A Community of Practice

August 28, 2009 is the deadline for early bird registration for the GIA conference in October. Join our “community of practice” and register today.

“Community of Practice” is a term created by anthropologists Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger in the 90s. Wenger defines it as “Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.” There is, of course, more to this than one sentence, but that’s the essence of it.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. A community of practice is more than people who have the same title and toil in the same kind of job. It is a conscientious coming together of those people to share their ideas, mentor those less experienced and learn from others who have created new and innovative ways of operating. We also learn from those whose new ideas didn’t quite meet their expectations. The founders of Grantmakers in the Arts knew from the beginning, over twenty years ago, that “communities” thrive through involvement and engagement. This is the foundation for our national conference.

The work of arts funders, as with arts administrators, can be very isolating. For many, involvement in a community that understands the challenges and opportunities of our work sustains us and keeps us engaged. Sometimes the spiritual support of the community is even more important than the practical lessons to be learned from one another. It’s been a tough year and I’m sure many GIA members feel the strain of the decisions they’ve had to make.

Our first session at the conference will be an exchange with those we define as closest to our community of practice. Attendees from like-sized and like-structured organizations will meet together in small groups to discuss their experiences over this past year. They will reflect on how their grantmaking decisions might impact the arts groups and artists they fund over the next ten years. There will also be discussion on priorities and partnerships that have been established either out of economic necessity or a renewed sense of the importance of collaboration.

This session will create an abundance of ideas captured through each participant’s writings and through the synthesis of a facilitator and reporter in each of the small groups. Diane Mataraza will cull the material and on the final day of the conference, she and Ben Cameron will present the major ideas that have directed our actions this year and that will propel us into the future.

A community of practice is the basis for association work. We seek others to confirm and inform our work. I believe every arts organization, artist and arts funder needs this. It doesn’t matter if it’s on the local, state or national level, coming together for breakfast in our own cities and towns or traveling to a national conference. We are, after all, better together. Register now for Brooklyn…there is much to talk about.