One-Time Operating Support Grant
ACHF Arts Access
By having the Youth Chorale of Central Minnesota’s artistic director, Garrett Lathe, meet with business and civic organizations in the Central Minnesota community, the increase in visibility for our organization will gain more audience recognition and hopefully, sponsorships. We anticipate that this communication between the arts and businesses will create a better development of donor relations and the personal interaction will help to have a better connection as well as a greater understanding of what the Youth Chorale of Central Minnesota organization is and what our mission and goals are for the youth of this community. Conducting a Women’s Choir Festival will meet a need in the community as there are currently no all-day festivals for high school girls in Central Minnesota. We anticipate that attendance at this festival (both singers, conductors, and audience members) will show that there is an interest and a desire to be a part of something unique to the Central Minnesota area. The benefits of this Youth Chorale of Central Minnesota-sponsored festival are that these girls learn to appreciate music and foster a lifelong involvement both in music and the choral arts, since many of these young singers do not have these types of choral experiences outside of their own school music programs. They also develop lifelong friendships with other young women, while at the same time sharing a common bond: singing.As the community becomes more aware of our organization and goals for giving the youth of Central Minnesota an additional choral experience outside of their high schools, we are able to measure the number of sponsorships from local businesses who see the mission and goals of the Youth Chorale of Central Minnesota as an organization that they would like to develop a relationship with. We will be able to evaluate the success of this task by the number of sponsorships received over the course of the year and also by the percentage of cost covered for events as our concert season unfolds. Conducting a Women’s Choir Festival will meet a need in the community as there are currently no all-day women’s choir festivals for high school girls in Central Minnesota. We will evaluate the success of this festival by singer attendance, participation in sectionals and group rehearsals (both directors and singers), size of audience at the end-of-festival concert, and using online and paper formats to survey festival participants.
Conducting a Women’s Choir Festival met a need in the community as there were no all-day festivals for high school girls in Central Minnesota. In attendance were 85 middle school and high school women plus their conductors. For a first-year festival, these numbers showed that there was an interest and a desire to be a part of something unique to the Central Minnesota area. Audience size for the end-of-day concert was higher than anticipated; we did not sell tickets, but counted the number of programs remaining. The festival gave girls the opportunity to sing for and work with high-caliber clinicians and learn new skills from them. We were also able to effectively integrate students from grades 6-12 and foster a sense of inclusion for all singers regardless of vocal ability. The Youth Chorale of Central Minnesota organization successfully offered an opportunity for young women in Central Minnesota to collaborate together and produce a high-quality concert for family and friends. The benefit to this project was that the participants learned to appreciate choral music and take back new skills to their school music programs. A survey was conducted post-festival of the choir directors, who gave positive comments about how the festival was organized, saying that the clinicians were the perfect fit for this type of event and that they would like to participate again in the future. We surveyed the clinicians who enjoyed getting to know each choir on stage, guide them musically through songs, and conduct the massed choir for the finale. Youth Chorale of Central Minnesota’s Artistic Director, Garrett Lathe, thoroughly researched the best practices for development for community choruses. The outcome was a solid Development Plan for the 2013-15 concert seasons which we will evaluate more as the year unfolds. He also met with businesses to increase the visibility of our organization in the community and gain more recognition and sponsorships. This personal interaction helped others have a greater understanding of the Youth Chorale of Central Minnesota organization and what we do to fulfill our mission for youth singers in the community. The outcomes of these meetings were two partial corporate sponsorships for concerts this season, plus securing a donation from an anonymous donor to use for the 2014-15 season. The partial sponsorships covered approximately 25 percent of each of the concert expenses.
Other, local or private