Arts Activities Support

Project Details by Fiscal Year
2016 Fiscal Year Funding Amount
$10,000
Fund Source
Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund
Recipient
Bloomington Symphony Orchestra
Recipient Type
Non-Profit Business/Entity
Status
Completed
Start Date
July 2016
End Date
April 2017
Activity Type
Grants/Contracts
Counties Affected
Hennepin
Hennepin
Project Overview
Arts Activities Support
Project Details
Funding for the 2016 - 2017 season consisting of four public performances featuring symphonic repertoire and a collaborative concert with the Bloomington Jefferson and Kennedy High School Orchestras. Activities will take place in Bloomington between Octob
Competitive Grant Making Body
Board Members and Qualifications
Julie Andersen: Eagan Art House Executive Director; Jill Anfang: Roseville Parks and Recreation Program Director; Bethany Brunsell: Music teacher and performer; Shelly Chamberlain: Minnesota Council of Nonprofits Operations Director; Marisol Chiclana-Ayla: Artist, Board Chair El Arco Iris; Anthony Galloway: Actor, storyteller, West Metro Education Program; Jamil Jude: Theatre artist; Tricia Khutoretsky: Public Functionary Curator and Co-Director; Peter Leggett: Walker West Music Academy Executive Director; Dayna Martinez: Ordway Center for the Performing Arts; Coleen McLaughlin: Arts Midwest Director of External Relations; Tom Moffatt: Silverwood Park Supervisor; Kathy Mouacheupao: Twin Cities Local Initiatives Support Corporation Cultural Corridor Coordinator; Adam Napoli-Rangel: Artist; Heather Rutledge: ArtReach Saint Croix Executive Director; Andrea Sjogren: Hopkins Public Schools Youth Programs Coordinator; Dameun Strange: Composer and performer; Melissa Wright: Twin Cities Public Television.
Advisory Group Members and Qualifications
Carolyn Holbrook: Administration, marketing, Community Education, fundraising, artistic; Lori-Anne Williams: Fundraising, administration, organizational development; Grant Wood: Artistic, administration; Jennifer Marshall: Education, artistic, administration; LaDonna Morrison: Finance, administration, organizational development; Rachel Wandrei: Artistic, administration; Carolyn Van Nelson: Finance, fundraising, administration; Alison Goetzman: Volunteerism, finance, administration; Betsy Carpenter: Artistic, administration.
Conflict of Interest Disclosed
No
Legal Citation / Subdivision
Laws of Minnesota 2015 Special Session, chapter 2, article 4, section 2, subdivision 3
Appropriation Language

ACHF Arts Access

2016 Fiscal Year Funding Amount
$10,000
Other Funds Leveraged
$45,580
Direct expenses
$55,580
Administration costs
$0
Number of full time equivalents funded
0.00
Proposed Measurable Outcome(s)

Have 1,500 concert attendees and 1,000 paid guests at our four-concert subscription series. Musician survey will show that 85% or more see artistic growth over the past four seasons (tenure of the current Music Director). The method for evaluating the concert attendees and paid guests will be via ticket count and box office revenues. The musician survey will be conducted online at the end of the season and will provide an opportunity for all members and substitutes to give input.

Measurable Outcome(s)

