ArtBridges asked Annalee Adair to share some tips and reflection on community engagement. Annalee Adair is Director of A. Adair & Associates, where she is assisting public and not-for-profit sector in the areas of cultural planning, public art, community engagement and cultural leadership. Annalee often works with performing arts networks and assisted with the development and writing of ON Presents new website: http://www.artsengage.ca.

Annalee is currently managing Talent2Lead, a program of the Cultural Human Resources Council and working on Edmonton Arts Council’s new 10-year arts and heritage plan. As Manager of the Community Engagement & Education Division at the City of Kingston, she developed a community engagement strategy for the Grand Theatre, a city-wide youth strategy, an accessibility audit of cultural venues, and a First People’s Recognition Protocol and Plan. Previously, Adair developed a Community Arts & Social Engagement Division while at the City of Ottawa and was the founding Executive Director of ArtsSmarts, a national arts and learning organization.

Here’s an excerpt:
« Building relationships of trust with both the individuals your organization serves as well as residents of the broader community is the ultimate aim of effective community engagement.

Community Engagement is a familiar buzz phrase in the arts sector in Canada. While Community Engagement is not a new concept, ‘why’ and ‘how’ CE is done is interpreted in many different ways across disciplines, organizations and sectors.

Arts presenters and artists have an opportunity for a new transformative role in their communities. In addition to our usual presenting activities, developing a community engagement approach can deeply immerse our organizations into many more aspects of community life. »

Click here for the full ArtBridges Tips & Tools Series: The Stuff of Community Engagement. For more FREE resources and tools like this, please visit the ArtBridges Resource Portal or reach us at info@artbridges.ca.

The ArtBridges Tips & Tools Series is funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation and translated with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage Interpretation and Translation grant.