![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/SteveJobs-230x300.jpg\")
There is an unfortunate tendency on the part of some in the nonprofit arts industry to believe that it is their responsibility to provide to the public art that they think the public needs. This is usually based on little to no understanding of what those needs might actually be. In addition, when examined a bit, what they are really giving the public is the art that they want to give them. Anyone\u2019s true need has little to do with it.<\/p>\n
There is a closely related opinion that community engagement is simply giving people what they want. I\u2019ve written about the fallacy of that too often to count. Obviously, people can\u2019t make choices about things when they don\u2019t know what the options are.<\/p>\n
And it is this upon which the \u201cgive them what they need\u201d advocates hang their hat. Over the last decade or so Steve Jobs has been cited as an example of giving people not what they want but what they will come to want even though they didn\u2019t know that ahead of time.<\/strong> As I have written before, Apple was right. However<\/strong>, the “proof of concept” was their sales results with the iPod and iPhone. People often don\u2019t know what they are going to come to want. In the case of Apples iProducts, if no one had bought them, clearly those products would not have been something they needed, much less wanted. <\/strong>(Think of, for example, blu-ray discs.)<\/p>\n A few weeks ago I read an article devoted to Mr. Jobs\u2019 response to a disgruntled shareholder<\/a>. It was an interesting piece on how to defuse a hostile questioner. However, one quote stuck out to me, unrelated to the focus of the article.<\/p>\n One of the things I’ve always found is that you’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology. You can’t start with the technology and try to figure out where you’re going to try to sell it.<\/em><\/p>\n He did not begin product development with a vision of the cool thing he wanted to design. He (and Apple) began with the customer. The relevant technology was derived from an understanding of the user. Substitute “arts experience” for technology and you can see why the Jobs example does not justify an authoritarian \u201cthis is what you need\u201d approach to arts programming.<\/p>\n It seems so simple to suggest that knowing the people we are trying to reach and applying that knowledge in both communication and programming is important. Given many marketing practices and presentation choices in our industry it\u2019s apparently not simple. This is certainly not a concern limited to community engagement. It is one that has, and will have, a significant impact on the health of the nonprofit arts industry.<\/p>\n Engage!<\/p>\n Doug<\/p>\n Photo:\u00a0 Giving “them” what they will come to want is fine if you really know what that is rather than simply giving what you want to give. The proof will be in the response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5242,"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":"What They Want: The proof is in their response.","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":[5,10],"tags":[12,13,27,43,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-5241","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-principles","8":"category-the-practice-of-engagement","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-community-engagement","11":"tag-marketing","12":"tag-programming","13":"tag-relationships","14":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/SteveJobs.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-1mx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2914,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/05\/the-arts-benefit-from-engagement\/","url_meta":{"origin":5241,"position":0},"title":"The Arts Benefit from Engagement","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"May 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This blog is all about the arts and community engagement. Last time (More on Artists and Engagement) I began a discussion about the role of the artist in this mix. Here, I want to consider yet again the fact that community-focused or community-aware art does not in any way imply\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Examples"","block_context":{"text":"Examples","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/examples\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"VietVetMemorial","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/VietVetMemorial-208x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3559,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2014\/05\/plan-b\/","url_meta":{"origin":5241,"position":1},"title":"Plan B","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"May 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Plan B-From England, Making arts funding cuts \"politically dangerous or, even better, unthinkable.\"","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\/2014\/04\/PlanB-e1397574267805.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/PlanB-e1397574267805.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/PlanB-e1397574267805.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2627,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/04\/the-engagement-quiz\/","url_meta":{"origin":5241,"position":2},"title":"The Engagement Quiz","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"April 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I am in the midst of a series of workshops and speaking engagements, centered around the theme of Mainstreaming Engagement. One early sponsor, Anne Katz of Arts Wisconsin, asked me to come up with questions for workshop participants to consider ahead of time, and I realized that a set of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Overview"","block_context":{"text":"Overview","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/overview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"FinalExam","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/FinalExam-300x151.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2117,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2012\/10\/100-grants\/","url_meta":{"origin":5241,"position":3},"title":"100 Grants","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"October 27, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"During my one week home in October I had two grant review gigs to complete. One was for the Connecticut Office of the Arts, the other for the Cuyahoga (think Cleveland) Arts Council. My job was to review a bit over 100 grant applications. My role was to represent an\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\/2012\/10\/PaperStack-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5411,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2018\/10\/the-state-of-engagement-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":5241,"position":4},"title":"Needs of the Field","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"October 10, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"What needs to happen to more fully embed nonprofit arts organizations in their communities.","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":4374,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2016\/01\/public-policy-and-community-engagement\/","url_meta":{"origin":5241,"position":5},"title":"Public Policy and Community Engagement","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"January 6, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Fundraising, marketing, community engagement, and advocacy are all about relationship building.","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"BallotBox2","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/BallotBox2-e1448900072562.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5241","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=5241"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5264,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5241\/revisions\/5264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5241"}],"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>Detroity2k<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"