Community Arts

113’s artistic goals for this project were: 1) to inspire, educate, and engage members of the Twin Cities community through the presentation of high-quality seminars, workshops, and concerts featuring local and internationally-recognized, successful living composers; 2) to introduce underrepresented music by living composers to people who may have had little or no opportunity to experience music of this genre through performances of exceptional quality; and 3) to proliferate and disseminate contemporary art music. We sought to expose the community to current art and art-making and to give composers and musicians of all backgrounds a public opportunity to advance the making and performance of serious art music. We believe that we accomplished all of these goals. Duo Gelland and 113 performed and presented interactive workshops, seminars, and concerts at Eastside Neighborhood Services, Brightwater Montessori School, University of Minnesota music education and music theory classes, Planet Homeschool, Avalon School, the American Swedish Institute, Valley View Middle School, Graham Place Senior Center, Ingebretsen’s, and Grace University Lutheran Church. Strains performed at Studio Z and collaborated with 113 to present a pre-concert new music workshop, as well. We established new relationships with organizations such as the American Swedish Institute and Graham Place Senior Center. Both organizations have expressed enthusiastic interest in partnering with us to present new music events again during the 2016-2017 academic year. University of Minnesota student composers had the opportunity to work one-on-one with Duo Gelland to learn about advanced techniques for violin composition. All events were well-prepared and participatory and the performances were of outstanding quality. The greatest challenge of this project was managing the complicated schedules of our artistic partners and those of so many different venues. Occasional misunderstandings and miscommunications did arise, but since all involved were committed to the success of this initiative, we collectively arrived at workable solutions very quickly. Duo Gelland, Strains, and 113 represent women and men, members of the LGBTQ community, and multiple ethnicities. Through this project, we hoped to speak for people and communities that are often underrepresented in the world of contemporary art music--particularly women and members of the LGBTQ community. We planned to most directly serve local college-age students, members of retirement communities, and young, professional musicians and scholars from throughout the Twin Cities. We hoped to expand our audience base to represent people of all ages, levels of experience, socio-economic and life circumstances, genders, sexual orientations, and cultural backgrounds through our educational outreach endeavors. Duo Gelland performed for, improvised with, and discussed new music with students of all ages and senior citizens on a daily basis throughout their Twin Cities residency. We created and programmed underrepresented art music at all of these events. We promoted age, gender, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity within our core audience through events at Graham Place Senior Center, Eastside Neighborhood Services, and Planet Homeschool, in addition to many other sites. All venues were fully accessible to people with disabilities, and included elevators, wheelchair ramps, and handicap permit parking. All locations were located near Metro Transit bus and light rail lines. We also provided large-print programs. We hosted a reception following each concert, giving us the opportunity to continue discussions between musicians, composers, and audience members. We offered free admission to children and senior citizens and $5 discounted admission for college students. In addition to the populations that we proposed to serve, we were able to work with many children through workshops at Eastside Neighborhood Services, Avalon School, Planet Homeschool, and others. We presented a total of 20 events throughout the Twin Cities community. We premiered 12 new works. In total, we reached 756 people through this initiative. Administrators and participants at all venues expressed gratitude for the impact of this programming and expressed hopes for future opportunities to work with us to introduce new music to their constituents.