Project Grant

1- Keep # of artists and classes at 8 for the weekend, but increase average attendance at each class; 2- Maintain enrollment of students for the weekend above #40. Last year's increase was 109% increase, almost too much in one year. We realized that around #45 was a maximum for each weekend, beyond that number we felt the quality of the experience would begin to suffer for individual participants and the artists/instructors; 3- Strengthen our new partnership with the College of St. Benedict and St. John's University; 4- Establish at least one new partnership/collaboration with local communities of color that results in additional students attending Hand Camp from previously under represented members of ou community; 5- Continue to build awareness within Central MN and beyond of both Hand Camp and the AHFS through continually increasing our brand awareness, specifically through social media efforts and personal connections within the local organizations. NOTE: Thanks to an amendment to our CMBA Project Grant for Hand Camp last year we were able to create and finalize a Brand Identity for the AHFS that resulted in a Logo for AHFS as well as Brand Guidelines, key messaging, and all that a Brand Identity entails. This was a foundational piece of work from which we are now using to build a new, highly effective and appropriate Branded Website for the AHFS. This new tool will help us to continue to promote, grow the AHFS as well as gather new and different audience members. In 2019: Increased the # of classes offered from 6 to 7; Increased # of participants by 109% (22 to 46); goal was 73% (49 actually registered); Built partnerships with two additional community (arts) groups: CSB and SJU Arts department and Public School District #742.; Access ; Learning ; Community Access- geographically we are offering opportunities that are not commonly offered here; folk arts in particular. We also seek to break down cultural barriers, real or perceived, to encourage members of our under represented and marginalized communities at the AHFS to participate. We will measure this by assessing the makeup of our attending students and artists this year. Learning- in offering these artistic learning opportunities within the natural environment, often very intentionally engaging it, we seek to introduce or strengthen student's appreciation for the natural environment and what happens at The Intersection of Art and Nature. We have been able to measure this by comments in our survey as well as retention of our students year to year. This year we will add a question more focused on eliciting feedback re: student's reaction to learning, experiencing at the Intersection of Art and Nature. Community- this is exactly what happens, people come together with a common desire to learn an art form or craft that has very clear connections to specific cultural heritages. And our students/artists make this happen "in community", within nature. The key, we think to past and future success and attractiveness of the AHFS. Currently we are exploring ways to engage new members of our community, be they transplants from different parts of the United States or even recent immigrants to this country so as to begin including their artistic, cultural traditions within our experiences offered at the AHFS.