Arts Tour Minnesota

James Sewell Ballet toured its proposed work to the communities of Detroit Lakes, Grand Rapids and Red Wing, and achieving deep community impact through its residency work, interactions with students, the community at large, and through its public performances. The touring grant afforded us the time and resources to build layers of interactions with the participants, which is not easy to accomplish with a typical outreach activity. Our communications with the presenters and participants--and their genuine enthusiasm to further our relationship-building with audiences--are the most meaningful evaluation responses we seek. Because it is our clear goal to extend our touring work to other underserved Minnesota locations, we are encouraged that we have a formula that is working effectively, and we can take it elsewhere. 2: By identifying key project goals we wanted to achieve with this tour, we were able to focus our activities in Minnesota communities that had networks of participants, effectively insuring the success of our work. As most smaller communities have one or possibly two principal dance schools, we were able to identify these schools through our presenters. We also understand--by direct response from the dance instructors and students--that this tour and its activities was a highlight for the kids in their early dance education. We further engaged dance enthusiasts by hosting a variety of James Sewell Ballet residency activities in alternate touring locations.