One of our proposed outcomes was having 1,500 concert attendees and 1,000 paid guests. We had 909 paid guests and 1,182 concert attendees. Our other outcome was to have 85% or more of the musicians see artistic growth over the past four years. Survey results indicated that 82% of the musicians were seeing growth. We reached a large number of young people and got them excited about classical music. The Bloomington Symphony Orchestra’s goals for this project were to present works of living composers as well as standard classics in order to maintain and stimulate interest in classical orchestral music. We feel that we achieved these goals this year by presenting four diverse subscription concerts, plus a side-by-side performance with students from the Bloomington High Schools’ string programs. One of our artistic challenges was choosing repertoire that stretched the musicians as individuals and as an ensemble. The repertoire for this project included well-known pieces like Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony and Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique. It also introduced lesser-known pieces like Shostakovich’s First Symphony, which is not performed frequently, as well as the world premiere performance of Grant Luhmann’s Flute Concerto. The orchestra was challenged by Manny Laureano’s uncommon interpretation of Symphonie Fantastique, and by learning the Flute Concerto, which had never been heard before! There was no recording of the Flute Concerto available because of the extended techniques the piece required. However, the musicians rose to the occasion during every artistic challenge, putting their best effort forward, to achieve a strong musical outcome. The Bloomington Symphony Orchestra also undertook a mighty challenge by presenting music from all of Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle operas, in a concert featuring a cast of ten singers and a narrator. This repertoire was challenging from a language perspective (music with notes written in German, score with notes written in Italian), from a musical perspective and from a personal preparation perspective. This experience caused the musicians and Music Director to confront the importance of repertoire selection and personal and ensemble preparation. One way we will try to encourage personal practice in the future is by making the parts available on our private members-only website as early in the season a possible, so musicians can download and practice their parts earlier in the season. We hope that a small effort like this will motivate people to practice early and often, and make it easy for people to get the music or parts they need to do so. The Bloomington Symphony Orchestra’s community goals were to serve the audience, the City of Bloomington community and the musicians. We met all three of these goals. We served our audience by presenting diverse programs that were of interest to old and new audience members alike. Audience surveys told us that more familiar programs were more likely to make people want to attend our concerts and conversely, unfamiliar programs were not the reason people attended. In the future, we will strive to message our programs so that all concerts will be compelling to potential attendees. The City Bloomington and its businesses, schools and nonprofit organizations were impacted by our project through venue rental fees and supporting local workers. All venues were easy to locate, handicapped accessible, well-lit for ease in reading program notes, and offered generous, free parking for audience and musicians. According to concert surveys, about 25% of our audience lives in Bloomington. About 25% of our audience members indicated their intention to dine out in the City of Bloomington before or after a Bloomington Symphony Orchestra concert, which provided indirect income to local businesses. Our musicians were served by preparing quality, challenging repertoire. We had the chance to perform the Mozart Violin Concerto No. 4, under the baton – or rather, bow – of our concertmaster and soloist Michael Sutton. 80% of the musicians who completed the survey felt the 2016-17 season repertoire was enjoyable to play and appropriately challenging. We reached a very age diverse audience with our project. 60% of our audience self-identified as being 60 years of age or older. We distributed 130 free student tickets over the length of the project, which means 11% of our audience was made up of young people. We were able to serve not only our traditional older audience, but also a diverse group of young people, which was very exciting for us. In the area of accessibility, we had a busload of seniors from the Mount Olivet Lutheran Home in Minneapolis, who attended a concert. We also had a group of home-school students who attended a concert. We also worked with each of these groups to make sure it was accessible to them in terms of physical need (wheelchairs, walkers, etc.) and the opportunity to meet with the Music Director after the concert (home school group). We would like to increase our reach to both of these groups and will do so by making sure more groups know about our concerts and discounts we can offer to make attending more accessible to them. Another way we made our project accessible, was to players. We have one player who has Parkinson’s and needs some assistance to make it possible for her to play. Everything from helping her carry in a special chair, to allowing her to miss rehearsals when she was not well enough to attend, were important ways that we helped her to be able to play and contribute to the success of the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra.

Description of Funds
Source of Additional Funds

Other, local or private

Recipient Board Members
Rebecca Jyrkas, Brianna Wassink, Laila Stainbrook, Matthew Cummins, Charlotte Bartholomew, Kristin Brinkmann, Jenna Loeppke, Daniel Mollick, Brian Rule
Project Manager
First Name
Sara
Last Name
Tan
Organization Name
Bloomington Symphony Orchestra
Street Address
1800 Old Shakopee Rd W
City
Bloomington
State
MN
Zip Code
55431-3071
Phone
(952) 563-8573
Email
info@bloomingtonsymphony.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
Location

PO Box 14106
Saint Paul, Minnesota 55114 

Phone
Project Manager: Kathy Mouacheupao
651-645-0402
Email the Agency