Great River Regional Library Legacy Grant SFY 2014 - SFY 2015
Minnesota’s 12 regional public library systems, which encompass 350 public libraries in all areas of the state, benefit from a portion of the Legacy Amendment’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. Through State Library Services, a division of the Minnesota Department of Education, each regional public library system receives a formula-driven allocation from the annual $3 million Minnesota Regional Library Legacy Grant.
Great River Regional Library (GRRL) is a consolidated regional public library system in central Minnesota. GRRL has thirty-two branch public libraries located in six counties: Benton, Morrison, Sherburne, Stearns, Todd, and Wright. With Arts and Cultural Heritage funds, GRRL and its member libraries present an array of arts, cultural, literary, and Minnesota history programs in collaboration with arts and cultural organizations, independent artists, historical societies, and community organizations. Programs contribute to the cultural vitality of the region and build a lasting legacy.
Activity highlights:
Based on the success of previously branch-planned holiday concerts, a region-wide Holiday Concert Tour was launched in November/ December 2013 with Legacy funds. GRRL partnered with three local musicians to offer 19 concerts during the holiday season. Harpist Andrea Stern, jazz pianist/vocalist Andrew Walesch, and musical stringman Paul Imholte delighted library visitors with holiday music. Patrons particularly enjoyed these concerts and “music in the library” events, and found them a relief from the hustle and bustle of shopping and other errands during the holiday season. A total of 889 people enjoyed these concerts.
GRRL hired the Dancing Scientist for Summer Reading Program performances at 16 locations in June 2014. The Summer Reading theme was “Experiment with Reading” to promote reading and science. Jeffrey Vinokur is both a PhD candidate at UCLA and an accomplished “pop and lock” modern dancer, and he combines these two skills to demonstrate and involve kids in both science and the arts. A total of 941 children, teens, and adults attended these performances.
A major successful regional partnership program was with the Great River Educational Arts Theatre (GREAT) to bring the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Big Read program to the region for Harper Lee’s classic “To Kill A Mockingbird.” GREAT applied for a grant from the NEA to provide thousands of copies of books and reading discussion materials to people in the library region, as well as offer free tickets to a production of the theatrical version of “To Kill A Mockingbird” which was presented in January and February of 2014. GRRL used Library Legacy funding to offer free tickets to the production, and used in-kind staff time to lead 12 book discussions and other events, including a showing of the film version of “To Kill A Mockingbird.” The St. Cloud Public Library partnered with the area Community Book Read Committee to offer book discussions and a conversation with the cast of the play. Around 370 tickets were used at two productions of the play, and 551 people attended book discussions or film showings.
These amounts are appropriated to the commissioner of education for grants to the 12 Minnesota regional library systems to provide educational opportunities in the arts, history, literary arts, and cultural heritage of Minnesota. These funds shall be allocated using the formula in Minnesota Statutes, section 134.355, subdivisions 3, 4, and 5, with the remaining 25 percent to be distributed to all qualifying systems in an amount proportionate to the number of qualifying system entities in each system. For purposes of this subdivision, "qualifying system entity" means a public library, a regional library system, a regional library system headquarters, a county, or an outreach service program. These funds may be used to sponsor programs provided by regional libraries or to provide grants to local arts and cultural heritage programs for programs in partnership with regional libraries. These funds shall be distributed in ten equal payments per year. Notwithstanding Minnesota Statutes, section 16A.28, the appropriations encumbered on or before June 30, 2015, as grants or contracts in this subdivision are available until June 30, 2017.
Total Number of Programs Held: 435
Total Attendance: 23,903
Total Number of Partnerships: 124
These amounts are appropriated to the commissioner of education for grants to the 12 Minnesota regional library systems to provide educational opportunities in the arts, history, literary arts, and cultural heritage of Minnesota. These funds shall be allocated using the formula in Minnesota Statutes, section 134.355, subdivisions 3, 4, and 5, with the remaining 25 percent to be distributed to all qualifying systems in an amount proportionate to the number of qualifying system entities in each system. For purposes of this subdivision, "qualifying system entity" means a public library, a regional library system, a regional library system headquarters, a county, or an outreach service program. These funds may be used to sponsor programs provided by regional libraries or to provide grants to local arts and cultural heritage programs for programs in partnership with regional libraries. These funds shall be distributed in ten equal payments per year. Notwithstanding Minnesota Statutes, section 16A.28, the appropriations encumbered on or before June 30, 2015, as grants or contracts in this subdivision are available until June 30, 2017.
Total number of projects: 250
Total number of programs/events: 472
Total attendance: 26,233
Total number of partnerships: 133
Another large-scale event was the Paul Spring Summer Reading Program concert celebrations at all 32 branches in June 2015. Paul performs original songs based on favorite stories from his childhood, and kids and parents all love his folk-style music that encourages reading and exploration; he performed for 1,384 people in just two weeks . This summer's theme was music, so the concerts were a perfect tie-in to the Read to the Rhythm program. Paul Spring's music has been featured on National Public Radio.
A much smaller scale project in partnership with Sherburne County Correctional Facility brought writing workshops into the correctional facility for incarcerated women. The Advisory Task Force on the Woman and Juvenile Female Offender reached out to GRRL to extend the offer to expand their ongoing Women's Writing Project from Ramsey County Correctional Facility to the women of the Sherburne County Correctional Facility. Writers Tish Jones, Diego Vazquez Jr., and Marcie Rendon taught the writing workshops for the inmates, and each class resulted in a printed chapbook, which are now cataloged by GRRL. These can be located in the catalog by searching for "Women's Writing Program." The inmate attendees of these programs strongly felt that they were valuable. Approximately 30 inmates were served by two series of programs in 2015.