Earlier this month, I shared a summary of the Community Engagement session that I moderated at the 2012 Grantmakers in the Arts conference. I wanted to dig a bit deeper into the issues around community-engaged work with Aaron Landsman, a theater artist and long-time workshop leader for Creative Capital’s Professional Development Program. Aaron has developed a one-day Real Community Engagement workshop for PDP that he recently conducted in Broward County, Florida. Here are excerpts from our conversation about some of the key issues and topics that came up at the GIA session:

Alyson: One of the session participants mentioned the necessity of “first, do no harm” in any organization or artist’s priorities when they are considering or planning to do a community-based project.  What do you think about that?

Aaron: I do think that’s a great baseline, although it can also run the danger of being interpreted as “make everyone comfortable.”

There have historically been projects that purport to engage specific communities, but which may not come from a real expressed desire on the part of those communities to be engaged with, but rather are driven by the artist, funder or presenter. Those kinds of relationships can easily become patronizing or harmful to the very people with whom they are trying to ally.

On the flip side, presenting and creative partners sometimes become overly cautious against wanting to do something provocative or uncomfortable. And I think artists often can bring a valuable outside perspective to a community; even if it may not always be an easy fit, at least not at first, it can produce insight and reward if it’s handled well. Continue reading →