Art Project Grant
ACHF Arts Access
The Worthington Area Symphony Orchestra goals will continue to include becoming a diverse, volunteer symphony orchestra providing high quality challenging musical experiences, while providing the opportunity for life-long musical learning and educating, as well as entertaining family audiences and promoting artistic enrichment throughout the region. The Worthington Area Symphony Orchestra will preserve the rich repertoire and cultural history of orchestra in the region and throughout the state.The symphony orchestra will attract string, woodwind, brass and percussion musicians of all ages and diverse cultural backgrounds to fulfill the musical requirements of the traditional symphonic repertoire. The orchestra concert will target young students and families throughout the region. Worthington Area Symphony Orchestra members and their concert attendees will be inspired by the work of incredible citizens who become the artists. Over 500 people will be involved either as musicians, volunteers, or attendees, becoming aware of the ability of the arts to raise spirits, and inspire dreams for all ages and backgrounds, as well as, stimulating the economic growth of Worthington and the surrounding areas. A video survey will be completed by members of the audience both before and after the concert. Surveys will be distributed to the symphony orchestra musicians during rehearsals and also to the concert audience participants. The survey will include information related to satisfaction, age, cultural identity, geographic location of attendees, and knowledge of the music presented. One month after the final concert, the Great Plains String Quartet Leadership Team will meet and summarize the information contained in the survey and use that information to impact further orchestral events. This activity is important to the community because it is part of the Worthington Area Orchestra’s purpose to raise awareness of orchestral and other performing arts. The Worthington Area Symphony Orchestra will be inclusive and accessible, considering economic, geographic, and physical accessibility, as well as cultural, racial, ethnic, age and gender. This project has the potential to connect a wide range of aspiring artists with their communities and the surrounding areas.
The audience and support base for Worthington Area Symphony Orchestra has grown as reflected in the Spring Concert. The addition of new players from new communities has the added benefit of expanding the audience as evidenced by the five new zip codes listed among the 25 written audience evaluations. First time attendees were present from central South Dakota, central Minnesota, northwest Iowa, the Twin Cities, Sioux Falls, Louisville, KY and more. Overall attendance has grown. Worthington Area Symphony Orchestra witnessed the growth in sponsorship support over its short life of three years. Four new community sponsors were secured for the Spring Concert. All sponsors were represented in the audience and hopefully will return for future concerts. When people attend the Worthington Area Symphony Orchestra concerts at Memorial Auditorium they not only are attending a concert, a percentage of them will purchase gas, groceries, gifts and eat at local restaurants, thus leaving an economic impact on Worthington. Another great example of the arts building economic development in communities. More musicians than last year, 50 in all, performed for the spring 2013 concert. Performers ranged in age from 14 to 80 plus, lived in 16 different zip codes in two states and represented a variety of occupations. These numbers and diversity are a new-found strength of the organization, bringing a richness to the ensemble and building a bond that united the players. One Worthington Area Symphony Orchestra musician stated, I LOVE playing in Worthington Area Symphony Orchestra! It feeds my musical soul. In pursuit of Worthington Area Symphony Orchestra’s mission to provide opportunity for area musicians to perform in the setting of a symphony orchestra in 2013 Worthington Area Symphony Orchestra has enabled a total of 85 area string, woodwind, brass and percussion players to perform as an orchestra. Communicated through the players, they indicate their knowledge of orchestral music growing, their technical skills are improving and they are being challenged by the musical literature.
Other, local or private