Jupiter, Florida in northern Palm Beach County is home to a very large population of Guatemalan immigrants. In April 2015, Onesimo Lopez-Ramos, an 18-year-old member of that community, was murdered outside his home by a group of young men who later told police they were out “Guat’ hunting.” In response to this tragedy, El Sol, a local resource center for Guatemalan immigrants, Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and Museum, and the Lighthouse ArtCenter … [Read more...]
Social Silos
"I don't know anyone who . . . ." Recently, a colleague presented a workshop on nonprofit financial management to a group of board members of and volunteers for very small grassroots social service organizations. In the course of one of their discussions a participant observed, "I don't know anyone who is not working two jobs." My colleague's first reaction was that this was highly atypical. The nonprofit board members many of us are used … [Read more...]
Evaluating Engagement
I am developing a training program for people interested in enhancing their skills in guiding organizations toward more effective community engagement. [For details email info@artsengaged.com.] Several small groups have completed or are in the process of helping me beta test it. As part of the process I have been refining my criteria for substantive engagement. I begin with what appear to me to be the four critical elements of relationship … [Read more...]
Voice of the Community
My son is an IT consultant and over the years we have often discovered commonalities between our work. He was the one who first put me on to the concept of UX Design (UX = User Experience). The fact that we kept finding themes relevant to both our professions used to surprise me. Now I realize that he works with professionals in a complicated specialty who have to work with/communicate with end users who have no understanding of the vocabulary or … [Read more...]
Doin’ It: Performing Arts
In my last three posts (Doin' It, Doin' It: Vocabulary, and Doin' It: Museums) I have been exploring participatory experiences as being an important element in the work of arts organizations. This week I want to talk about participatory experiences in the performing arts. Options like pre-performance discussions and post-performance talkbacks have long served as interactive opportunities for event attendees. These are increasingly supplemented … [Read more...]
Doin’ It: Museums
In my last couple of posts, Doin' It and Doin' It: Vocabulary, I introduced the idea of participatory experiences as being a potentially critical element in the work of arts organizations as well as some ways to begin thinking about categories of such experiences. In my next two posts I want to focus on examples of both the practice and practitioners of this type of work. Interactive exhibits and exhibitions are becoming increasingly common in … [Read more...]
Doin’ It: Vocabulary
In my last post, Doin' It, I introduced the idea of participatory experiences as being a potentially critical element in the work of arts organizations. After almost two generations of declining emphasis on the arts in public schools we face communities largely made up of people who have little or no experience participating in the arts. Where once large percentages of students sang, played in band, acted on stage, painted and made murals, … [Read more...]
Contextualize First
The tendency to imagine that community engagement demands all kinds of new work, new approaches, and new venues makes the consideration of engagement nearly impossible for some. Last week in Essential Gradualism I pointed out that undertaking no immediate steps is often the best approach. Earlier, in Keep It Simple I made the case that even when programming becomes a part of the engagement process it is best to "go simple." Engagement can often … [Read more...]
Essential Gradualism
An occasionally expressed concern about community engagement is that current stakeholders will be driven away by imagined precipitous changes to the organization and/or its offerings. There are a couple of responses to this that should be comforting. First, community engagement should begin with the community that is your core constituents. Getting their feedback on plans and involving them in the process of making your organization indispensable … [Read more...]
When Free Is Insufficient
They won't even come when it's free! That lament from an arts administrator, with eyes rolled and hands thrown up, demonstrates a profound lack of connection with the subject of the exclamation. It is usually expressed in a "safe space" in an arts organization's office or conference room. I get the frustration but let's break it down a bit. First, nothing is ever really "free." At the least there is opportunity cost: what might someone be doing … [Read more...]