Up Your Community Art Game: Use a Plan of Work!
Community water towers, Ruleville, Mississippi.
It’s January 29th and I have officially committed to more projects this semester than I have bandwidth for. I feel certain I am not alone in experiencing a regular 3-am-anxiety-induced-mind-racer internal alarm clock. It’s awesome. Fortunately, I love nothing more than a plan and some old fashioned pragmatism.
Most of the community-based art classes that I teach in the College of Design involve a large amount of forced collaboration, both among students and with communities. This is a sweeping generalization, but one I stand by: many, many design and art students have a tendency toward introversion. Which makes sense - making things often requires spending lots of glorious time by oneself. Can you see the disconnect in working collaboratively?
What’s a Plan of Work?
In order to intercept potentially uncomfortable situations, one of the things I encourage, but really require, of my students is to develop a team plan-of-work. A POW***. All this does is create prompts to have necessary conversations, such as “What are we really trying to do here? Why does it matter? What are our timeline/budget/materials? Who’s doing what by when? How do we know if this has been a successful effort?”
I am fully aware this is not rocket science, particularly for those of you who work in a professional setting with other humans. But for us creatives, this can be a game changer, and one that I use regularly to keep from wanting to walk into the ocean.
The Best Questions for Community Art Plans of Work
Below are some helpful categories to consider when planning a creative community engagement event, project, or program. Take what works, leave the rest. Add more. And leave some comments. I’d love to hear about what other folks do to keep themselves on task, sane, and a solid collaborator.
***I give full credit to my colleagues at Iowa State University Extension and Outreach for the POW. A work of genius.
Goals
Give a brief explanation to what your group wants to achieve in your event/project/program.
Transform this explanation into 3-5 tangible goals.
Objectives
Define strategies or steps to attain the goals above. These are specific and measurable. Objectives outline the “who, what, when, where, and how” of reaching your event goals.
Partners
Internal - are there internal groups/individuals linked that could participate?
External – are there community groups you’d like to involve?
Target audience / participants
Who specifically are you trying to engage?
Whom do you know from this community? Involve them in the planning stage (see partners above).
Note that your goals and objectives will shift as you collaborate with partners. This is good.
Data
What are you trying to learn about? What information are you trying to collect during your event/program/project?
What are possible engagement methods to collection the information defined above?
Documentation
How are you documenting your event/project/program?
Evaluation
Define success for your event. Don’t just consider your definition of success. What would mean success for the community with which you are working?
How will you evaluate your success of this event?
What was successful? What did not go to plan? What was unexpected (positive and negative)? What would you change?
How will you make changes to increase success in the next iteration?
Promotion and advertising
How are you going to reach your audience? Think about specific audiences.
Do materials need to be translated?
Will you write a press release?
How can your partners assist in these efforts?
Location
Where will this take place? How often? Does the location align with the target audience? Does the timing align with the target audience?
Do you need permissions for your location? Is this a public space? Is this an accessible space?
Materials
What are the items/materials/supplies needed for your event/project/program?
Where will these be procured/borrowed/purchased?
Budget
What’s your overall budget?
What items/materials/supplies need purchasing?
Who’s in charge of purchasing?
Logistics
What are the steps necessary to create this event/project/program necessary?
What are the dates? Work backward to determine deadlines.
Team member assignments
Who is doing what task?
When?
Are there consequences for missed deadlines?
What is the agreed upon communication method and frequency between the group?
Want to know more? Pop over to POW! A Plan of Work Template for Community Art Projects.
Need a couple of creative community project ideas where you live? Download the Community Mural Toolkit and Yarn Bomb! A Toolkit for Community Fiber Projects.