Operating Support

Project Details by Fiscal Year
2013 Fiscal Year Funding Amount
$39,519
Fund Source
Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund
Recipient
CLIMB Theatre, Inc. AKA CLIMB Theatre
Recipient Type
Non-Profit Business/Entity
Status
Completed
Start Date
July 2012
End Date
June 2013
Activity Type
Grants/Contracts
Counties Affected
Aitkin
Anoka
Becker
Benton
Blue Earth
Carlton
Carver
Chippewa
Chisago
Clay
Clearwater
Cook
Dakota
Dodge
Douglas
Fillmore
Goodhue
Hennepin
Houston
Hubbard
Isanti
Jackson
Kanabec
Kandiyohi
Koochiching
Lac qui Parle
Lake
Le Sueur
Lyon
Mahnomen
Marshall
McLeod
Meeker
Mille Lacs
Mower
Nicollet
Nobles
Olmsted
Otter Tail
Pennington
Pine
Pope
Ramsey
Redwood
Renville
Rice
Rock
Roseau
St. Louis
Scott
Sherburne
St. Louis
Stearns
Steele
Todd
Traverse
Wadena
Waseca
Washington
Watonwan
Winona
Wright
Yellow Medicine
Aitkin
Anoka
Becker
Benton
Blue Earth
Carlton
Carver
Chippewa
Chisago
Clay
Clearwater
Cook
Dakota
Dodge
Douglas
Fillmore
Goodhue
Hennepin
Houston
Hubbard
Isanti
Jackson
Kanabec
Kandiyohi
Koochiching
Lac qui Parle
Lake
Le Sueur
Lyon
Mahnomen
Marshall
McLeod
Meeker
Mille Lacs
Mower
Nicollet
Nobles
Olmsted
Otter Tail
Pennington
Pine
Pope
Ramsey
Redwood
Renville
Rice
Rock
Roseau
St. Louis
Scott
Sherburne
St. Louis
Stearns
Steele
Todd
Traverse
Wadena
Waseca
Washington
Watonwan
Winona
Wright
Yellow Medicine
Project Overview
Operating Support
Project Details
General operating support
Competitive Grant Making Body
Board Members and Qualifications
Judson Bemis Jr., Actor, arts administrator, founder and principal of Clere Consulting. Secretary, Minnesota State Arts Board.; Ardell Brede, Mayor of Rochester, elected 2002.; Peggy Burnet, Businesswoman, art collector, and community volunteer. Chair of the Nominating Committee, Smithsonian National Board. Trustee, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Vice Chair, Minnesota State Arts Board.; Michael Charron, Dean of the School of the Arts, Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota. Vice Chair, Minnesota State Arts Board.; Sean Dowse, Executive director, Sheldon Theatre. Board member for Minnesota Music Coalition, Minnesota Citizens for the Arts, and Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Studies.; John Gunyou, City manager, Minnetonka.; Benjamin Klipfel, Board member, Minnesota State Arts Board. Executive Director, Alexandria Area Arts Association, Inc. Director and arts educator.; Ellen McInnis, Director of Twin Cities government relations, Wells Fargo. Member of Bottineau Boulevard Partnership. Chair, Minnesota State Arts Board.; Pamela Perri, Executive vice president, Builders Association of Minnesota.; Margaret Rapp, Former educator, Saint Paul Academy and Summit School. Officer at-large, Minnesota State Arts Board.; Anton Treuer, Professor of Ojibwe, Bemidji State University.
Advisory Group Members and Qualifications
Joshua Aerie: Conductor, artistic director, and instructor of various music organizations. Board member, Arrowhead Regional Arts Council and Sacred Heart Music Center.; Beth Burns: Executive director, Lutheran Music Program. Board member, Minnesota Citizens for the Arts, and Minnesota Music Coalition.; Vicki Chepulis: Retired executive director, Trollwood Performing Arts School.; Yolanda Cotterall: Greater Minnesota rural program director, Latino Economic Development Center. Board member, Casa de Esperanza, and Mixed Blood Theatre.; Heidi Droegemueller: Director of development and individual giving, Minnesota Orchestra; president, Association of Fundraising Professionals, Minnesota chapter; Timothy Lloyd: Metal artist. Committee member, Northfield Arts Guild. Retired arts educator.; Kathleen Maurer: Professor, Anoka-Ramsey Community College.; Herman Milligan, Jr: Managing partner, The Fulton Group, LLC.; Jamie Robertson: Executive director, New York Mills Regional Cultural Center and Arts Retreat.
Conflict of Interest Disclosed
No
Legal Citation / Subdivision
Laws of Minnesota 2011, First Special Session, chapter 6, article 4, section 2, subdivision 3
Appropriation Language

ACHF Arts Access

2013 Fiscal Year Funding Amount
$39,519
Other Funds Leveraged
$888,168
Direct expenses
$927,687
Administration costs
$7,929
Number of full time equivalents funded
1.49
Proposed Measurable Outcome(s)

