Operating Support
ACHF Arts Access
Milkweed Editions continues to play a leadership role in Open Book, the nation’s largest literary center. Measurable outcomes include: hours spent per year on governance, management, and strategic leadership of Open Book (100 hr minimum); 1,000 additional visitors to the building through Milkweed Editions programming; and partnerships with local organizations to bring in new events promoting shared interests. We track the number of hours our staff (our Publisher and CEO, almost exclusively) plays in managing and governing Open Book, and in 2012, this was a significant investment on the part of our organization. We also track the number of visitors the building hosts each year. And finally, we organize many events in Open Book each year, often partnering with other nonprofit organizations in the process. Very few book publishers have a physical point of connection with their local community. We have this in Open Book, and we are highly committed to this form of community engagement. 2: Milkweed Editions cultivates and deepens partnerships with local and national organizations in pursuit of similar organizational goals. An outcome is developing innovative partnerships in the Twin Cities and across the country and world. In 2012-2013, we are developing initiatives with: the Hmong International Academy, the Lindquist and Vennum Foundation, the Literary Punch Card and Little Free Libraries (including Graywolf Press and Coffee House Press), Motionpoems, the National Poetry Series, and World Book Night USA, among others. The partnerships described above have enabled us to double the number of poetry titles we are publishing each year, and to broaden the audience for poetry across the country.
As a founding partner in Open Book, Milkweed Editions continues to play a leadership role in the nation's largest literary and book-arts center. With more than 160,000 visitors in 2012, Open Book is a singular asset for the state, and we play an active role in its governance and management. Open Book recently completed a $1.1 million capital campaign, and beginning already in the fall of 2013, we will embark on an exciting round of capital improvements and renovations, led jointly by the executive directors of the three founding-partner organizations. 2: In 2012, we celebrated the inaugural year of the Lindquist and Vennum Prize for Poetry, a partnership with the Lindquist and Vennum Foundation to support regional poets with a cash award ($10,000) and publishing contract. We also developed a new partnership with the Poetry Foundation (Chicago), which will result in the publication of at least one title, an anthology of Swedish poetry in translation, scheduled to publish in late 2013. We entered into an agreement with the National Poetry Series in 2012, and published our first book in the series in 2013. And finally, in 2012 we were the first publisher to sign on as a partner and supporter of Motionpoems, a nonprofit organization based in Minnesota that is committed to broadening the audience for poetry by turning great contemporary poems into short films for big-screen and online distribution.
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local or private