Rural and Community Art Project Grant
Rural and Community Art Project Grant
Barnabas 22: A project to raise awareness about veteran suicide and the role of canine companions in supporting veteran wellbeing.
Tara Makinen: Executive Director of Itasca Orchestra and Strings, musician; Moira Villiard: visual artist, Cultural Programming Coordinator at American Indian Community Housing Organization; Amber Burns: choreographer, dancer, actor, middle school art teacher; Margaret Holmes: visual artist, poet, and former Children’s Theatre employee; Tammy Mattonen: visual artists, co-founder of Crescendo Youth Orchestra; Kayla Aubid: Native American craft artist, writer, employee at MacRostie Art Center; Ariana Daniel: mixed media artist, arts instructor; Kathy Neff: musician, Director, Fine Arts Academy at the University of Minnesota-Duluth; Ron Piercy: jeweler, gallery owner; Emily Swanson: arts administrator at Oldenburg Arts and Cultural Community; Christina Nohre: writer and arts advocate.
Tammy Mattonen: visual artist, co-founder of Crescendo Youth Orchestra; Ariana Daniel: mixed media artist, arts instructor; Ron Piercy: jeweler, gallery owner; Christina Nohre: writer and arts advocate; Johnnie Hyde: choreographer and dance teacher, publisher; Rena Hartman: Executive Director, Mesabi Community Orchestra.
ACHF Arts Access ACHF Arts Education ACHF Cultural Heritage
The primary goals of this project are to raise awareness, promote empathy, and spread encouragement through art. The value to the community will be in a heightened awareness of the epidemics of veteran suicide and homelessness among veterans; greater understanding of the invisible challenges that many veterans face such as post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression; and an appreciation for the important role that canine companions can play in recovery and wellbeing for veterans and others facing physical, mental, and emotional challenges. We expect the exhibit to impact viewers on an individual level, but hope that the collective result of those personal connections to the subject and the artwork will result in a more compassionate and supportive community for our veterans. We will evaluate our success by tracking attendance at the exhibit opening at the Reif Gallery -- the Reif Center will provide general attendance numbers for other events throughout the month -- and the informal showing at the VFW. Measuring the qualitative impact of a project like this is a challenge, and we will collect visitor responses through a chalkboard comment wall with chalk and chalk paints available for gallery viewers to share their impressions. The comment wall will include some prompts to collect responses to specific evaluation questions and also some space for open-ended feedback and reflection. The chalkboard wall will be a standalone piece and can continue to travel with the exhibit to other venues.
The primary goals of this project were to raise awareness, promote empathy, and spread encouragement through art. We aimed for the exhibit to impact viewers on an individual level. Progress toward the short term goals of building empathy, awareness, and encouragement can be seen in the responses from the audience. Comments from people who viewed the exhibit were collected and analyzed to evaluate the success of the project. This included both written comments and informal verbal feedback received by the artist and other project volunteers. The most common response was "thank you" -- dozens and dozens of people thanking Mary for her work and the people who helped to make the project possible. The stories shared by the veterans whose dogs were featured also show the impact of the project. A few examples follow: "Apache is my constant companion. My battle buddy. He has my six day and night. We are a team keeping each other safe and saving me from becoming lost again." "Cleo means a lot to me. She helps me through tough days and helps me be able to go into crowded areas." "She is my Angel when my Demons start to show up. She saves me every day." "Mack is the definition of service and unconditional love. He makes it possible for me to do things I was sitting out and allows me to reengage with my family. Mack is a blessing on my life and my family!" "I had nightmares ever since Vietnam. Rocky wakes me up. That alone has made my life so much better. I don't have them anymore. I am comfortable going out and about. I didn't realize how much effort I had to expend to go do things and how many things I just blew off." "Shala has given me inspiration to keep loving life. Her love and devotion is unconditional. She truly saved my life in more ways than one."
Other,local or private