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Mileposts are those small signs we see (or, usually, ignore) as we speed along the interstate that indicate how far we’ve travelled. It’s only in the rarest instances that anyone pays them any attention. Some people probably never do.<\/p>\nMileposts are those small signs we see (or, usually, ignore) as we speed along the interstate that indicate how far we’ve travelled. It’s only in the rarest instances that anyone pays them any attention. Some people probably never do.<\/p>\n
Arts organizations are event-driven. We maintain in our heads an often unacknowledged chronology of progress from one event to the next. We pay extreme attention to the content and production of each event but this notion of moving from one event to the next is so ingrained as to be almost totally unnoticed.<\/p>\n
This means we are inevitably arts-focused; or, to use my made-up word, artcentric. Our most basic understanding of the nature of our business, the way we function, is about the “product.”<\/p>\n
But imagine an alternative. Instead of events being the “mile markers,” what if we tracked our progress in relationship building? The events would become the means of serving that end but our focus would be on the relationships.<\/p>\n
The original title for this post was going to be “Through Line.” But upon reading about the origins of that concept I realized that a through line in a book or play is developed and carried out very consciously. It is the concept that holds the work together.<\/p>\n
Moving from an unconscious focus on the succession of our events to conscious attention to relationship building<\/strong> as our “through line” would take considerable reframing of our mental models. But it would be a huge step forward on the path to relevance and on to indispensability.<\/strong><\/p>\n Something to consider.<\/p>\n Engage!<\/p>\n Doug<\/p>\n Photo:\u00a0 Moving from unconscious focus on the succession of our events to conscious attention to relationship building would be help move us toward relevance and on to indispensability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5072,"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":"From Mileposts to Through Line: A shift from events to relationships as the way we mark time.","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":[4],"tags":[12,13,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-5070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-overview","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\/2017\/10\/MileMarker.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-1jM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4492,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2016\/04\/relationship-maintenance\/","url_meta":{"origin":5070,"position":0},"title":"Relationship Maintenance","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"April 6, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Community engagement is dependent upon maintaining relationships even after an arts event is over.","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":"Couple1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Couple1-e1459278541727.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4880,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2017\/04\/doin-it-performing-arts\/","url_meta":{"origin":5070,"position":1},"title":"Doin’ It: Performing Arts","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"April 19, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Arts participation is a patently obvious foundation upon which to build broad support for the arts. It can take many forms. We need not all undertake all, but most of us should move forward on one or more.","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\/2017\/03\/CommunityChoir.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4570,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2016\/06\/gard-foundation-symposium-at-wingspread\/","url_meta":{"origin":5070,"position":2},"title":"Gard Foundation Symposium at Wingspread","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"June 15, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Gard Foundation Symposium at Wingspread: Considering the Past, Present, and Future of community arts development.","rel":"","context":"In "The Arts and . . ."","block_context":{"text":"The Arts and . . .","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/the-arts-and\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Gard Foundation logo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Gard-Foundation-logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2824,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/05\/parsing-vocabulary\/","url_meta":{"origin":5070,"position":3},"title":"Parsing Vocabulary","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"May 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"In Engagement Vocabulary I introduced work-in-progress definitions of audience development, audience engagement, and community engagement. [To repeat: Audience Development is a marketing strategy designed for immediate results (sales, donations, etc.). Audience Engagement is a marketing strategy designed for deepening relationships with current stakeholders and expanding reach over time. Community Engagement\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":[]},{"id":4870,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2017\/04\/doin-it-vocabulary\/","url_meta":{"origin":5070,"position":4},"title":"Doin’ It: Vocabulary","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"April 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"In order to develop participatory arts experiences, it helps to have language that guides understanding of the options","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\/2015\/08\/Dictionary.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2433,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/01\/ttrash-project\/","url_meta":{"origin":5070,"position":5},"title":"The Trash Project","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"January 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=h6ZBlYdyoeQ One of the joys of all the traveling and speaking I am undertaking is the opportunity to find out about cool examples of engagement work going on around the country. I am going to Austin for the Texas Commission on the Arts & Texans for the Arts conference, Strategies\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\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/h6ZBlYdyoeQ\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5070","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=5070"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5080,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5070\/revisions\/5080"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5070"}],"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>\u00a0<\/span>Some rights reserved<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0<\/span>Michael Kappel<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"