Operating Support Grant - Renewal

We will continue to develop our evaluation plan. The evaluation plan seeks to answer three questions: 1. To What extent does the Ely Winter Festival strengthen the Ely community? 2. How do the arts components of the Ely Winter Festival affect the artists' 3. To what extent do the arts components of the Ely Winter Festival affect the audiences' We also collect data to show trends in the number of carvers and sculptures. The measurable outcomes we selected for our new MSAB grant will serve as measurable outcomes for this grant as well. They are: • The Ely business community is strengthened by increasing tourist and resident activity during the Ely Winter Festival. • Audience members will be exposed to art in several forms and will engage with the arts and artists. We will seek to gather feedback from four key constituent groups: artists, the business community, audience members, and the organizations that sponsor events. To evaluate whether the Ely business community is strengthened, EWF volunteers will conduct a face-to-face survey of downtown businesses to determine whether the Ely Winter Festival increases customers/revenues, and will ask for feedback as to how we could help to further strengthen the Ely community. To determine whether audience members are exposed to art in several forms and are engaging with the arts and artists, EWF volunteers will interview attendees at multiple arts events. Questions will be designed to measure engagement; e.g., how did you participate, what did you find most interesting, will you attend this event again, what could EWF do better? We will feel we have been successful in collecting feedback from our four constituent groups if our evaluation process produces at least one meaningful recommendation for improvement.