Art Project

“Regional residents experience increased access to the arts via a reduction in geographic, cultural and/or physical barriers.” By bringing a high quality group of performers into the community we will make access to a different type of musical performance available to citizens in our area. “Regional residents experience a change in knowledge, attitude, behavior or condition due to public art, arts festivals or arts events.” The blues and jazz are not art forms traditionally performed in our area. By exposing our community to these performances and asking for their evaluation of them, we can be a campaign of expanding/increasing awareness of and enjoyment of different styles of music. By using an artist that began their career in music locally, we are hoping participants will be more open and accepting of listen and experiencing a new music genre. “Regional artists expand and improve their work and the way in which they create it.” By providing an informal jam session we are giving local artists a chance to stretch their experiences by playing with different musicians. By providing a clinic at the high school we will be giving students a chance to see some out-standing performers and a chance to experience different styles of performance. “Regional residents gain awareness and appreciation for a variety of artistic disciplines and mediums.” By making this a part of our community festival, many people will attend that may have skipped an independent performance and the same thought holds true for using a performer with a local history. We are hoping these factors will encourage people to attend who might otherwise have opted out. If we have a chance to increase our audience's exposure then we can build on that with our summer concert series. “Regional residents build connections to their own and others’ cultural heritage through regional arts and cultural events and/or activities.” Historically this is a region of stoic eastern European settlers. But the community has grown and changes over the years so giving exposure to different style of music (jazz/blues) will provide people with a look at how other communities interact/react to their musical heritage. The hope/goal is to make many of those in attendance more accepting and interested in different sounds and musical experiences. For the High School clinic, we will provide the instructor with a list of questions/concerns regarding the student's interactions and opinions and rely on her evaluation through conversation with them after the clinic is over. For the jam session, we have a couple of community members who will be in attendance, who will engage other participants in conversation regarding the experience and following a loose script will gather input to form an evaluation. For the concert series, we will have a wall of post-it notes available at intermission and after, for attendees to write their impressions/critiques for immediate impressions and there will also be a more in-depth evaluation which ties into the summer concert series for anyone to take home, fill out and return to a box at the city office or the library. These evaluations will include input on the concert itself, the summer concert series, ideas for expansion/change in either 52 Wing concerts or the summer series, an address and an email if they want to remain anonymous or if they want to have further conversation.