Maintaining Relationships
Audience members gather for a Clay & Paper Theatre performance in Amos Waites Park, by Josh Clavir (2018)
Staying relevant beyond the summer months can be difficult. Building year-round connections to the community helps to build an audience or participant base for your programming. Don’t just show up to launch a program and expect everyone to be excited. Building trust and support for your initiative will take time.
One option is to think about planning activities throughout the year. Be aware that many low-income, marginalized communities have community development and youth initiatives imposed upon them on a regular basis, so there may be a legitimate exhaustion and distrust of a yet another new program being offered that they did not ask for. Consult and collaborate at every level of program development and make a long-term commitment to developing public arts programming. Hire locally where possible.