Art Project

1: "Regional residents experience increased access to the arts via a reduction in geographic, cultural and/or physical barriers." We hope to do this by removing language barriers by translating promotional into Spanish and Somali; working to overcome our own prejudices and misunderstandings by inviting input from underserved communities and establishing a visible presence their communities, thereby establishing trust and credibility; and providing a vital lifeline to human interaction for those whose special needs make other means of communication difficult -- positive interactions will build feelings of inclusion. 2: "Regional residents experience a change in knowledge, attitude, behavior or condition due to public art, arts festivals or arts events." Through featuring a diverse drum circle led by Chilean native, John Maldonado and featuring Afro / Latin music, people of all different backgrounds are able to build rhythms off one another and total strangers become connected by the beat. Two groups will highlight Latin inspired music in the hopes of increasing appreciation of music from diverse cultures. We will work with Willmar Arts Council to identify and to reach out to Somali and Hispanic local area artists to feature at our concerts in efforts to foster appreciation for arts of diverse cultures. 5: "Regional artists connect to new audiences and/or build relationships that provide artistic growth." We have many talented local artists who are not well known to the community at large, so we will promote different local artists at each of six concerts, giving exposure to their original art and a platform to sell their work. We will also work to continually grow our attendance. As we grow our attendees year over year; we find we are reaching into many nearby towns, such as Paynesville, Olivia, Litchfield, and Redwood Falls. 1: We will meet with representatives from underserved communities, whose increased willingness to work with us to provide input is one measure of regional residents experiencing increased access to the arts. We will follow up with a focus group to determine the effectiveness of our outreach. Our ability to get promotions printed in Somali and English and distributed to minority businesses is another. Most importantly, increasing the number of underserved people at our concerts will be another. We will take a visual count of underserved attendees at our concerts. 2: We will provide the opportunity for local citizens to hear and appreciate a variety of musical genres including culturally diverse music. The drum circle will give people of all different backgrounds are able to build rhythms off one another and total strangers become connected by the beat. If attendees participate in the circle; we will know we are making progress. We will conduct informal interviews about the quality and skill level of the musicians at each concert. We will jot down comments we hear and use that information to judge whether a group should be invited back. We will also use surveys to determine to what extent we reached our goals with each group of performers. 5: We will measure the success of artists connecting with new audiences by seeing attendees interact with and become familiar with local artists and their work. We will interview the artists for input and feedback following the concerts to understand areas of improvement.The committee will count the number of attendees at each concert. We will interview attendees informally about why they come each week and why they want to attend the concerts. We will also use evaluation surveys that ask how far they have driven to attend the concert and whether they would attend another.