Project Grant

Measurable Outcomes: 1. Increased attendance at the Art Crawls throughout the year. While the number of people attending the regular Art Crawls is growing and they are successful in bringing the public downtown to appreciate and purchase artists' work, we want more! The additional excitement will draw more people, who will then return for regular crawls throughout the year. Expanded Art Crawl advertising and marketing will bring in more people from the surrounding areas - from Brainerd to Alexandria to Monticello to Mille Lacs. Regional patrons, once they see what we have to offer will be encouraged to return to downtown St Cloud for shopping, future crawls, and other arts activities. 2. Increased public awareness and knowledge of our regional artists, musicians, actors, writers, and arts organizations and promote their work. By trying out working with clay, or painting, or seeing artists at work making music, dancing or acting, patrons will be inspired to take a class, attend a play or go to a concert. Organizations will have the opportunity to promote their seasons and patrons will be able to develop relationships with the artists and purchase their work. 3. Expanded organizational ability and marketing effectiveness of the Collaborative. Our summer intern(s) will build on the strides made by last summer's interns, exploring new opportunities in print, radio, and social media advertising. The intern will also develop promotional materials, handle logistics for the placement of musicians and actors, interface with participating performers, and design organization materials to increase the efficiency and organizational capacity of the Collaborative. This can be beneficial to the interns as well, attracting talented individuals to the field of arts management and promotion, providing an opportunity to try it out. 4. Increased diversity of participating artists, adding at least two performing groups of ethnic diversity that represent members of our community. This might include groups like the Nu-Way Choir and the drummers from the Boys and Girls Clubs led by Buddy King, or others from the new members of our community.Evaluation Plan/Methods: 1. We will count patrons who come to the Art Crawl. Since we have some attendance estimates from past crawls, we can compare the numbers and evaluate the increased numbers. 2. We will survey patrons, artists, venues, and organizations participating in the crawl to evaluate this year's experience and evaluate whether they see an increase in public awareness. We will ask how they found out about the crawl to measure our marketing effectiveness. 3. As a group we will assess the experience of the 2012 Sizzling Summer Art Crawl, evaluating what we learned, the systems that were produced that will lead to sustainability, what went well and what problems still remain. 4. We track the participation of the ethnically diverse groups attracted to performing at the crawl.