Art & Culture Live!: Community Collaborations
The Community Collaboration grants were set up as part of Art & Culture Live. They were a series of subgrants that SELCO awarded to qualifying non-profit organizations in the southeast region of Minnesota. These were competitive grants that were reviewed monthly by the Legacy Review Committee set up by SELCO/SELS Board of Directors. After a few rounds of applications, SELCO decided to offer an outcomes workshop titled Results to Shout About-It’s All About Outcomes to train applicants on writing and evaluating outcomes. In a cooperative effort to identify a diverse selection of quality performers and speakers for library programs and community events, such as Arts & Culture Live!, SELCO created and maintained for the Council of Regional Library System Administrators (CRPLSA) a Library Legacy Artist, Performer and Partner Database. This online resource includes a wealth of information gathered by library staff from across the state, as well as self-submissions by artists willing to go on-the-road to share their art, song or dance, enriching Minnesota's Arts and Cultural Heritage. The statewide database is at: http://www.mnlegacygrant.org.
SELCO in partnership with CRPLSA also presented a round-robin workshop about the state called Library Legacy Programs and Arts Partnerships: How to Create & Maintain Successful Partnerships and Programs Using Legacy Funds. The presenter, Minnetonka Center for the Arts Children and Youth Program Director Leah Hughes, covered how library programming focusing on the major arts areas affects the learning process and provides positive Legacy outcomes.
Event Dates and Locations:
November 12, 2009 – Library Legacy Programs workshop at SELCO (Rochester, MN)
April 13, 2010 – Outcomes workshop at SELCO (Rochester, MN)
May 12, 2010 – Outcomes workshop at SELCO (Rochester, MN)
Partner Organization(s): United Way of Olmsted County
Partner Organization(s) Contribution/Role in the Program: The United Way provided a reduced rate for workshops held at SELCO.
34 people, representing a wide range of library and arts organizations in the SELCO region, attended the Library Legacy Programs and Arts Partnerships workshop. The grant writing workshops had 17 people attend to learn about better grant writing. SELCO awarded 34 Community Collaboration grants to various organizations during the 2010 fiscal year. After the first few rounds of applications, the Committee found that many SELS member libraries were applying for similar programs. As a result, the Committee set up a Vetted Performers catalog which allowed libraries to apply for a performer and avoid the lengthy wait of the review process.
Measurable Outcomes may be collected by survey, anecdotal responses, post-test; End user change in Behavior, Attitude, Skills, Knowledge, Condition and/or Status
Numerous library directors, library staff and trustees in the SELCO region expressed their gratitude for the opportunity to provide programming for their public. Sometimes it was expressed as a simple “Thank you” inserted in the final report, or the bolder “It was a GREAT time and we appreciate very much the opportunities that the grant provide.” SELCO staff report similar feelings of gratitude while visiting member libraries.