Operating Support Grant - Renewal
Operating Support Grant - Renewal
Operating Support 2021
Tara Makinen: Executive Director of Itasca Orchestra and Strings, musician; Tammy Mattonen: visual artist, co-founder of Crescendo Youth Orchestra; 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; Daniel Oyinloye: musician, videographer; Kris Nelson: artist, teacher; Roxann Berglund: musician; Bill Payne: Professor of Theater at the University of Minnesota-Duluth
Tara Makinen: Executive Director of Itasca Orchestra and Strings, musician; Kathy Neff: musician, Director, Fine Arts Academy at the University of Minnesota-Duluth; Ron Piercy: jeweler, gallery owner; Daniel Oyinloye: musician, videographer; Kris Nelson: artist, teacher; Bill Payne: Professor of Theater at the University of Minnesota-Duluth
ACHF Arts Access
Decreased enrollment means staff will less student contact time. We will use this time to strengthen the program. For the string program we will focus on individual student growth and engagement, broadening outreach, improving curriculum and program administration. Specific tasks we plan to complete include setting up a student database, moving to Quickbooks online, setting up an online payment portal, completing a program evaluation, establishing a beginning music program for ages 3-6, outreach and connection to the local Native American community and using a new lesson book for beginners. Our goal for the community orchestra is to have three performances that engage our local musicians, have a limited in person audience and make the content available online. The specific tasks stated are observable changes. Student growth and engagement more qualitative. The specific tasks will be measured as a yes or no. Student growth and engagement will be measured individually in progress reports. The effects will be more qualitative and will be assessed in emails and conversations on an ongoing basis with parents and students. We have called all students who did not register this year. We have about a 25% return rate for students that were new last year. Many of those expressed the child's frustration with the instrument as the reason for not continuing. This may have been partially because of the interrupted year and the movement to online lessons. We are purchasing new lesson books based on our new teacher's experience with string pedagogy that gives students simple songs that also teach a skill giving them early success. In addition, we will not be taking new students younger than 1st grade. We hope to bring our student retention for new students to 75%.
Our major stated goal was to hire a part-time admin staff person to improve communication and coordination of our strings program. We were unable to successful fill the position. We had two unsuccessful hires. We pivoted and increased the Executive Directors (ED) position temporarily. We have since reconfigured the admin staff so that the ED is very part time and a full-time manager position was created. This helped us to attract a qualified candidate. It created efficiencies by moving administrative duties from the ED and Director of Strings positions. The office manager has taken on the tasks of creating a parent communication portal and creation of a new website which will help us meet our goals of improving communication and creating an orchestra community. Progress on our secondary goals were hampered by Covid concerns. Outreach and group activities continued to be limited during 2021. Students did show significant musical growth given the increase in student contact hours.