How we talk about our relationships with audiences really matters. The degrees of engagement are different. [READ MORE] … [Read more...]
Relationship Maintenance
The arts industry is event-oriented, if not event-obsessed. Our principal contribution to public life is in the presentation of events. On the very deepest level we are “do-ers.” There is an inbred impatience with anything that delays doing. This is why, when discussing the process of building relationships with communities, a common question is how to “exit” the relationship … [Read more...]
Does Community Participation Scale to Destination Institutions?
Our entire strategy at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History is rooted in community participation. We invite diverse locals to share their creative and cultural talents with our greater community at the museum. Printmakers leading workshops. Teens advocating for all-gender bathrooms. Volunteers restoring a historic cemetery. Sculptors building giant metal fish with kids. You … [Read more...]
Committing to Engagement
When new communities meet representatives of arts organizations they often assume the intent of the latter is to get them to buy tickets or make donations. That's many people's experience with the arts. Successful community engagement needs to be based on mutual benefit. [READ THE STORY HERE] … [Read more...]
The Value of Intrinsic Value in the Arts
I have seen too many references to ‘intrinsic benefits’ and ‘intrinsic impact’ not to be aware of at least one wrong turn we have taken. The distinction we use this term for in the arts is, in this instance, the difference between things that are good for us personally and wider social benefits. We take ‘intrinsic impact’ to refer to our own individual benefits, and … [Read more...]