Project Grant

As a result of this event, patrons and audience members will? -Have greater awareness of contemporary Minnesota choral composers and their diversity in style, age, exposure, and experience. We anticipate audience members will be introduced to a minimum of 2-4 composers whose work is unfamiliar to them. -Have greater awareness of indigenous Minnesota artists, culture, values, and issues through our commissioned piece, program notes, and Miss Minnesota's presentation. Topics we expect audience members to learn about include Dakota values, indigenous artists, and Miss Minnesota's platform of sharing authentic Indigenous culture and supporting Indigenous youth in Minnesota involved in child protection and foster care cases. -Recognize that both choral and indigenous arts are vibrant and flourishing in Minnesota today. Neither are merely products of the past. Both communities are producing abundant, high-quality art. -Understand the legacy of MCC founder Phil Welter and some of his greatest accomplishments. Audience members will learn about this through a display in the lobby, articles and information in the program book, and memories shared from the stage. -Understand the significance of MCC's 50-year history in the arts landscape of Central Minnesota. Audience members will learn about this through a display in the lobby, articles and information in the program book, and memories shared from the stage. We will measure these outcomes through a written survey and in-person conversations in the lobby following the concert. Long-term success will be measured through increases in audience and choir members for next year's season. ; Approximately 300 people will attend the concert; attendees will learn about the Chorale, its history and founder Phil Welter, native American arts and culture in Minnesota, and the work of Minnesota composers past and present MCC expects approximately 350 audience members to attend the concert. We expect to sell 150 adult, 150 senior, and 50 student tickets. This would be a total increase in ticket sales of approximately 17%. Audience members complete a brief educational survey and submit their results to the MCC Operations Coordinator. We expect a minimum of 50 audience members to provide written feedback through this survey (attached). We will offer a prize drawing to encourage survey participation. From these surveys, MCC will learn how well audience members met the outcomes set for the concert (described above), how many audience members learned new things, and how the audience connected with the music. The patron survey will also assess audience reactions, improvements needed, desired future programming, and basic demographic information. We anticipate at least 85% of those surveyed to say they definitely or probably will attend another MCC concert. We also hope for at least 5 new names to add to our marketing/mailing/email list. Project Director Nicole Lambrecht will obtain verbal feedback from the musicians and program collaborators. MCC's Operations Coordinator keeps track of attendance figures through ticket sales and will report the findings. MCC members will discuss verbal and written feedback at the June 2023 Board Meeting and will assess the amount of knowledge gained through the paper patron surveys. We anticipate 90% of current choir members will continue singing in our next season and that we will add new members. This year's efforts have already recruited several auditions for next season. As a result of the pandemic, both our membership and audience declined. As a result of this celebratory concert, we anticipate an increase in membership and audience going forward. ; Attendance figures, survey data collection, formal and informal post-concert discussion