A couple of months ago, a new reader of one of my books got in touch to say “I haven’t finished it yet because I’m constantly having to digest the ‘YES’ and ‘AMEN’ moments I get from each section.” She, like many passionate new readers, went on to ask why they and their colleagues had not heard of the books before.
The blame, of course, is on us at ArtsEngaged®. Building Communities, Not Audiences: The Future of the Arts in the United States (2012) and Engage Now! A Guide to Making the Arts Indispensable (2015) have sold pretty well exclusively through word-of-mouth “advertising.” We’ve not bothered beyond that.
Now, we’re hoping to make a (very) small stab at correcting that. We’ve got a couple of ads we’re hoping to run. And this is my ICYMI blog post for any reader who is not aware of the books.
What has been truly remarkable, as suggested above, is the level of enthusiasm the books have generated. Readers frequently say they give voice to their concerns about the future of the arts and provide practical means of developing relationships between arts organizations and their communities.
Building Communities, Not Audiences focuses on why community engagement is critical to the future of the arts; Engage Now! presents an overview of means to foster arts-community connections. If you are concerned about the future of nonprofit arts organizations it may be worthwhile to investigate them further:
www.artsjournal.com/engage/books
or (for more detail)
www.artsengaged.com/books
And, if you are already a true believer, we would encourage you to pass this along on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or whatever other social media you prefer. (If you are, are you already a member of the Community Engagement Network?)
Thanks for your interest and work in making arts organizations more meaningful to the communities in which they exist!
Engage!
Doug