Art Project Grant
Art Project Grant
"The Little Prince" is the 2019 fall production of Borealis Bards, the community theatre troupe of Backus Community Center located in International Falls, Minnesota.
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.
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; 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; Christina Nohre: writer and arts advocate.
ACHF Arts Access ACHF Arts Education ACHF Cultural Heritage
This project has three goals: 1. Produce a high-quality theater arts event using all local talent for our community’s enjoyment 2. Provide opportunity for individuals to creatively express themselves through challenging acting assignments, by constructing artistic stage sets, or designing costumes 3. Contribute a homegrown theatrical performance of a literary classic to the Backus Community Center’s annual Performing Arts Series. Outcomes will be measured through responses provided in audience and participant surveys, social media postings, and informal post-production interviews. Questions will gauge audience perception of production quality and artists’ opinion on level of opportunity to practice creative expression. Box office sales will record the numbers of community attendance.
The first measurable outcome was to produce a high quality theater arts event using all local talent for our community's enjoyment. The cast, crew, and production team consisted of all local residents. Feedback from social media posts and post-production audience surveys provided very positive feedback of the production's quality. The second measurable outcome was to provide opportunity for individuals to creatively express themselves through challenging acting assignments, by constructing artistic stage sets, or designing costumes. A total of twenty-seven individuals participated in this production: two directors, seventeen cast members, and ten crew members. This was the first production for the primary costumer and the lead actor. The third measurable outcome was to contribute a homegrown theatrical performance of a literary classic to the Backus Community Center's annual Performing Arts Series. Our community theatre troupe successfully performed three productions to full audiences.
Other,local or private