Operating Support

Our first goal, dependent on receiving an operating grant, is to increase our Coordinator's time from 24 hours per week to 30 hours per week, and to increase her salary from $10.00 per hour to $13.00 per hour. Additionally, we would like to pay her for 63 hours of discretionary time which included attendance at evening meetings and work done at concerts after hours. Another goal is to save $360 per month on rental expense which will help our general fund balance which is precariously low. Assuming we receive this grant, one of our goals would be to expand our education programming as follows: -outreach offerings by 3 each year (3 in 2013) to 6 and then to 9. (presentations at sites other than the Center to show examples, tell about offerings, informational; -Class offerings by 3 each year (1 in 2013) to 4 and then 7 (watercolor, photography, etc.); -Event programs by 3 each year (an artist's presentation that lasts about 2 hours; for example: Poetry with Florence Dacey, Mary Lou Peterson drama presentation, improve program); -Studio Night - an evening, hopefully bi monthly in which one to three artists are on site to practice their art and share their expertise with attendees in a hands-on atmosphere. In order to expand, we need to be able to pay the artists and keep the registration fees free or very low. Also, because our Center is small, some events/classes will need to be held in other venues which charge a rental fee. Art supplies are often needed for classes, so we need fund for those. The arts thrive in southwest Minnesota; we believe that the arts thrive in southwest Minnesota, not only because of our organization, but because of the other offerings in the area such as The Southwest Minnesota Orchestra, the High School music, theater, and speech departments, Prairie Dance Alliance, Marshall Area Fine Arts Council, Southwest Minnesota Arts Council, Music and Theater departments at Southwest Minnesota State University. Our goals will help continue and achieve this outcome because of our continued programing in the areas of exhibits, concerts, noon arts events and our gift shop. If we receive this operating grant, we will be able to expand our education program to include more classes and special events, such as poetry reading. It will also help us to reach more people through expanded publicity, updated website, timely newsletters, and better record-keeping due to the increase in time and salary for the Coordinator. Having extra funding for rent will help us reach our goal of becoming more financially stable, the funding for chairs will help us reach our goal of helping our volunteers be more comfortable!We will use numerical data regarding payroll to track salary expense, time worked (log), and workman's comp expense. For education, we will use numerical data to track programs offered (special events, outreach, classes), comparing offerings to offerings in the past two years. For rent assistance goal, we will also have computer data which indicates payments for rent. We will be able to see if the extra money we have helps us to meet expenses and have a stronger balance at the end of each month. The extra money will not be earmarked for a targeted expense, but, rather, to improve our bottom line. Our computer data will indicate money spent on new chairs.