Hope for the Next Decade: A Call to Arts!

Community Outreach was the catchall category of the last decade in the Orchestra world, and has become so non defined that we take for granted that it’s happening at every orchestra.  It most certainly isn’t just because the words are used.   It is time to define it for real, give it real teeth and to make those who use the word accountable.  Why?  It is something that Bono said, yes the U2 guy!…..

When asked about his work in Africa for those millions in extreme situations of poverty disease and despair Bono says that the answer is not just  to give charity (although he is not against it) but to give justice.  It struck me to the core when I read this because he is right, charity is an act of kindness, where as the fight for justice is a continued action and a long term goal to find a just solution to a problem, not a temporary fix or a “Bandaid” which ironically is the iconic event that started him on this path.  I feel the same way about how we in the arts world and particularly in orchestras approach Community Outreach (CO).

What is CO exactly, is there a  meaningful definition?  I have heard everything from well we do it because it looks good on grant applications to our community needs us to be a partner in its growth and to help its needs.  The problem is that there is little to no accountability for the use of the phrase, it is simply a catchall for pretty much anything that happens outside of the regular concert season and is used so generally that it renders it almost meaningless, and potentially means that the real impact of any program is compromised or even lost.  We need an industry wide discussion on how to measure impact, collect data and accredit based on legitimacy, intent, effectiveness and RESULTS!  We have the big league conference every year which again is basically a catchall (not suggesting it doesn’t have value).  CO needs to have a conference all on its own.  People respond to those who serve, and a fully fledged CO mission could be called” Orchestras Serving America”

What would be of value is a broad set of unified and collaborative principals and examples to define true outreach, with data to prove it’s effectiveness.  In brief  their needs to be sub categories, here are some I thought of:

• Charitable Alliance – By pairing with a social service organization in a community on an annual basis to raise money for a problem.

• Social Issues –  Helping a hospital spread the word on a potential disease threat, or an awareness program on hygiene and safety etc….  With large audiences, we are perfect distribution point  for materials for example.

• Poverty and Hardship mitigation – A consistent effort towards addressing these issues, not obvious on the surface how we do that, but if the arts go into this together as we did last year a real difference can be made.  Our Ten Weeks Festival (read about it here) raised $12,000 which with the promised  matches turned into $30,000 that went directly to fund health hunger and hygiene issues amongst children

• Business development – Forming a partnership with a Chamber of Commerce to help promote the city and region through materials, tickets to concerts even sending musicians as part of delegations

• Sector development – Say take the manufacturing sector and create an evening to honor them, giving over the lobby to have them set up booths etc…could be a day long event

• Rehabilitation Programming – Anything from doing programs at a family violence center or crisis nursery, programs at Jails, hospitals etc..

• Regional Development – establish satellite venues for concerts and education programming at venues that serve people too far away to come to us

• Conservation Program – apart from token gestures like collecting paper at concerts and cleaning bus stops, not enough is made of the fact that acoustic sound is the very definition of clean energy and that an alliance could be established with conservation department to promote this idea and further proliferate concerts in outdoor venues

We can get as layered as we like, but for one organization to try and do it all would make no sense and might even be seen as self serving if we only engage in tokenism because we are spread so thin that it would prevent the  fostering of any real outreach.  Dividing the responsibilities amongst the groups makes sense and could even have a tumultuous (in a good way) impact.

There are so many more categories or even sub categories, can the League or even the NEA  working with Health and Human Services Departments State and Federal (or all departments, Commerce, State etc…) create an alliance even a department or oversight body that would be effective in unifying us in the name of serving as true  and effective community partners?

Now the current MO is to tier orchestras according to their budgets i.e level 1,2 etc…Thus the perception  is that the biggest is the most important or serves the most people (although I wonder if you do it as a percentage of population if this actually the case).  What if a strategic study is done and based on geographical location orchestras are assigned (with support/funding attached) to tackle social issues and needs according to their location. For example perhaps the Houston Symphony could be involved in trade issues, tourism growth and say the smaller River Oaks Chamber Orchestra also in Houston is assigned to inner city issues and early education.  This way by tackling community needs according to strengths, what makes sense (and what is needed), an alliance is thus formed and a coordinated effort is born.  All kinds of good can happen with that.  Every area of population has unique issues and problems.  Making each orchestra as important as each other because they are all working with their own strengths and unique environment towards a common goal will hopefully build nationally unified network amongst us.  It could be just like the airlines One World Alliance, which is a unified approach to travel across carriers whilst effecting the identity of each and their set of customer service principals,  level of service etc…..  It could be the same for orchestras (or thinking even bigger, all the arts), and like airlines we also have the ability to “move”  millions of people.

Happy New Decade!