How do you convince a community to show up?
Like many high schools, my own school has full parking lots and a packed stadium all fall for all its home football games. I love the way the community comes together to support the school’s pursuits, and to respect the hard work and preparation the student athletes have done to get there.
Two decades into a career in music and education, I don’t know how to convince the community to have the same unfailing commitment to the arts. Aside from one or two isolated events, arts events are mostly attended by the families of participants – band, orchestra, choir, theater, have an audience made up mostly of the people who already love them, while our athletes have an audience that includes a not-small percentage of strangers.
If It’s Friday, the stadium is packed. That’s amazing. But if it’s March, the auditorium should be packed, every show, for the musical. The marching band’s invitational should be standing room only of community members with no connection to any of the musicians or color guard.
Athletic organizers have done an amazing job of teaching communities how to attend and support their events. It is incumbent on the arts educators and organizers to do the same work, over the same amount of time, to ensure that all students get the respect and honor that comes from a sold-out crowd.