Rebranding Cultural Artwork Commission/Stipend Grant

We have received great input from our community because of this project's progression. Since March 2023, we have contracted two local artists to work on the mural and additional projects the children's nook and donor/history wall. We met with the artists Marina Castillo and Kao Lee Thao on a weekly basis in the month of April to work through the concepting phases and expectations of each project. Marina and Kao Lee have presented us with the final mural concept which is on track for final approval. Marina started and completed the interactive children's nook on the first floor which has received great feedback from staff and patients. Kao Lee is working on presenting a final concept for our donor history wall, once presented we can approve, and they will get started.

The Student Artist Competition was a success. We partnered with Open World Learning from Saint Paul Public Schools. Nine students submitted artwork to be judged by our Board of Directors and staff judging was thorough and extensive, but three winners were chosen. Winners and participants along with their families and art teacher attended the celebration where we recognized the students for their impressive work, acknowledged the art teacher for their collaboration and awarded the winners. We have retained the student artwork and plan to display and highlight the project and support from the Minnesota Humanities Center once final construction projects within the clinic have been completed. ; As a recipient of the MN Humanities Grant, we set our expectations high and made sure to achieve our goals. Our first goal was to partner with Saint Paul Public Schools to host a student artist competition. The plan was to have multiple schools participate in the competition but after some brainstorming, we changed our plan to focus on schools close to the clinic. We reached out to two schools to participate but only one responded. Coordinating with leadership at Saint Paul Public Schools and staff from Open World Learning was key to the competition's success. Another change that happened since the interim report was the timeline of completing the donor and history wall. Due to weather conditions and facilities schedules, we had to push back the original timeline of December 31, 2023. While we did not have an unveiling event like we planned due to unexpected staff turnover, we were able to direct those funds to the completion of the history wall and artist stipends. The artists were able to finish all projects by the new deadline of January 31, 2024.