Minnesota Festival Support

1. Due to 2011 festival success with Minnesota State Arts Board support, our artists spread the word about our festival to other artists. That coupled with the work we did last year and this year to reach out to new artists, both professional and emerging, we had a 38% increase in new applicants to the festival (exceeding our 5% goal). This increase allowed us to be more selective in the jurying process. Although we had fewer booths in 2012 (72 vs. 76) we still had more artists (89 vs. 85) and the quality of the work increased, creating an even better festival with more artistic variety. 2. We compared the number of applicants between 2011 and 2012. We hosted seven services/activities to achieve our goal of increasing artists. Success was determined by the number of activity participants who later participated in the festival (16 artists used one or more of these services and then participated in festival). Also, we surveyed artists to find out how they heard about the festival. 2: 1. We achieved our goals of financial stability and service to broader audiences. Without funding, we cannot cover the festival administrative and marketing costs. With Minnesota State Arts Board support, we were able to cover 100% of expenses allowing us to implement, expand outreach and promote our festival, thereby fulfilling our second goal of serving broader audiences (in terms of artists and attendance). Festival applications increased 38% and attendance grew 20%. On both accounts we exceeded our goal of 5% growth. 2. For artist growth we compared applicant #s from last year to this year. We surveyed artists on how they heard about the festival, 47% said word of mouth," 17% said "Art Colony" and 10% said advertising. For audience evaluation, we did an hourly count of attendees. We surveyed the crowd about where they were from and how they heard about the festival. 83% were visitors and the majority heard about the festival through a media source (41%) or friend (19%)."