Provide programs that meet constituent needs. Keep our 2010-11 repertory, except Claudia and Huggertree; bring in two plays from past repertoire; provide a new conservation play, a new library play, and two Booster Bits on a new topic. Provide one major new project like OPS or Anoka-Hennepin. Increase professional development workshops, from five to eight. Bring together four to six theatre professionals who, as a CLIMB Core of Theatre Practitioners, will observe and critique our actors, scripts, and production elements as they are performed on site. Actors will observe assessment and evaluators’ work, and vice versa, at least one time. We know we provided programs that met constituent needs. First, our repertory was created with input from topical experts and educators. Second, we know the topics were of value to our constituents because we sold 283 plays and 220 days of classes in Minnesota. Third, this year we created new teacher and student evaluations. 3,316 teachers rated the overall value of our programs as a 3.8 out of 4. And 99% of teachers said they would like CLIMB to return to their school. 7,785 students evaluated our plays and classes. 91% of students surveyed said they learned something that will help them. The feedback we received from the CLIMB Core of Theatre Practioners and the additional trainings helped actors score well in both teacher and student evaluations. 95% of elementary students said the acting was great. The actors' portrayal of their characters was rated as a 3.9 out of 4 by teachers and a 3.5 out of 4 by secondary students. 2: Expand our commitment to public service and public benefit. Reach at least 110,000 Minnesotans; serve at least 22% of Minnesota’s cities and towns; assure that 30% of programming is done in greater Minnesota; provide a program that reduces costs to greater Minnesota schools by 25%. With possible increased revenue, we will create funds of 10% of those amounts to help greater Minnesota cover travel/program fees, and to provide cost reductions to underserved audiences. We know we expanded our commitment to public service and public benefit. We exceeded our goal by 8,967 people and reached 128,967 Minnesotans with high quality arts programming. Our programming was defined as high quality by actor/University of Minnesota professor Barbara Kingsley who said, I was surprised by the level of engagement in the audience while watching 'A Deeper Look.' The young audience was riveted. I attribute this to the high level of proficiency on the part of the acting company. Michael Booth also praised CLIMB's original works saying, I was impressed by the artfulness and the message of the play, 'Lockdown.' We did a significant portion of our work in greater Minnesota and in rural Minnesota, and worked with over 800 students with special needs in addition to 815 seniors. We track this data in a spreadsheet that is completed after each residency/performance. This data helps us know the number of people served, as well as statistical data like location and number of students eligible for free/reduced lunch. We tracked the savings given to greater Minnesota schools by subtracting their actual travel cost from the original quote given for that school.

Measurable Outcome(s)

To ensure the arts are interwoven into every facet of community life, we provided programs that meet constituent needs. To do this we achieved our stated goals as follows: 1) maintained our repertory except Claudia and Huggertree; 2) brought in Yellow Troll's Treasure and The Dreaded Kneejerk from past repertoire; 3) wrote and produced a new environmental play called Space Baby, a new library play called The Gift, and two Booster Bits (now Interplays) on empathy; 4) created a training video for Anoka Hennepin School's human resources department, and did a live presentation for all their kindergarten teachers; 5) provided actors workshops on operatives, biomechanics, stage combat, unarmed stage combat, and auditioning; 6) created a corps of theatre practitioners (Michael Booth, Barbara Kingsley, James Williams, Mark Rosenwinkel, and Terry Lynn Carlson); 7) ensured actors observe each other's work at least once. 2: In order to ensure people of all ages, ethnicities, and abilities participate in the arts, we continued to expand our commitment to public service and public benefit. To do this we: 1) reached 128,967 Minnesotans as of July 15, 2013 exceeding our goal by 8,967 people; 2) served 19% of Minnesota's cities and towns, falling short of our goal by 3% due to two anticipated grants not being funded; 3) scheduled 39% of our Minnesota programming in rural communities and 33% of our Minnesota programming in greater Minnesota; 4) created a special program to help save greater Minnesota schools money, but since it required partnering with another school participation was limited. However, to keep with our commitment of making travel affordable to greater Minnesota schools, our outreach team created tours that saved schools in greater Minnesota 39% on travel costs; 5) created a new program for elders with cognitive/physical disabilities and provided 79 days of programming to 815 seniors; 6) partnered with twelve organizations to do customized residencies for people with special needs.

Description of Funds
Source of Additional Funds

Other

Recipient Board Members
Jim Gambone, Representative Joseph Atkins, Bonnie Matson, James Olney, Bill Partlan, Milan Mockovak, Peg Wetli
Source of Additional Funds

local or private

Project Manager
First Name
Peg
Last Name
Wetli
Organization Name
CLIMB Theatre, Inc. AKA CLIMB Theatre
Street Address
6415 Carmen Ave E
City
Inver Grove Heights
State
MN
Zip Code
55076-4428
Phone
(651) 453-9275
Email
peg@climb.org
Administered By
Administered by
Location

Griggs Midway Building, Suite 304,
540 Fairview Avenue North,
St. Paul, MN 55104

Phone
(651) 539-2650 or toll-free (800) 866-2787
Email the Agency