For community engagement to be successful, it's got to be an organization-wide effort with clear roles and responsibilities for each department. Everyone needs to buy in. Everyone needs to be clear what the outcomes are for the company, and why this work is important. It demands a shared language and should be positioned as a core value and a core strategy, not “additional work.”

Over the past year, arts marketing as a discipline has weathered as many changes as the industry we support. From the work that we do, to the roles that we occupy within organizations, and the ways that we relate to one another—everything is in the process of evolution right now.

The most resilient and effective organizations are led by those with an understanding of systems thinking and organizational behavior, all with the goal of supporting a team to continue learning, adapting, and delivering.

In the span of a month, the definition of what the marketing team does at this organization has completely changed. Sound familiar? When the whole system transforms on us in an instant, it takes a moment to step back and see the path forward. We can’t always do this on our own.