{"id":5653,"date":"2019-07-24T02:00:57","date_gmt":"2019-07-24T06:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/?p=5653"},"modified":"2019-06-28T11:05:25","modified_gmt":"2019-06-28T15:05:25","slug":"the-long-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2019\/07\/the-long-road\/","title":{"rendered":"The Long Road"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/LongRoad-500x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5656\" width=\"250\" height=\"200\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\">Several months ago Joe Patti of Butts In Seats blogging fame posted <a href=\"https:\/\/insidethearts.com\/buttsintheseats\/2019\/05\/06\/some-reasons-acquiring-new-customers-can-be-expensive\/\">a reflection on advice from Seth Godin about why businesses might not be connecting with customers<\/a>. While I&#8217;ve not met Mr. Patti, it seems that we not infrequently seem to be channeling each other on topics related to community engagement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\">He pulled out, from Mr. Godin&#8217;s article, a list of problems that sounded way too familiar to me in my work attempting to get arts organizations to understand the long road that needs to be walked to build relationships:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Because the <strong>people<\/strong> you seek to serve <strong>don\u2019t think they need you<\/strong>.<\/li><li>Because the <strong>people<\/strong> you seek to serve <strong>don\u2019t trust you<\/strong>.<\/li><li>Because the <strong>people<\/strong> you seek to serve <strong>don\u2019t talk about you, <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">thus, you\u2019re not remarkable<\/span>.<\/strong><\/li><li>Because your product doesn\u2019t earn traction with your customers, <strong>they wouldn\u2019t miss you if you were gone<\/strong>\u2013the substitutes are easy.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\">That third point echoes my common observation &#8220;If you have to tell people you are important, to them you are not.&#8221; The thing to be remembered with each of these is that simply complaining does nothing to solve the problem. The arts organization is the only one with a vested interest in changing those facts. We must acknowledge the issues and\u2013humbly, see below\u2013figure out ways to address them. <strong>It&#8217;s our responsibility to build trust with communities. It is not theirs to discover (and come to appreciate) us.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\">And then there is the principal self-inflicted issue that keeps arts organizations from developing meaningful relationships with new communities:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Because even though you\u2019re trying hard, <strong>you\u2019re being selfish, focusing on your needs instead of having empathy for those you seek to serve.<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\">Ouch! And, of course, on point. We must build trust to develop the relationships necessary to sustain ourselves. The bedrock for that trust is our humility and our respect for those we seek to reach. If you can&#8217;t muster that respect, you are doing yourself, your organization, and the people with whom you come in contact an egregious disservice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Engage!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Doug<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Photo:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/combo.staticflickr.com\/pw\/images\/cc_icon_attribution_small.gif\" alt=\"Attribution\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/\">Some rights reserved<\/a>&nbsp;by&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/pagedooley\/\">kevin dooley<\/a><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Humility and respect: the keys to successful community engagement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5656,"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":"The Long Road: It's our responsibility to build trust with communities. It is not theirs to discover (and come to appreciate) us.","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":[4,5],"tags":[12,13,27],"class_list":{"0":"post-5653","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-overview","8":"category-principles","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-community-engagement","11":"tag-marketing","12":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/LongRoad-e1561573283264.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-1tb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1861,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2012\/07\/civic-practice\/","url_meta":{"origin":5653,"position":0},"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 &quot;Overview&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Overview","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/overview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1350,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2012\/03\/civic-engagement-by-stealth\/","url_meta":{"origin":5653,"position":1},"title":"Civic Engagement by Stealth","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"March 17, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I have been waiting to catch my breath in order to comment on Clayton Lord's New Beans post from last October, Directing the Impact Echo. I haven't really caught it, but this is good a time as any. It is possible that some out there may be hesitant to dive\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Overview&quot;","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\/03\/CliffDiver.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5527,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2019\/02\/trees-arts-and-communities\/","url_meta":{"origin":5653,"position":2},"title":"Trees, Arts, and Communities","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"February 6, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"In January Joe Patti (Butts in Seats) wrote an exceptionally valuable post (Trees Come with Unexpected Baggage). It was about a nonprofit organization in Detroit planting trees in neighborhoods. It turns out that, for a wide variety of reasons, many people did not want the trees. For many of us,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Principles&quot;","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\/2019\/01\/Tree.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2105,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2012\/10\/how-to-engage\/","url_meta":{"origin":5653,"position":3},"title":"How to Engage","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"October 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I have been spending time of late trying to figure out the best path to engagement on the part of arts organizations. I am a firm believer that systemic engagement (mainstreamed engagement) is at heart the only way that will bear much fruit. Add-on activities won't get done. Seriously, where\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Overview&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Overview","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/overview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1957,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2012\/09\/engagement-principles-from-a-marketer\/","url_meta":{"origin":5653,"position":4},"title":"Engagement Principles from a Marketer","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"September 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"In The Farmer and the Cowman I posited that arts marketers and community engagement advocates (in my case, probably \"zealots\" would be more appropriate) should be great friends and collaborators. In it I mentioned a series that Trevor O'Donnell (MARKETING THE ARTS TO DEATH) is doing on inexpensive approaches to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Principles&quot;","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\/08\/HalOfMirrors-300x251.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5889,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2020\/04\/ask\/","url_meta":{"origin":5653,"position":5},"title":"Ask","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"April 1, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"In efforts to be good community citizens, examine your assumptions. Ask others: What would be most helpful?","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Principles&quot;","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\/2020\/04\/KennedyInauguration.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5653","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=5653"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5659,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5653\/revisions\/5659"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}