitably result in a reduction in the artistic merit of the work. My response was, among other things, that if there is a decline in artistic quality in\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\/2011\/09\/ElephantInRoom.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5053,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2017\/10\/excellence-and-engagement-iii\/","url_meta":{"origin":5047,"position":3},"title":"Excellence and Engagement: III","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"October 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Excellence and Engagement: Considering equity and respect.","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\/2013\/02\/ExcellenceSign.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":452,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2011\/10\/engagement-uber-alles\/","url_meta":{"origin":5047,"position":4},"title":"Engagement Uber Alles?","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"October 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"To date I've avoided a direct answer to the unspoken question some of you may have about all of this. Even if engagement is important for some arts organizations, do I really think it is essential for all? After my Quality and Community posts (Quality and Community; Quality and Community-2),\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\/2011\/09\/Excellence.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2575,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/04\/excellence-to-what-end\/","url_meta":{"origin":5047,"position":5},"title":"Excellence\u2013To What End?","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"April 3, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Taking a time out from mainstreaming engagement and questions of diversity (although both really are related to this), I feel a need to revisit (briefly) the \"question of quality.\" This is something that needs to be done with some regularity by anyone advocating for a community-oriented perspective in the arts.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"ExcellenceSign","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/ExcellenceSign-300x148.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5047","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=5047"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5068,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5047\/revisions\/5068"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}