Of course this is not a new idea. Over the past two decades some of this country's finest artists and arts organizations have been quietly establishing a remarkable record of innovation and success in institutional and community settings.

These unlikely partnerships have been established in factories, jails, condominiums, corporate offices, senior centers, special schools and many other non-traditional sites. This work not only challenges traditional ideas about the arts in America, it also provides successful models from which the larger cultural community can and must learn.

It is my intention in this article to contribute to that learning process. In it, I share some basic skills that have helped me and other artists survive and flourish as artists working in institutional and community settings. These strategies should not be taken as a formula for success in this work. It might be more useful to regard them as descriptive of a way of working that will give artists an opportunity to succeed in the most tentative and unpredictable environments. (p. 61)