Organizational Stability Grant
Organizational Stability Grant
Support for organization during COVID shutdown.
Tara Makinen: Executive Director of Itasca Orchestra and Strings, musician; Amber Burns: choreographer, dancer, actor, middle school art teacher; Tammy Mattonen: visual artists, co-founder of Crescendo Youth Orchestra; Kayla Aubid: Native American craft artist, writer, employee at MacRostie Art Center; 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.
Roxann Berglund: musician; Leah Yellowbird: multi-medium visual artist; Ron Piercy: jeweler, gallery owner; Classie Dudley: ARAC Arts Leadership Fellow; Joan Farnam: ceramicist, founder of North Shore Arts Scene.
ACHF Arts Education
Funding will very specifically help us stay functioning during this challenging time. Our goal is to continue to reach out to our local and folk school communities, to offer services of free online demos and mini-classes, and to develop complete online classes, available for a fee, We feel it's very important to let our constituency know we're still "in the game." Funding will also support my wages as Program Coordinator, if needed, so I can continue to coordinate online classes and schedule classes at the Folk School, anticipating the end of the shutdown period, to try to keep the Folk School on an even keel through these unpredictable times. We will evaluate our success by the number of online demos and classes we offer, the participation in those demos and classes, the evaluations of students enrolled, and the ongoing financial support of donors, as an indication that they're still behind us. Our ability to keep the Folk School open, offering some online classes, and scheduling for future "in-person" classes will be a very obvious indicator of success.
Our goal was to stay functioning during this challenging time. We have continued to reach out to our local and folk school communities to offer classes. Right after the COVID shutdown started, one of our board members, Lacey Squier, offered to teach cooking classes on a volunteer basis, The classes were offered free in an effort to keep in touch with past and prospective students, and the classes were wildly successful, with 45 - 65 people signing up for each. A surprise bonus was seeing people show up for classes who had never been to Ely nor heard of the Ely Folk School before, but the word spread among people, and friends and family members from across the country were signing up to cook together. Then we built a catalog of online classes which we did charge for with subjects that were suitable and with the instructors that were willing. In 2021 we offered 21 classes during the Ely Winter Festival, Feb. 4 to 14, only two of which cancelled, and which brought in 145 registrations.