Community Arts

Project Details by Fiscal Year
2016 Fiscal Year Funding Amount
$4,000
Fund Source
Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund
Recipient
Savage Area Arts Community
Recipient Type
Non-Profit Business/Entity
Status
Completed
Start Date
March 2016
End Date
July 2016
Activity Type
Grants/Contracts
Counties Affected
Scott
Scott
Project Overview
Community Arts
Project Details
Funding for the tenth annual Juried Art Competition and Show, a visual arts exhibition for both professional and amateur visual artists. The artwork will be displayed throughout the community of Savage in April and May 2016.
Competitive Grant Making Body
Board Members and Qualifications
Julie Andersen: Eagan Art House Executive Director; Jill Anfang: Roseville Parks and Recreation Program Director; Bethany Brunsell: Music teacher and performer; Shelly Chamberlain: Minnesota Council of Nonprofits Operations Director; Marisol Chiclana-Ayla: Artist, Board Chair El Arco Iris; Anthony Galloway: Actor, storyteller, West Metro Education Program; Jamil Jude: Theatre artist; Tricia Khutoretsky: Public Functionary Curator and Co-Director; Peter Leggett: Walker West Music Academy Executive Director; Dayna Martinez: Ordway Center for the Performing Arts; Coleen McLaughlin: Arts Midwest Director of External Relations; Tom Moffatt: Silverwood Park Supervisor; Kathy Mouacheupao: Twin Cities Local Initiatives Support Corporation Cultural Corridor Coordinator; Adam Napoli-Rangel: Artist; Heather Rutledge: ArtReach Saint Croix Executive Director; Andrea Sjogren: Hopkins Public Schools Youth Programs Coordinator; Dameun Strange: Composer and performer; Melissa Wright: Twin Cities Public Television.
Advisory Group Members and Qualifications
Kathy Mattson: Organizational development, volunteerism, fundraising; Hayley Johnson: Audience development, fundraising, administration; Erin Gardner: Artistic, disabilities specialist, Community Education; Robert Cuerden: Audience development, fundraising, organizational development; Janelle Doyle: Education, Community Education, youth programming; Dave Browne: Fundraising, general administration, youth programming; Kathleen James: Youth programming, administration, audience development; Noel Nix: Community service, administration, organizational development.
Conflict of Interest Disclosed
No
Legal Citation / Subdivision
Laws of Minnesota 2015 Special Session, chapter 2, article 4, section 2, subdivision 3
Appropriation Language

ACHF Arts Access

2016 Fiscal Year Funding Amount
$4,000
Other Funds Leveraged
$2,000
Direct expenses
$6,000
Administration costs
$0
Number of full time equivalents funded
0.00
Proposed Measurable Outcome(s)

Our goal is to increase the number of artists participating in the online registration process from 65 last year to around 75 from the Metropolitan Region. Participating artist's survey will find out if the artists liked our new four theme entry categories or if we should return to the common media categories that we have used in the past years. The evaluation process will include an artist survey to gauge how well the four-theme categories were accepted. By looking through the registration database we will hopefully determine if there was a significant expansion of artist participation in surrounding metropolitan counties compared to last year.

Measurable Outcome(s)

Our challenge was to provide a realistic, convenient, and artistic venue for local and regional artists to share and exhibit their artwork. The process contained an online application, a pre-event jury process, artwork delivery and showcase venue, in-person judging by three judges, a public reception and awards announcement, delivery of artwork to local businesses and city offices, public display for 30 days, and concluded with the artwork returned to artists. We planned to increase our participating artists and increase the number of pieces of artwork entered through an increased digital advertising and artist contact and new artwork categories. Unfortunately we did not achieve our artistic goals this year. Our number of participating artists dropped from 70 artists in 2015 to 49 artists this year. Our total artwork pieces fell from 111 to 81 pieces this year. After a five year gain, this year was our first downswing. Despite the lower numbers, through artist and community feedback we feel that we had a number of successes. This year we moved the art collection, judging, reception to a more public venue of the Cherrywood Pointe Senior Living Center in Savage. We had great collaboration with the management at Cherrywood which allowed us a 4-days special showing of all the artwork in one highly accessible room. Over 100 residents of this independent living facility were able to view the artwork and participate in the awards ceremony. This did effectively increase of community contact and awareness to a new group of people and we received many positive comments from them. For the first year we were able to utilize our new location at the Savage Library for artwork pickup (just across the street from the Cherrywood) and artists got a chance to visit our gallery and classrooms. We expect this to have a positive impact to the awareness of our group and its mission of bringing art to the community. Although we are still researching to determine why our overall artist and artwork numbers were down, we suspect, but can’t yet confirm, that it could be related to one or more of these factors: Moving the competition and show dates back one month from our previous time frames. Changing our artwork categories from medium based to artistic focus/content. Raising our entry fees by approximately 20%. Reducing the amount of printed advertising through local newspapers. We believe some of these factors may have adversely affected our planned and expected growth. We are continuing to reach out to the artists and the community to solicit feedback to determine future changes. It is quite possible there were just too many changes this year and we may need to return one or more factors to previous conditions. We continue to have growing support from the business community, the local artist community and within the Savage Arts Council and have confidence we can continue to offer artistic opportunities. We successfully reached a bigger cross section of the community by moving our awards reception to a more public display at Cherrywood. This also increased the number of people who had a chance to see the artwork. We had approximately 70% of the artists attend the awards ceremony, up from previous years. At the previous location (the Environmental Learning Center) the artwork as up only for the day of the ceremony and even though it is a great display location, it limited exposure due the limited time. This was the first year we could leave the entire display up and accessible for 4 days during the judging and ceremony times. Effectively this gave us an additional community venue during the show. Our estimated population benefitting was as we predicted even though we believe there was an increase in the two areas of individuals with disabilities and individuals in institutions. However not enough of a change to warrant a 25% increase in any one area. This year we reached out the American Indian population through the Mystic Lake community hoping to involve them more with our competition and show venue. They indicated an interest and informed their community but did not actively participate in a display venue. We look forward to continuing to build this relationship. We did get a few more participating artists from that cultural group. Use of the Cherrywood Pointe facility to host the entire competition, show and ceremony in a more public place that had the extra added benefit of providing accessibility to hundreds of people who may not have otherwise had the chance. This year over 60% of our participating artists were new to our competition and show up from the typical 40% of previous years.

Description of Funds
Source of Additional Funds

Other, local or private

Recipient Board Members
Heather Mathews, Richard Mittelstadt, Joy Burckhard, Tracey Sandoval, Darrell Tangen, Lucy LeMay, Meissa Arnold, June Phillipps, Susan Shroyer
Project Manager
First Name
Richard
Last Name
Mittelstadt
Organization Name
Savage Arts Council
Street Address
PO Box 142
City
Savage
State
MN
Zip Code
55378
Phone
(612) 804-9548
Email
mittelrl@gmail.com
Administered By
Administered by
Location

Griggs Midway Building, Suite 304,
540 Fairview Avenue North,
St. Paul, MN 55104

Phone
(651) 539-2650 or toll-free (800) 866-2787
Email the Agency
Location

PO Box 14106
Saint Paul, Minnesota 55114 

Phone
Project Manager: Kathy Mouacheupao
651-645-0402
Email the Agency