Arts Learning Grant
Arts Learning Grant
Iron on the Range: A Community Iron Pour at the Minnesota Museum of Mining.
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.
Amber Burns: choreographer, dancer, actor, middle school art teacher; Tammy Mattonen: visual artist, co-founder of Crescendo Youth Orchestra; Ariana Daniel: mixed media artist, arts instructor; Kathy Neff: musician, director, Fine Arts Academy at the University of Minnesota Duluth; Amy Varsek: education director, Duluth Art Institute; Kendra Carlson: writing and theater instructor, University of Minnesota Duluth; David Marty: former director of the Reif Performing Arts Center, Grand Rapids.
ACHF Arts Access ACHF Arts Education ACHF Cultural Heritage
In the short term is our goal that we will increase participation over past years' events by both youth and adults in the hands-on arts learning activities and that we will be the first experience with casting iron for the majority of our participants. In the long term it is our goal that this project will ignite an interest in the metal arts for our attendees and inspire them to further explore casting as a creative process -- whether through attending other iron pour events in the future or getting involved in the casting process themselves. We also hope this project will give attendees a new way of thinking about a ubiquitous part of life on the Iron Range -- the iron itself. The project team will work together to evaluate the project. Minnesota Museum of Mining staff and volunteers will track attendance and participants' ages. Verbal surveys will be conducted in each class to assess participants' prior experience with metal arts and casting and to get qualitative feedback about the class after it is complete. Teaching artists will provide input based on the responses they get from participants and their own reflections on the success of the workshops. We will assess progress toward our long-term goals by surveying attendees about their interest in attending or participating in metal casting events in the future.
The short term goal was to increase participation over past years' events by both youth and adults in the hands-on arts learning activities and to be the first experience with casting iron for the majority of our participants. We tracked attendance to evaluate this outcome. We had some repeat attendees from previous years', but we had many new attendees and reached a new audience through our partnership with MacRostie Art Center. Several attendees traveled from Itasca County to participate in the project. The long term goal was that this project would ignite an interest in the metal arts for our attendees and inspire them to further explore casting as a creative process -- whether through attending other iron pour events in the future or getting involved in the casting process themselves. Evaluation of this outcome will require a timeframe beyond the grant period. However, numerous attendees reported an interest in attending future iron pours at the museum.
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