Project Grant
ACHF Arts Access ACHF Cultural Heritage
1) The Sculpture Walk will attract more people to downtown Saint Cloud and Lake George. 2) The year-long exhibit will lead to permanent placement of public art in Saint Cloud. 3) Minnesota artists will have the opportunity to show/sell their work in highly visible locations in Saint Cloud. 4) The public will be able to enjoy an outdoor sculpture gallery and critique the art through a voting system. 5) Twelve sculptors will each receive a $2,000 honorarium and the chance to receive additional cash awards. United Arts will conduct interviews, make observations and collect feedback from social media sites. Businesses will be surveyed. Exhibiting sculptors will be interviewed. The number of ballots cast for favorite art will measure public engagement.
(1) The Sculpture Walk in its first 3 months attracted hundreds of people to downtown St Cloud as evidenced by the number of people that attended the Art Crawl and the number of votes received for the Public Choice Award. (2) Comments from business owners asking to have Sculpture Walk pocket guides and maps in their place of business is another indication that downtown businesses are experiencing increased foot-traffic and that the public is engaged and showing interest in the project. (3) Although anecdotal, people have commented that they have seen lots of people taking photos of the art as well as "selfies" alongside the sculptures. (4) The Sculpture Walk is free to the public reducing economic barriers. Lake George and downtown St Cloud, the sites where the sculpture is located, are accessible to people of all abilities which reduces physical barriers. Both venues can be easily accessed by public transportation reducing economic and geographic obstacles. People in wheelchairs and on motorized scooters have been personally observed at the sculpture sites. (5) Through an attractively designed Call for Artists and a well-developed data base, United Arts attracted 55 Sculpture Walk entries from 26 accomplished artists from the St Cloud area and across Minnesota, Iowa and South Dakota. An entry was received from as far away as Miami, Florida. (6) Executive Director Cindy Hawker chaired a selection panel comprised of members from the Saint Cloud Arts Commission, the Saint Cloud Downtown Council, the Saint Cloud Rotary Club's City Parks Foundation members, and the United Arts Board with collaboration and full support from the City of St Cloud's administration. Attached is the matrix that was used to critique, evaluate and rank the entries. (7) Using the interview questions from the attached survey, the comments from artists, business owners and the general public were overwhelmingly positive. The project, United Arts' Board members and the executive director drew praise and gratitude from many residents who were not even interviewed. More than a few times the executive director heard this comment--"the best development to downtown and the arts ever!"
Other, local or private