Operating Support Grant

We meet as a board each week for planning & working meetings. We maintain strong lines of communication and meet regularly to ensure that we are always working toward the values and objectives expressed in our mission statement: community engagement, diversity & inclusion, accessibility, & love of the arts. Because we meet more often than most traditional boards, we have made a practice of continual internal evaluation and assessment of how well our programs meet the mission of the gallery. We use our evaluative processes & feedback to plan for future programming and to determine our future schedules, so that we can demonstrate breadth & diversity throughout the year. We evaluate potential programs for the different/new audiences that our programming can potentially reach, for how we can make new/stronger connections to other organizations/groups in the planning process, and also for the range of identities/communities that are being represented through our programs and exhibitions. Prove employs a variety of methods to assess and evaluate our programs. We measure attendance to determine the estimate of people coming into the gallery, which allows us to measure the immediate impact & level of exposure and determine which programs & exhibitions seem most viable. We routinely document any press or television attention that the our events receive, to observe community exposure & evaluate the public scope of ideas & discussion initiated by the exhibition & events. We utilize social media to informally gather perspectives from the community. Thought it may seem trivial, we observe the ratings on our Facebook page & take into account the reviews of the gallery. Additionally, the majority of our events are attended by many local artists and civic leaders. We follow up with them to assess their qualified view of the event's impact. With every exhibit, Prove also connects with the artist(s) involved & asks for feedback once the show has completed. Our relationships with artists are paramount; we always do a post-reception/post-event review dialogue with them to ascertain their perspectives on the effectiveness of the program. We also informally have discussions with a number of trusted artists and friends of the gallery, including Prove members, to hear their reactions and feedback. Because of the effectiveness of these discussions, we've been identifying three stakeholders (with relevant interests) for each program with whom to consult afterward.We have gathered testimony from our constituents and collaborative partners that attests to the effectiveness of our programs, and to the quality and importance of the content we present to the community. Over the past 2 years, we have also been increasingly approached by artists, other organizations, and groups of people who reach out to initiate projects at Prove. We have been sought out by local and MSP-based artists, as well as artists (visual, musical, literary, & performative) whose work tours the US. This demonstrates to us that the impact of Prove Gallery is growing and that we are providing a public benefit in the Northland and beyond. We have also been asked to host community events by organizations such as the Feminist Action Collective, Trans Plus, and the Twin Cities-based Gender Justice. It is important that humanity-centered & social justice organizations feel comfortable and welcomed because it demonstrates the inclusivity we strive for. We have been approached by students seeking to show their work (sometimes for the first time publicly) and also by teachers who wish to bring student groups to be introduced to or even work in the gallery space. Our open calls for art elicit responses from established artists in our region as well as new or even so-called "hobbyists" (although we dislike this term as we prefer to consider all levels of artistic expression as valid). Our openings, events, & gallery hours, often pull in passers-by, out-of-town visitors, and our community neighbor