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 in to community engagement work (so *that* explains the picture!) because they are uncomfortable with examples they have seen. Social activism is prominent in the field, and some, due to their own political beliefs or preference for smooth sailing in their lives–and thinking only radical political views are welcome–may choose to eschew engagement.
The title of this post is a direct quote from Mr. Lord. He was commenting on the fact that many active participants in the arts and community engagement movement are heavily invested in social change. Some are so heavily invested that to them any work that does not have a vigorous social justice message and a call for action is not considered to be real engagement work. As Mr. Lord said, “as a good WASP, I’m generally against confrontation when a sidestep will do.” As another WASP, I get from whence he was coming.
In defense of WASPish skittishness, Mr. Lord went on to say that a reluctance to confront also has to do with meeting the community where it is rather than where someone with a social agenda might want to move it. (Or at least, that’s what I took his point to be.) Acknowledging my disinclination for conflict (in addition to being a WASP I come from a small-town Midwestern Scandinavian heritage), my simultaneously left-wing liberal self *deeply* appreciates the social activists in the arts and community engagement world. The arts have much to offer in service of significant improvements in social justice. I do not believe, however, and it is here where I think Mr. Lord would agree with me, that that is the only role for or mode of engagement.
I may well be making too big of a point out of too little an issue. I just don’t want people who become interested in arts and community engagement work to get the impression that that means they must mount the barricades. My definition of community arts–arts-based projects intentionally designed to address community issues–covers a vast array of possibilities. It includes social justice and social action, to be sure. It also includes economic development, educational reform, and all aspects of community building, including the development of social capital: healthy relationships, especially across lines of difference.
There is meaningful community engagement work the arts can do in any area that makes communities better–a temperature for every swimmer.
Come on in. The water’s fine.
Engage!
Doug
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