Rural and Community Art Project Grant

Rainy Lake Community Orchestra's string camp provides a great venue for musicians of all abilities to improve their playing skills and knowledge of music, and to revitalize their love of playing together in a group. The atmosphere is fun and it fosters creativity. The most obvious goals are to enhance each musician's skills and to deliver a meaningful ensemble experience. All activities are centered around developing understanding and skills, encouraging creativity, stretching your comfort zone, and building a strong rapport with other people at the camp. Music should be life-long, and this camp is purposeful in making that evident to all who participate (musicians and audience alike). The classical music community is a little bit stronger thanks to the offerings at this camp. Community members look forward to attending the final concert every summer. They are proud that their community hosts such an artistically enriching event. Success is measured by data and by the musician and audience evaluations of the overall experiences. We are very mindful of the number of participants, the number of new and returning musicians, and the size of our audience at the final concert. These are indicators of the success of the project. We carefully review all input and comments from our musicians and audience. Evaluation forms and surveys asking for feedback on venues, choice of music, accommodations, improvements, and best practices will be utilized. The number of views of the final concert on the KCC- TV YouTube page is another important measure in this post-pandemic world.