Art Project Legacy

By amplifying the knowledge, skills, experience, and efforts of rural people and places, we inspire communities to identify, develop, and leverage their own creative capital?a critical first step to building community wealth (financial, social, cultural) and transforming narratives. We seek to foster new connections, open pathways to creativity, and create lasting ripple effects for generations to come. In recent years, Granite Falls' emergence as a local arts hub is due in part to arts and cultural organizations helping residents identify and leverage local resources in creative and generative ways. We hope to expand this kind of impact throughout our service area, supporting rural communities in transforming narratives of decline and despair to those of growth and abundance. Our programmatic evaluation strategies utilize Americans for the Arts + Animating Democracy's tool "Aesthetic Perspectives Framework." We will focus on gathering feedback and measuring success through the following avenues: informal conversations at events; formalized post-event conversations; feedback sessions and surveys with our collaborators, partners, and stakeholders; soliciting feedback in the community one-on-one; creative and participatory evaluation activities at events; and attendance numbers and active engagement with events and activities. We will look for neighbors to reporting that they feel more connected to each other and/or their community, have learned and/or tried something new, and have explored their creativity in a new and/or inspiring way.