Operating Support

Provide residencies in at least twenty schools. During in-depth school residencies and experiences such as summer camps, a majority of students demonstrate increased knowledge of the arts and environment. We worked with 20 schools to implement residencies that focused on river ecology with topics ranging from water cycle to animal habitat, to the Mississippi River as a major flyway for birds and insects, to the sigificance of the river to the Dakota people. We used three methods of evaluation to garner impact on student learning: 1) the descriptive and reflective protocol process for planning and evaluation with teachers/student responses documented in writing, 2) teacher and artist informal observations during the instructional sessions, and 3) a written survey filled out by students and teachers to determine the depth of learning about both environmental and art concepts at the conclusion of the residency. Our summer camps involve about 500 youth ages 4 years to 16 years and are multidisiciplinary to include a blend of art-music, dance, drama, and visual arts, environmental knowledge, and culture. Students and parents fill out a survey at the conclusion of the camp. 2: More than 9,500 people, including young people, adults, artists, and arts organizations, participate in making art from recycled products. Programs attract a diversity of participants, including 65% low income persons, 55% whose race/ethnicity is other than white/European, and many who are just initiating their arts involvement. Our ScrapMobile Community Workshops blend reuse and artmaking together within a community context. Known as Artful Reuse workshops, these workshops are very popular with libraries, community centers, daycares, pre-schools, and public housing sites. We worked in five public housing sites, at ten community centers in Minneapolis and St Paul, and in all public library systems. We sent an evaluation form to be filled out by the site coordinator. The evaluation form asked for demographic information about participants, as well as level content. Twenty-five youth ages 4-16 years attended our summer camps on scholarship. We track this through our registration database recording those who receive scholarships. Finally, our own EcoArts Fest, a free event for families, attracts many culturally diverse youth and adults. We gathered demographic data about our festival through counting the number of people who entered the event at our information table, approximately 3,000 individuals.