People concerned about issues related to the arts and equity (funding is just one area) have used many terms to describe the juggernaut that is the world of symphonies, ballet companies, museums, and theaters. Most of the terminology used is either offensive or absurdly complex (and/or unwieldy). “Mainstream” illustrates the former. It implies this Eurocentric world to be the standard, the “normal.” It places it at the center, marginalizing those … [Read more...]
What You Need to Know
Community engagement and its potential for enhancing the viability of arts organizations is too often poorly understood or just plain misunderstood. It is conflated with other tasks and minimized by people who cannot envision its potential. I have become increasingly aware of the need for a (relatively) brief and simple overview of the essentials in order to see what community engagement is and can be and, importantly, what it is not. Over the … [Read more...]
Robert Gard on Arts and Communities
When my good friend Maryo Gard Ewell asked me to write a reflection on the Gard Foundation/Americans for the Arts collaborative collection of Robert Gard's writings (To Change the Face & Heart of America), I was more than willing. Eager would probably not be a stretch. When I began teaching arts management, I remember Gard's The Arts in the Small Community almost leaping off the library shelf at me. His insistence on the importance of the … [Read more...]
First You Talk
Typically, when I see a headline like this: Opera Memphis Kicks Off Effort to Diversify Audience, I cringe. Not because I don't believe in diversifying our audiences. I clearly do. However, too often it is done badly and for pretty poor reasons. (See The Self-Centered Pursuit of Diversity) I can't speak to the company's motivations or even to much extent about their practices in attempting this. However–stop the presses–if you read the article … [Read more...]
External Connections
Fundraising, sales, education, and engagement. All are concerned with making connections between an arts organization and individuals (and groups) outside the organization. The first two have long been focused most on people who have historically been supportive of arts of the European aristocratic cultural tradition. The latter two have spent somewhat more time dealing with those who have not. Fundraising and sales are further related in that … [Read more...]
Excellence and Engagement: III
In my two previous posts I have been exploring the question of excellence as it applies to community engagement in the arts. (Excellence and Engagement: 1; Excellence and Engagement: II) Here, I want to address issues of equity and respect for communities in this context. Equity A complicating factor in discussions of excellence is the issue of equity. The arts of the European aristocratic cultural tradition have benefited for centuries from … [Read more...]
Excellence and Engagement: II
Last time I began a discussion of excellence in community engagement, saying "Advocates for community engagement in the arts often get pushback from people who assume that concern for the interests of our communities necessitates a 'lowering of standards.'" This time I continue with a consideration of three potential categories of excellence that are often not part of our discussions in the arts. Participatory Experiences Rather than focus on … [Read more...]
Excellence and Engagement: I
Advocates for community engagement in the arts often get pushback from people who assume that concern for the interests of our communities necessitates a “lowering of standards.” What follows is my attempt to address the misgivings (legitimate and otherwise) people have and to address them as clearly as I can. It is intended almost exclusively for arts organizations. Artists should be perfectly free to approach their art in whatever way seems … [Read more...]
Storm Brewing
I've written before about the impact funding inequity is having on political discourse about government support of the arts. The Visible Hand was a response to Barry Hessenius' observations about funding controversies in San Francisco three years ago: A Potential Deep Divide in the Arts Sector. A colleague recently sent me the link to an article about a bill that has been introduced in the Pennsylvania legislature to examine "systemic racism in … [Read more...]
Benefits of the Arts (Again)
Summer is an excellent time to review topics covered before and evaluate whether they should be raised again. Four years ago I offered a preliminary overview of a way of discussing the benefits of the arts. The subject keeps coming up in conference presentations and workshops so I thought it would be appropriate to revisit it now and to add a brief update at the end. Here is a passage from my 2013 post Benefits of the Arts: Those for whom art … [Read more...]