Project Grant

If this project achieves the intended outcomes, the Fine Arts Program expects audiences and residency participants will have a new interest and curiosity about classical music that will lead them to explore other offerings, both traditional and more innovative forms. Fine Arts Program staff members expect to these activities will also strengthen relationships with our residency partners, which in turn will facilitate future partnerships. We anticipate that residency participants will have a greater sense of musical history through the elementary education components of the Project TrioÆs outreach. The Fine Arts Program anticipates that area youth who participate in residencies will have a better appreciation for music through hands-on interactions with the ensemble and instruments. Project Trio will provide college students with improvisation training and instrument master classes.The Fine Arts Program will gather feedback responses from workshop facilitators to find out if the residency activities met the intended goals and/or expectations for each different demographic. These will not be surveys so much as narrative responses, giving partners a chance to provide more meaningful feedback. When we have partnered in the past, the Prairie Lakes Youth Detention facility has asked their participants to journal about their experiences; these reflections have provided a wealth of information on the impact of arts activities. The Fine Arts Program will ask Prairie Lakes Youth Detention to do the same for this residency. We will ask for this kind of feedback from College of St Benedicts/St John's University faculty whose classes take part in workshops with Project Trio, Oak Ridge Elementary teachers, Prairie Lakes Youth Detention facility, and the Saint RaphaelÆs administrative staff The easiest and most often used measure of success will, of course, be attendance numbers at residency activities and at the public performance. The Fine Arts Program will track ticket sales and participation numbers at residency events as well as survey the public performance audience to find out if this performance attracted new audiences to a chamber music as anticipated and if this style of chamber music was successful at changing attitudes and/or perceptions of what defines classical music.