Project Grant

Hoping to have a number of high quality submissions resulting in a sculpture for the site our community will be excited to receive. The installation itself will be one outcome, public enthusiasm will be evaluated through input collected onsite, at an unveiling event if practical. If not feasible to gather, we will provide a way for people to give their feedback remotely. We are educating people that the public art in Monticello needs to be views in terms of "exciting collection", interesting to a broad scope of people, instead of viewing each piece as hit or miss. So far we've only received positive feedback. The other outcomes are broader, but measurable none the less. One of the main goals is to increase our exposure to artists. This RFP is a means to do that which we hope will result in numerous applications/submissions. Another goal is to spark community interest in the larger project of sculpture trails and arts tourism. We'll know if this was successful when other organizations and businesses are willing to take meetings regarding how to get involved in future planning. Past projects have laid some groundwork in this area that seems to be effective, or at least, encouraging so far. ; Access ; Learning ; Community As stated the resulting sculpture will be one self-evident outcome, as will the number of submissions. That will tell us how successful we were at reaching area artists. At the unveiling event we plan to collect public feedback on the installation, and the idea of sculpture becoming a larger part of Monticello's arts scene. We'd love to show people what an arts map and trailhead could look like, and get their ideas on how best to promote arts tourism in Monticello. We will have Montiarts staff and volunteer artists, as well as the East Bridge Park Gardeners (volunteers) to help us at a tent we'll have at the public event, collecting survey information and general feedback. Should we not be able to hold a public event, we'll go virtual, having an online Q and A session, and issuing online surveys. As for sparking the interest of community leaders we'll need to partner with to successfully proceed with our larger plans, this will be evidenced by how many meetings we are able to set up with businesses and civic organizations post project. We'd like to take some of these leaders on a tour of Franconia, and possibly even Caponi Art Park in Eagan, and in fact had a tour of Franconia arranged for last spring when Covid hit (cancelled). This will be a long term endeavor that will take a lot of community support. We've already done a lot of due diligence to make our case to get this started, and are willing to take the steps needed to help people who might become stakeholders understand the full potential and vision. Getting people to sign up for tours like this, with an eye towards long term planning in Monticello will be another measure of this project's success.