Rural and Community Art Project Grant
Rural and Community Art Project Grant
Jazz at the VFW: Presenting a 2019-2020 series of high-quality jazz music at Grand Rapids VFW post-1720 hosted by Sam Miltich and Friends and featuring special guest artists.
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; 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.
Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, Drew Digby (218) 722-0952
ACHF Arts Access ACHF Arts Education ACHF Cultural Heritage
In the short term, we hope to present nine jazz concerts to an audience of 100 people at each event and provide a musical experience that the audience feels is "excellent." In the long term, we hope that the support for jazz during First Fridays will continue to connect the Grand Rapids VFW to our community and give our veterans and members a sense of community support. We will use short written surveys on the tables during the concerts to get feedback from attendees and will count attendance at each event. Informal surveys of attendees will be conducted by Sam Miltich and VFW staff to further assess the success of our project.
We presented seven live jazz concerts to an average audience size of 100 people at each event, and provided a musical experience that the audience feels is "excellent." We also presented three online concerts as part of the Virtual First Friday events that began after the Covid shutdown. The First Fridays jazz nights connect the Grand Rapids VFW to our community and give our veterans and members a sense of community support. We used short written surveys on tables during a selection of First Friday events, and project manager Sam Miltich along with VFW staff collected informal feedback from attendees.
Other,local or private