External Connections<\/a>), there is a topic (or two or three) specific to them that probably bears addressing. Like marketing\/sales and fundraising, education and engagement are externally oriented. However, since they do not necessarily have an immediate impact on the bottom line they can be viewed as less important in the arts organization hierarchy. In addition, they are both relative newcomers to the discipline of arts management and as such are less well integrated into management processes.<\/p>\nEducation and engagement are increasingly being paired in job titles and descriptions. There is some<\/em> sense to that, but the differences\u2013with respect to fundamental focus\u2013are significant. Fundamentally, education seeks to tell\/teach others about the work the arts organization does.<\/strong> While it is critical to understand the potential learners in order to communicate effectively, the prime focus of attention is on the organization.<\/strong> Engagement<\/strong>, the building of mutually beneficial relationships, begins with the organization learning about the community with which it attempts to engage.<\/strong> It must simultaneously be explaining itself to that community but we have to lead with listening. As a result, in response to a remark I recently heard, engagement is not “just” a different form of education. If that’s an organization’s understanding of and approach to engagement, the efforts will be at best marginally successful. Similarly, marketing and engagement have considerable overlap, at least in external appearance; but the differences, as with education and engagement, are such that we have to be very careful not to conflate them.<\/p>\nAnother issue is the frequent complaint I hear from education or engagement professionals that their work is undervalued in comparison with that of their colleagues in marketing\/sales and fundraising. The long-term (as opposed to immediate) nature of their impact is certainly one reason for this. The “new(ish)-kid-on-the-block” nature of each is another. However, both are vital to the future of our organizations. Neither is a “sub-par” version of the other nor are they less important than any other organizational function. The sooner we embrace the necessity of education and engagement and include them in the all decision-making processes the greater the chance of ensuring our organization’s’ viability, relevance, and indispensability.<\/p>\n
Engage!<\/p>\n
Doug<\/p>\n
Photo:\u00a0By Tcodl (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Education seeks to tell\/teach others about the work the arts organization does. 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This post looks at outreach and education in relationship to community engagement.","rel":"","context":"In "10th Anniversary"","block_context":{"text":"10th Anniversary","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/10th-anniversary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/10.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5082,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2017\/11\/external-connections\/","url_meta":{"origin":5089,"position":1},"title":"External Connections","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"November 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Fundraising, sales, education, and engagement are how we \"connect.\" They are all important to the current and future health of our organizations. Studying them together could prove highly valuable.","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\/2017\/10\/ExteriorOutlet-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6447,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2021\/09\/employee-engagement-as-a-strategy-for-community-engagement\/","url_meta":{"origin":5089,"position":2},"title":"Employee Engagement as a Strategy for Community Engagement","author":"Guest Blogger","date":"September 22, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Guest blogger Kathleen Riemenschneider on the relationship between employee engagement and community engagement.","rel":"","context":"In "Guest Post"","block_context":{"text":"Guest Post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/guest-post\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/EE-CE-figure-scaled-e1631121726103.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/EE-CE-figure-scaled-e1631121726103.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/EE-CE-figure-scaled-e1631121726103.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/EE-CE-figure-scaled-e1631121726103.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/EE-CE-figure-scaled-e1631121726103.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5402,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2018\/10\/the-state-of-engagement\/","url_meta":{"origin":5089,"position":3},"title":"The State of Engagement","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"October 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"For too many arts organizations, their level of self-focus apparently makes understanding that effective community engagement is something substantially different from traditional sales\/marketing\/fundraising\/education approaches nearly impossible.","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\/09\/PonderingVista.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":504,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2011\/09\/or\/","url_meta":{"origin":5089,"position":4},"title":"Or?","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"September 28, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"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\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\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/DanceChoice-300x128.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4022,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2015\/03\/yep-we-do-that-sequel-part-i\/","url_meta":{"origin":5089,"position":5},"title":"Yep, We Do That-Sequel (Part I)","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"March 11, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Questions for assessing engagement readiness-Part I","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"ThumbUp","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/ThumbUp-e1396538778275.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5089","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=5089"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6104,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5089\/revisions\/6104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n