Rural and Community Art Project Grant

Our goal is provide a space for artistic explorations in new media and installation art with an exhibition of the work of Kathy McTavish and Cecilia Ramon in the Free Range Film Barn. We want this exhibition to serve as a showcase for high quality art in alternative space that invites viewers that might not normally engage with contemporary art and explores the potential of new rural cultural expressions. This project would offer an opportunity for artistic growth for McTavish and Ramon through high quality documentation of their work and the opportunity for them to show work outside a traditional gallery space. Anne Dugan, the project director, will do the majority of the evaluation work. She will design the evaluation plan, administer the evaluations, analyze data, and write the final report. Dugan has experience teaching in higher education and evaluating arts programming through work as a curator. The evaluation plan will include keeping attendance records and asking visitors to fill out a short evaluation that will include basic demographic information as well as qualitative responses. For visitors willing to share contact information Dugan, will conduct follow up interviews with at least 5 and up to 15 participants to get more in depth feedback about the project. Dugan will also work closely with the artists and conduct one on one interviews before and after the project with an attention towards how the project fulfilled their artistic growth and how the space allowed them to explore their creative practice. Finally, Dugan has invited, and obtained commitment, from two twin cities arts writers and two local writers to visit the exhibition. The written reviews will serve as part of the arts quality evaluation assessment.