Operating Support Grant
Operating Support Grant
This grant would allow us to continue to grow without sacrificing ongoing operating expenses.
Tara Makinen: executive director of Itasca Orchestra and Strings, musician; Moira Villiard: visual artist, cultural programming coordinator at American Indian Community Housing Organization; Amber Burns: choreographer, dancer, actor, middle school art teacher; Margaret Holmes: visual artist, poet, and former Children’s Theatre employee; Tammy Mattonen: visual artists, co-founder of Crescendo Youth Orchestra; Kayla Aubid: Native American craft artist, writer, employee at MacRostie Art Center; Ariana Daniel: mixed media artist, arts instructor; Kathy Neff: musician, Director, Fine Arts Academy at the University of Minnesota Duluth; Ron Piercy: jeweler, gallery owner; Emily Swanson: arts administrator at Oldenburg Arts and Cultural Community; Christina Nohre: writer and arts advocate.
Tara Makinen: executive director of Itasca Orchestra and Strings, musician; Margaret Holmes: visual artist, poet, and former Children’s Theatre employee; Kayla Aubid: Native American craft artist, writer, employee at MacRostie Art Center; Ariana Daniel: mixed media artist, arts instructor; Kathy Neff: musician, director, Fine Arts Academy at the University of Minnesota Duluth; Ron Piercy: jeweler, gallery owner.
ACHF Arts Access ACHF Arts Education ACHF Cultural Heritage
We look to grow in the future and continue to invest in the programming and facility. This grant would allow us to convert more of our lighting to LED, which would be an excellent investment for us over the long term. We have many other needs for the facility and for our various programs, and this grant would provide the funding necessary to address those needs. We evaluate specific projects and shows through informal feedback from our patrons and artists, as well as through periodic surveys to learn what our stakeholders like and don’t like about their County Seat Theater experience. We use all of the attendance figures, patron and artist survey feedback, and informal comments to shape our programming when we select the season and during the annual Board planning retreat.
Grant monies received from ARAC represented 73% of the bottom line for County Seat Theater in 2019. Without this funding, our cash reserves would certainly have been depleted. We are currently in the planning process for replacement of aging equipment and investment in new technologies. Without any meaningful cash balance, we would lost the opportunity to consider such investments. Eventually, our performing arts center will show its age without ongoing maintenance and investment. The grant had specifically discussed the desire and need to upgrade some lights to LED. We were able to purchase a series of LED lights, which we used to replace a number of the aging lights that had been in place. This created efficiencies in light placement and usage, as well as energy savings that will continue well into the future.
Other,local or private