Sunday, October 19, 2014

#870 spears

One more thought from the Arts and Humanities Month Celebration I referenced in yesterday's blog:

Arts advocate Mary Luehrsen spoke about how the work that is being done now is "the tip of the spear" -- meaning that it has impact to get through to educators, legislators, funders and people of influence.  She acknowledged that it did not always feel like progress was being made, but believes things are now happening that allows the message about the importance of arts education to be heard.

Luehrsen attributes much of this to a "leveraged service model" where all parties need to contribute something to a partnership.  For example, instead of offering free arts to a school with nothing in return, the school agreed to put an arts education plan in place.  It is a way to create synergies and gain both understanding and ownership of the issues.  

"Collaborations are hard, but essential," she said.  "Collaboration is the way forward."

By coming together to promote shared principles, organizations can become the "tip of the spear" and make far more progress than they could make alone.  Who is out there that has a similar belief as your organization?  Make plans to partner with them to sharpen your spear in the advocacy battle.

-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com
@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com

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