Art Project
Art Project
RiverSong Music Festival 2019.
John White: writer, photographer, retired journalist; Georgette Jones: literature teacher, theatre actor, director, teacher; Anna Johanssen: fiber artist, art teacher, Remick Gallery board, president of Windom Women’s Investment group, treasurer of Cottonwood County Animal Rescue, officer of Cotton Quilters; Kristen Kuipers: musician, private lesson and K-12 classroom music instructor, theater, writing, volunteer with Jackson Center for the Arts; Janet Olney: visual artist, Willmar Area Arts Council coordinator; Joyce Meyer: photographer, retired art teacher, Canby Arts Council; Michele Knife Sterner: theater actor, Southwest Minnesota State University Associate director for Access Opportunity Success program; Lisa Hill: musician, Crow River Singers, attorney; Joyce Aakre: visual arts, writing, Discover Dassel committee, Board member for Litchfield Community Education, Exhibit committee for Dassel Area Historical Society; Emily Petersen: visual artist, art teacher; David KelseyBassett: visual artist, musician; Anne O’Keefe-Jackson: human resources director, bead and quill work; Scott Wessels: theater actor, director, writing, media, communications, board member for Green Earth Players; Brett Lehman: musician, social worker, Worthington City Band, Worthington Concert Association; Erica Volkir: performing arts, Director of Pipestone Area Chamber of Commerce and CVB; Claire Swanson: visual arts, arts teacher, Meander Art Crawl Committee.
Anne Dybsetter: visual art, writing; John Ginocchio: music, education; Brett Lehman: musician, social worker, Worthington City Band, Worthington Concert Association, Southwest Minnesota Arts Council Board; Jane Nygaard: arts advocate; Michele Knife Sterner: theater actor, Southwest Minnesota State University associate director for Access Opportunity Success program, Southwest Minnesota Arts Council Board; Tom Wirt: visual art.
ACHF Arts Access
1) Give Minnesotans meaningful arts experiences through our festival and grow our attendance to 2,500 in 2019 and 3,000 in 2020 to provide increased financial security. 2) Develop stronger fundraising skills, both in the ask and broadening our reach to fans/volunteers as well as a wider reach into our community. 3) Develop a clear, consistent marketing message to apply to all levels of our organization. 1) We are developing plans on how to more accurately document our attendance. Our ticketing process will go to only online to capture better numbers and avoid fraud with scanners. Our marketing plans will address how to reach new audiences. We can evaluate financial success through our 2019 P and L. 2) Following a successful effort with Vela Strategy on how to write a better appeal, we will use that for our two-prong approach of our fan base plus our community partners and businesses. We have added more members to the finance team to help with face-to-face contact, email, and letters. We are establishing a plan to go after larger sponsors for the festival, stages, and beer tent. 3) We are excited to build on the new knowledge and plans that we have received from Hunter-Sage. The increased spending in marketing will translate into increased attendance.
While we did not meet our goal of raising attendance to 3000, we found that our past calculations were not as accurate as we thought, but our new abilities to track through Square will give us better measurable results going forward. We developed stronger fundraising skills, both in the ask and broadening our reach to fans/volunteers as well as a wider reach into our community. Our total donations this year increased by 19% over 2018 and our In-Kind Donations increased by 27% over 2018. We developed a clear, consistent marketing message. We had an excellent experience working with a consultant. She went back through our history and developed a plan to give us a consistent message that was unique to RiverSong. She was able to identify areas that needed to be built up, inconsistencies in our message, graphics feedback, and marketing plans.
Other,local or private