Navigate: ArtReach Saint Croix

So much of my experience and understanding of facilitation is grounded in mentorship and learning through experience. One of my strongest advocates and personal mentors is Danette Olsen. Danette has regularly invited me to co-facilitate sessions she designs and we have co-created as well; the previous post about Circles not Silos was in conjunction with Danette.

This particular post will focus on a session I was invited to participate in called Navigate: Arts Marketing Summit. Danette shaped this experience and invited Tim Foss of More Belief and myself to support the event. The session also included an awesome presentation by Donna Neuworth from the Worm Farm Institute. Danette is a skilled facilitator who has deep empathy for group settings and an ability to move people in new directions. This time, she was working with ArtReach Saint Croix as a continuation of ArtsLab. ArtReach Saint Croix is a non-profit organization in the Saint Croix Valley that serves as a unifying support system for artists and organizations in the valley. ArtsLab is a capacity building program of Arts Midwest that serves organizations through peer learning.

So this session was about bringing people together to connect and uncover priorities for marketing. The goal (in danette's own words) was "to design an exciting forum using participatory leadership as a tool to reach across sectors of arts, tourism, private business, and government". So much great information was gathered and the participation was truly cross sector including representatives from businesses and magazines, restaurants, artists, arts organizations and more.

I wanted to share about this experience because Danette moved a group of people swiftly through a shortened day of exercises that were meaningful on an individual level, but also gleaned loads of information for ArtReach to continue to its marketing plans and strategies.

www.danetteolsen.com