Art Project Grant
ACHF Arts Access ACHF Arts Education ACHF Cultural Heritage
Grand Marais Arts Colony's goals and outcomes for the Artist Residency Series are: 1. To provide five artists with uninterrupted time and space to produce art and expand artistic skills. 2. Address Grand Marais Arts Colony strategic planning goals including: a) broaden artist services, particularly studio access, to include more opportunities for intermediate and advanced artists; b) develop Grand Marais Arts Colony's reputation as an organization that supports artistic exploration, experimentation, and creative risk-taking; c) create a successful programmatic model for the late winter season. 3. Craft opportunities for audiences to engage with artists to benefit both the artist's creative process and the viewer's exposure to the arts. Grand Marais Art Colony uses a variety of tools, surveys, and forms to measure and evaluate success including time sheets, appraisal information, organizational forms, financial reports, artist evaluation forms, enrollment forms, and attendance sheets. Specifically, for this project the following evaluative measures will be taken: 1. Provide residencies to five artists. 2. Provide evaluation forms to all artists-in-residence. 3. Facilitate verbal/interview-style evaluation with participating artists. 4. Track numbers of attendees to community outreach events and exhibitions. 5. Increase number of residency applicant. 6. Increase interest in Grand Marais Art Colony services including studio access. 7. Increase number of members.
Measurable outcomes and evaluation: 1. Grand Marais Art Colony provided five artists with space to expand artistic skills. 2. Outcomes of Grand Marais Art Colony's strategic planning goals: a) include more opportunities for advanced artists. All residents were advanced artists and eight first-time studio artists chose to do an independent residency; b) Grand Marais Art Colony's reputation as an organization that supports artistic exploration is steadily expanding. While seeing the trajectory of this goal will take time, verbal feedback from residency event participants suggested there was a diverse and experimental nature to the artist's process. Grand Marais Art Colony's reputation for hosting a quality residency is growing as applicants are now coming from beyond Minnesota. c) Grand Marais Art Colony has created a successful programmatic model for the late winter season as artists continue to apply and come. 2. Written evaluations rated factors out of a possible 4. Communication with Grand Marais Art Colony staff rated 4, as did Grand Marais Art Colony’s welcoming atmosphere, accommodations, preparedness of the studios and the overall experience. The open studios and engagement projects were rated at a 3 by two artists, allowing Grand Marais Art Colony to reconsider how they can be improved upon. 3. Through verbal evaluations Grand Marais Art Colony learned that having a contemporary art gallery nearby is a huge draw for contemporary artists looking for residency experiences. Grand Marais Art Colony also learned that its residency is most geared toward artists with some residency background as it is highly self-defined. 4. Grand Marais Art Colony hosted a total of 75 participants to community engagement projects. Through Grand Marais Art Colony’s e-newsletter and two radio interviews approximately 1,470 people had access to the artists. 5. Grand Marais Art Colony doubled the number of applicants from 2015 to 2016 with the hope to double that number again in 2017. 6. Studio access increased 47% as it went from 17 artists in 2015 to 25 in 2016. 7. Seven artists became first-time members as a result of Grand Marais Art Colony's residency series.
Other, local or private