Community Arts
ACHF Arts Access
The primary artistic goal for the Minnesota Music Summit is to facilitate a dynamic intersection for emerging musicians from across the state, established musicians from the Twin Cities and audiences hungry to hear new Minnesota Music. We will accomplish this goal by presenting concerts, artist workshops, a national keynote speaker, networking opportunities and one-on-one mentoring sessions with industry professionals as part of a 3-day festival and conference. Following the trend of the last couple years, we expect that attendance will continue to grow--hopefully to 1,000 attendees. Last year everyone who responded to our survey, said they thought the workshops were of good" or "high quality." We hope to have similarly great feedback on this year's programs. The Minnesota Music Summit was conceived and designed as a result of our first Caravan du Nord, in response to evaluation, feedback and successes of that endeavor. As we enter our fifth year of the Minnesota Music Summit, we continue to build on the program based on artist and participant feedback. The Minnesota Music Coalition will continue to evaluate the success of this project both qualitatively and quantitatively. We will track attendance through online registrations and door sales and through email sign-ins at the free events. The Amsterdam staff track total number of concert attendees that come through the door. We will provide written surveys to participating artists after the Summit is over, a method that has worked well in the past. We will also measure the quality of the event through comments on our social media as well as through informal conversations and post-event meetings with Minnesota Music Coalition staff, Board and partnering organizations."
The 5th annual Minnesota Music Summit achieved all of its artistic goals, bringing in over 1,000 artists, fans and music industry professionals from across the Upper Midwest. The only local event of its kind, the conference provided access to artists, agents, labels and media that are working at a national and international level. It included performances, workshops, mentoring sessions, industry panels, networking opportunities and a dynamic keynote address from rocker, producer and artist advocate David Lowery (Cracker, Camper Van Beethoven). Deepening our partnership with the Minneapolis Saint Paul International Film Festival, we not only presented some joint workshops and screened the film festival's top music videos of the last year, but we also hosted a music/film networking event and debuted a screening of a documentary about legendary Minnesota jam band The Big Wu followed by a packed reunion performance at the Amsterdam Hall. This partnership was extremely successful for all parties. In addition to this and our ongoing partnerships with 89.3 The Current, McNally Smith, Summit Brewing, Amsterdam Hall, KFAI Radio, the Minnesota Justice Foundation and American Composers Forum, we also worked with The Garage/Twin Cities Catalyst to present a young performers panel about booking and playing in all ages clubs and with The Recording Academy's Chicago Chapter to present a party ahead of the Friday show. The workshops, panels, speed mentoring sessions and legal clinic had terrific content, and the concerts were eclectic and of high quality, featuring Toki Wright (hip hop), Ashley DuBose (R and B) and Katy Vernon (acoustic pop) on Friday and The Big Wu (roots/rock) and Dean Magraw (guitar legend) on Saturday. We also presented the 2nd annual Minnesota Music Champion Award to St Paul Mayor Chris Coleman as part of our kickoff party at Summit Brewing. All events ran smoothly and most were packed. The only thing we might do differently is book a bigger headliner for the Friday show or have a shorter event as attendance petered out by the last set. Also, we might charge more for the conference as it grows in scope and quality. The Minnesota Music Summit brought together different genres of music (hip hop, folk, rock, R and B) for live performances and workshops with a variety of industry professionals from rural and urban areas across the Midwest. Although the artists and workshop leaders represented a wide range of backgrounds and musical disciplines, we could still work on diversifying more of the concert audience. We were proud that each event that was part of this year’s Summit—the social hour, workshops, mentoring sessions, parties and concerts—included artists and music fans of all genres and ages, ranging from high school and college students to mid-career musicians to older veteran artists. This is due in large part to our partnership with all-ages venue The Garage who co-presented a young performers panel. We also did more intentional outreach to McNally's staff and students, which really paid off. All of the venues for the Minnesota Music Summit were accessible via public transit and were ADA compliant. The Minnesota Music Summit is open to everyone and general admission costs a fraction of what other equivalent industry conferences cost. There was no cost for the workshops or most of the networking events. We also videotaped the keynote and most of the workshop panels so we can make available to those who were not able to attend. 1) We brought in over 1,000 artists, fans and music industry professionals from all over the region. 2) We got incredible feedback with one musician telling us it was the best music conference he had ever been to--a far better value than the ASCAP Expo in Los Angeles. 3) Almost all commented on the quality of the workshops and the keynote speaker, who made himself accessible to all participants.
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