{"id":59,"date":"2011-08-27T11:59:26","date_gmt":"2011-08-27T15:59:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/?p=59"},"modified":"2011-08-27T11:59:32","modified_gmt":"2011-08-27T15:59:32","slug":"eightfoldpath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2011\/08\/eightfoldpath\/","title":{"rendered":"The Eightfold Path to Community Engagement"},"content":{"rendered":"

OK, The Arts’ Four Noble Truths<\/a> was entertaining but contained little if any real substance. I’ll grant you that. I hope this continuation of my trope on the essential tenets of Buddhism will be a little more nourishing. And let me acknowledge to those of you who are Buddhist that I know this all has little, if anything, to do with actual Buddhist teachings.<\/p>\n

Engagement, to me the key tool for healthy arts organizations, is a relationship building process. It takes commitment, time, and perseverance. When I first had the idea for this list, it was primarily intended as a lark. As I’ve lived with it, however, it’s turned into something that’s not totally crazy. Maybe it will get better over time.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Dharma Wheel<\/p><\/div>\n

Wisdom<\/em><\/strong>
\n1. Belief<\/span>: know and trust that engagement is good for the arts and good for the community
\nNo work in this field can be successful in the long term unless those involved truly believe it should be done. This cannot be entered into as \u201cwindow dressing.\u201d It must be and seem real.<\/span>
\n2. Commitment<\/span>: provide, ungrudgingly, the time and money that engagement requires
\nThe early stages of relationship building should not immediately yield big projects. Be patient. Persevere.<\/span>
\nRelationship<\/em><\/strong>
\n3. Fidelity<\/span>: become a valued partner by listening\/helping
\nRespect your partner. Establish dialogue. Listen. Be at the table willing to learn. Do small things together to build trust and avoid the ennui of \u201call talk.\u201d As in successful personal relationships, avoid hidden agendas; acknowledge the value of establishing a relationship for its own sake.<\/span>
\n4. Knowledge<\/span>: learn what is important to the other
\nAs but two examples, discover what issues are important to the partner and in what things the partner has a sense of pride?<\/span>
\n5. Insight<\/span>: discover areas of mutual interest
\nWhat arts activities touching on things important to the other are possible? Determining this can only be done after a relationship has been established. Only then is it possible to be aware of what might have meaning to those with whom no previous relationship has existed.<\/span>
\n6. Collaboration<\/span>: develop and implement mutually beneficial project(s)
\nCreate and carry out an arts program or activity that is the contribution the organization can make to its community.<\/span>
\nEvaluation<\/em><\/strong>
\n7. Assessment<\/span>: gather feedback and performance data, determine successes and areas for improvement
\nArticulate the values driving the process, review the outcomes sought, collate the results, consider resources used and results attained, celebrate accomplishments, identify elements to improve or abandon.<\/span>
\n8. Reformation<\/span>: continually improve the quality of the relationship and of collaborative activities\u2013build on successes, improve where needed
\nMake the changes suggested by assessment: build on successes, improve where needed.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

————————<\/p>\n

Speaking of respecting people (pathway step #3), here is an example from the museum world of a leap of faith from the Center for the Future of Museums<\/a>: Crowdsourced Scholarship<\/a>, a blog post by Elissa Frankle, an education consultant at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The essence of the post is a description of the Children of the Lodz Ghetto<\/a> project at the Holocaust Museum, described as an experiment in Citizen History. Using Museum-posed questions, the project “invites citizen historians to mine our data, challenging them to find out what happened to 14,000 students from the Ghetto who signed a school album in 1941.” This is messy, real primary research reviewing historical documents and data. Ms. Frankle serves as quality controller for the work.<\/p>\n

The point of using this example here is not its potential as a template for work in the arts but as a demonstration of a public organization taking its public seriously and engaging them in real work of the institution. What if the interested public were invited to participate in substantive discussions of arts programming\u2013not by popularity poll, but by consideration of all issues around programming, including relevance to the community? Just a thought.<\/p>\n

And while you are mulling over that question,<\/p>\n

Engage!<\/p>\n

Doug<\/p>\n

Dharma Wheel by Viniciuscb at en.wikipedia [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons
\nhttp:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Dharma_wheel.svg<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

OK, The Arts’ Four Noble Truths was entertaining but contained little if any real substance. I’ll grant you that. I hope this continuation of my trope on the essential tenets of Buddhism will be a little more nourishing. And let me acknowledge to those of you who are Buddhist that I know this all has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"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":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-59","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-principles","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-X","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2082,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2012\/11\/leap-into-community-engagement\/","url_meta":{"origin":59,"position":0},"title":"Leap into Community Engagement","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"November 3, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"ArtsEngaged in Illinois ArtsEngaged is coming to Illinois! I will be presenting my workshop Mainstreaming Engagement for the Illinois Arts Council, the Illinois Arts Alliance, and Illinois\u2019 Local Arts Network on Thursday, November 15 (Oak Park, IL) and Friday, November 16 (Peoria). Thursday, November 15, 2012 9:30 am - noon\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "EM's List"","block_context":{"text":"EM's List","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/examples\/ems-list\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Chopsticks-300x174.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":49,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2011\/08\/the-arts-four-noble-truths\/","url_meta":{"origin":59,"position":1},"title":"The Arts’ Four Noble Truths","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"August 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"For those of you who have seen the first few posts, I guess it's now time to get on with the interesting task of providing some kind of systematic overview of what we'll be considering here. I could be very serious and professorial about it, . . . but who\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\/07\/Buddha_nobletruths_cropped.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4409,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2016\/02\/engagement-is-a-means-not-an-end\/","url_meta":{"origin":59,"position":2},"title":"Engagement Is a Means, Not an End","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"February 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Engagement is a means to the end of better arts and better lives, not an end in itself.","rel":"","context":"In "Overview"","block_context":{"text":"Overview","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/overview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"CorpsDeBallet","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/CorpsDeBallet.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4272,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2015\/09\/artcentric-engagement\/","url_meta":{"origin":59,"position":3},"title":"Artcentric Engagement","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"September 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"In artcentric engagement the community engages with the arts. In transformative engagement, the arts engage with the community.","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"EngagementRing","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/EngagementRing-e1429555281389.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2328,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/01\/an-engagement-continuum\/","url_meta":{"origin":59,"position":4},"title":"An Engagement Continuum","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"January 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"[Note to new readers: This is a very old and widely read post. In the interest of providing up-to-date information about thinking on this topic, you can find updated definitions of terminology related to community engagement and related arts management tools on the ArtsEngaged website here.] I'm on a roll\u2026","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\/2012\/12\/TownHallMeeting-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4945,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2017\/06\/engagement-terminology\/","url_meta":{"origin":59,"position":5},"title":"Engagement Terminology","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"June 21, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"We need good definitions to make our work more effective. Here is an updated set from my perspective, for what it's worth.","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":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Dictionary-300x202.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59","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=59"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}