Rural and Community Art Project Grants

Project Details by Fiscal Year
2015 Fiscal Year Funding Amount
$4,559
Fund Source
Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund
Recipient
Icebox Radio Theater
Recipient Type
Non-Profit Business/Entity
Status
Completed
Start Date
September 2015
End Date
August 2016
Activity Type
Grants/Contracts
Counties Affected
Koochiching
St. Louis
Koochiching
St. Louis
Project Overview
Rural and Community Art Project Grants
Project Details
Icebox Radio's 2015-16 Podcast Season
Competitive Grant Making Body
Board Members and Qualifications
Erling Ellison: jewelry designer and creator, speech coach and judge, director of Garrison Art Fair; Ken Bloom: Director of Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota-Duluth; Janeen Carey: vocalist, retired Hibbing Community College librarian and information media specialist; Kate Fitzgerald: Program Director North Shore Music Association, writer; Peter Pestalozzi: furniture maker, wood worker; David Beard: Assistant Professor University of Minnesota-Duluth writing studies; Mark King: actor, theater reviewer, musician; Adam Guggemos: graphic designer, art events promoter; Michelle Ronning: jewelry designer and maker; John Gregor: photographer, art educator, community art advocate; Ann Russ: music performer, community song leader, choir director, workshop leader, past director and founder of North Shore Music Association; Tara Makinen: Executive Director of Itasca Orchestra and Strings, musician; Dana Mattice: Development and Communications Director of The Art Institute Duluth; Moira Villiard: visual artist and student of arts and communication at University of Wisconsin-Superior.
Advisory Group Members and Qualifications
Erling Ellison: jewelry designer and creator, speech coach and judge, director of Garrison Art Fair; Ken Bloom: Director of Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota-Duluth; Janeen Carey: vocalist, retired Hibbing Community College librarian and information media specialist; Mark King: actor, theater reviewer, musician; Adam Guggemos: graphic designer, art events promoter; John Gregor: photographer, art educator, community art advocate; Ann Russ: music performer, community song leader, choir director, workshop leader, past director and founder of North Shore Music Association; Tara Makinen: Executive Director of Itasca Orchestra and Strings, musician; Moira Villiard: visual artist and student of arts and communication at University of Wisconsin-Superior.
Legal Citation / Subdivision
Laws of Minnesota 2013, Chapter 137, Article 4, Section 2, Subdivision 3
Appropriation Language

ACHF Arts Access ACHF Arts Education ACHF Cultural Heritage

2015 Fiscal Year Funding Amount
$4,559
Other Funds Leveraged
$5,604
Direct expenses
$10,163
Administration costs
$0
Number of full time equivalents funded
0
Proposed Measurable Outcome(s)

The goal of this project is to continue to improve the quality of our shows in our quest to 'bring the Northland's stories to the world'. The internet is a crowded place so we must continue to improve the quality of our writing, directing, acting and sound effects art if we are to earn a larger audience, and fulfill our mission for our artists, our audience and our community. There are website metrics that can indicate whether or not the quality of our shows is improving. Google Analytics provides a variety metrics to give site owners a better understanding of how their website is being used. Two of these are Pages per Session, which records how many pages of your website visitors viewed during their visit, and Average Session Duration, which measures how long visitors stayed on your site before leaving. At the time of this application, our Page/Session reading was 1.51 and our Average Duration stood at 50 seconds. Both of these metrics have been static for some time. I believe we can raise our Page/Session to 1.6 and our Average Duration reading to over a minute. We are a dramatic arts company. We tell stories that are rendered as sound files. When people come to our website, we get them listening to our shows as quickly and as easily as possible. It follows that if our stories were more engaging, the audience will listen longer.

Measurable Outcome(s)

For measurable outcomes, we selected listener statistics as the means to measure the success of our shows. The main goal we set was to increase our podcast listenership by 10% over the entire season. Our overall number of podcast listeners decreased by 14%, but that was largely due to low numbers early in the season when many of our listeners had not yet migrated their podcast feeds to the new server. However, listener statistics for the month of May, the final month of the season, were up 26% from May of the previous year. I think this shows that we exceeded our goal of 10% growth.

Description of Funds
Source of Additional Funds

Other, local or private

Recipient Board Members
James Yount, David Erwin, Sheila Tatone, Victoria Olson, Tom Bement, Declan Lowthian, Steve Windels
Project Manager
First Name
Jeffrey
Last Name
Adams
Organization Name
Icebox Radio Theater
Street Address
PO Box 46
City
International Falls
State
MN
Zip Code
56649
Phone
(218) 283-5570
Email
iceboxradio51@gmail.com
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
Location

424 West Superior Street, Suite 104
Duluth, MN 55802

Phone
Project Manager: Rebecca Graves
218-722-0952
Email the Agency