Community Arts Access Project Grant

As a result of this project, central Minnesota community members will be able to experience an eclectic mix of music, food, arts, and dance. They will have the opportunity to meet and support local growers and artisans, to take educational classes on local food systems, and to participate in the salsa and dance contests. Children will have the opportunity to create their own art or have a caricature of themselves to take home. From this experience, we intend to create greater appreciation for cultural diversity, greater awareness of the goals of sustainable agriculture, and greater commitment to support local and sustainable growers. Evaluation methods might include:surveys about changes in knowledge skills, attitudes, behaviors, experience; interviews, focus groups, reviewing or critiquing a portfolio, experience, or other artifacts of the project, structured observations during project activities, interactive methods such as voting, making maps or illustrations, journaling, or other methods not listed here. Survey forms will be issued to members of the public at the same time they pick up their voting forms for the salsa contest. Questions will focus on new experiences and knowledge gained, increased awareness ofsustainable agricultural goals, and how the experiences at Salsa Fest have shaped their views of cultural diversity.Market vendors will be surveyed to determine how financially successful the market was for them, and how many new ongoing customers they were able to establish through this event. Attendees of educational sessions will be counted and each session will include an evaluation form to determine the benefit to the attendees.