Quick Start Opportunity Grants
Quick Start Opportunity Grants
Atrium Arts Expansion - Baby Grand Piano. We have the opportunity to build on a grant award to expand our artistic programming in the atrium with the discount purchase of a baby grand piano. This piano was originally loaned to us for the performance of a recent production in our performance theater, and without our expectation, the offer was made to sell us this piano for very good price. This would be an amazing resource for us to build on a growing number of artistic performances occurring in our atrium space and performance theater.
Erling Ellison: jewelry designer and creator, speech coach and judge, director of Garrison Art Fair; Ken Bloom: Director of Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota-Duluth; Janeen Carey: vocalist, retired Hibbing Community College librarian and information media specialist; Kate Fitzgerald: Program Director North Shore Music Association, writer; Peter Pestalozzi: furniture maker, wood worker; David Beard: Assistant Professor University of Minnesota-Duluth writing studies; Mark King: actor, theater reviewer, musician; Adam Guggemos: graphic designer, art events promoter; Michelle Ronning: jewelry designer and maker; John Gregor: photographer, art educator, community art advocate; Ann Russ: music performer, community song leader, choir director, workshop leader, past director and founder of North Shore Music Association; Tara Makinen: Executive Director of Itasca Orchestra and Strings, musician; Dana Mattice: Development and Communications Director of The Art Institute Duluth, Shannon Sweeney: stage manager for Duluth Playhouse and former production manager for the Minnesota Ballet; Moira Villiard: visual artist and student of arts and communication at University of Wisconsin-Superior.
Kate Fitzgerald: Program Director North Shore Music Association, writer; John Gregor: photographer, art educator, community art advocate; Peter Pestalozzi: furniture maker, wood worker; Mark King: actor, theater reviewer, musician; Dana Mattice: Development and Communications Director of The Art Institute Duluth; Adam Guggemos: graphic designer, art events promoter; Erling Ellison: jewelry designer and creator, speech coach and judge, director of Garrison Art Fair.
ACHF Arts Access ACHF Cultural Heritage
This request is dedicated to purchasing a baby grand piano to facilitate artistic experiences in the atrium and performance theater. Our goal is to give more artists the opportunity to perform and earn an income. Over the course of 2015, we will build towards an average of at least two performance art activities per week in the atrium, and they will highlight a diverse array of artistic forms - from poetry to music to spoken word to storytelling. We will spend at least $9,500 paying artists to perform in the atrium, many of which will play our piano. We will also try to measure the number of audience members who listen to the piano. This is easier to do when the piano is used in the performance theater because of ticket sales. When it's being played in the atrium, which is generally a non-ticketed area, we'll have to make our best estimations based on feedback from staff, head counts, etc. We will track the number of artists who use the piano, starting immediately after grant proceeds are received. This will include events anywhere in our building. Tracking of audience members will be harder as the atrium space is a transient space and not something that we generally sell tickets for. But we can track the times the piano is used in the atrium, performance theaters, and throughout the building, and approximate the number of audience members who heard a performance.
Funds were used to purchase a baby grand piano to facilitate artistic experiences in the atrium and performance theater. Our goal was to give more artists the opportunity to perform and earn an income, with projections of two performance art activities each week in the atrium, highlighting a variety of art forms. In 2015 there were over 40 unique nights of live music in the atrium alone. And nearly 1/2 of those performances utilized the piano. This translates to nearly two dozen artists taking advantage of the instrument, and well over 700 unique audience members.
Other, local or private