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What Department Gets Assigned Community Engagement?
Who Is In Charge of Engagement? Someone comes up to you and says they really enjoyed the program they attended and want to spread the word to their friends and get them involved, to whom do you refer...
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Reversing Trickle Down Community Engagement
One of my favorite nonprofit blogs, NonProfit with Balls by Vu Le, published a post on 1/20/2015 about the theory of trickle down community engagement. The Chattanooga Symphony & Opera is in the...
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Assessing Programs with the Lean Arts Canvas
I went to a luncheon a few weeks ago on an “Innovation District” that Chattanooga is creating. In that luncheon, the words “Start-Up Entrepreneur” were said no less than 15 times; seriously, I stopped...
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Presenting Sensory Friendly Events
In Tennessee, our state arts council has spent the past year working with arts organizations in the state to be more inclusive with regards to audience members with disabilities or developmental...
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Making Data Mean More Through Storytelling
One of my college professors told my class that he started each morning by watching one Ted talk. Since here in Chattanooga, our summer is a little more relaxed then during the season, I’m taking up...
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Lending Your Tenor
If only they came and saw our art, they would be hooked for life. This is one of those commonly voiced assumptions that is untrue. Some people need more than one interaction, often with diverse...
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A Backstage Pass to Making a Musical for the Deaf
My organization, the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera, has spent the last season and a good part of the summer talking about different opportunities to be more inclusive. Our state arts council has...
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Treating Volunteers Like Donors
Like many people in arts organizations, I get to wear many hats in my job. One of my favorites is that of volunteer coordinator. Each season, we rely on over 100 volunteers to help our small staff...
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On A Map Quest: Mapping Your Data
There’s a sub-class of nerds out there called “Map Nerds”. I’m a proud member; I love maps. A standard class in many public administration or urban planning classes involves learning the mapping...
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The Podcast Connection
Watching the tweets from the National Arts Marketing Project Conference—#NAMPC—this past weekend, I was struck with an overwhelming sense of deja vu. Talk of storytellers lulling audiences into a...
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Write Your Congresspeople!
One of my favorite parts of my job is the part that I get to pretend I’m a Washington, D.C. lobbyist. As the Community Engagement Manager, I get assigned the large task of doing small advocacy work....
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Need A Space? SpaceFinder Can Help
If you’re an artist or organization that doesn’t have a regular venue, you know the difficulties of finding places to rehearse or perform. My organization, the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera is...
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Let’s Get Real With Our Donors About Our Diversity Engagement Efforts
The end of the fiscal year is looming for many arts organizations and Spring “We do good work, Give us your money!” letters are being written now. I’m sure many of those letters highlight sell-out...
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Your Guide To Great Community Project Guides
If you have been inspired by all the great community projects you see different arts groups doing and dream of doing something similar, but don’t know where to start, Minnesota based Springboard for...
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Ask Your Doctor If This Non-Profit Funding Model Is Right For You
We frequently read discussions about the need to communicate the differences between the business models of for-profit and non-profits. What there is less conversation about is the differences in...
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Take Pride in Your Engagement Efforts All Year Round
It’s always interesting to see the various advertising campaigns directed towards the LGBTQ market during the month of June and during pride festivals around the world over the summer. I recently came...
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Being Diverse and Inclusive The Other 11 Months Of The Year
The new season is upon and I’m sure many community engagement managers out there spent the summer making plans for a variety of initiatives. Probably high on that list were “diversity initiatives”....
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How Is Your Organization Celebrating Black History Month?
Beginning in 1926, organizations across the country celebrated Negro History Week, first established in 1926 by Carter G. Woodson to “raise awareness of African American’s contributions to...
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Evaluation Of The Arts By The Arts
Arts organizations are asked to create dozens of reports every year evaluating their programs to justify the funding they receive so you probably aren’t inclined to embark on an additional...
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Audience Diversity Is Not A Fad
Over the course of the year, I will be creating a series of posts on the topic of audience diversity. This incredibly important topic has become more and more important to me over the past few years....
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