Engaging the Community

As is often the case, changing how we describe something helps us better focus on what is our real intent and our desired outcome. So it is with the recent change in how we describe the various actions orchestras are taking to better connect with their broader community. The shift from “outreach” to “community engagement” reflects an important change in the nature of the actions we should be taking. Outreach tends to represent a one way “me to you” dialogue, while community engagement reflects a two-way interactive dialogue. Engagement requires an interactive progression toward an improved connection or shared ideas. This has lead, I believe, to an improvement in the nature of the efforts of orchestras to better engage their communities and in particular to provide better and more engaged music education actions.

In more than sixteen years of working with and for orchestras as an executive, a board member, or arts consultant, I have watched, and supported, the change from mostly “kiddie concerts” to small in-school ensemble performances to mentoring programs and, more recently, to real educational actions. A pattern of one-way dialogue to interactive and more experiential education. While the experience of seeing an orchestra in their home environment, the concert hall, always brings smiles and wonderment, it was an experience – not lasting learning.

More recently, I have participated with Eric Bertoluzzi and the Up Close and Musical ensemble in an even more important expansion of this notion of engagement. In Englewood, a Denver suburb, the community’s elementary schools are part of a federally-funded program called Progressive Education in Arts+Academics for Kids (PEAK). Here the key difference is that the teachers are learning how to integrate music (and other arts disciplines) into the core curriculum, be it a math lesson, a science lesson or a connection to social studies. With these new skills, and teaming help from professional artists, enhanced learning by the student is achieved. Far more important, the teachers are now provided with new capabilities that last after the musicians return to their regular activities. Thus, the learning goes forward led by the student’s primary teacher, not the visiting guest artist.

This is, I believe, the key lesson for those of us interested in and committed to arts education for children and adults. The process must be designed to be an engaging one, and have a retention factor. Arts experiences, which are merely field trips or one-time events, do not create the kind of engagement that leaves a lasting impact and a thirst for personal exploration of the arts. If we are to have the impact we seek, we must be more creative and participatory, to connect with those with whom we wish to engage. The good news is that the simple change and clarity provided by viewing this as community engagement has opened the aperture for real connection with those we wish to share our love of the arts with.