Rural and Community Art Project Grant
Rural and Community Art Project Grant
The Quiltmaker's Gift: the first live production in Ely's Historic State Theater.
Tara Makinen: Executive Director of Itasca Orchestra and Strings, musician; Amber Burns: choreographer, dancer, actor, middle school art teacher; Tammy Mattonen: visual artists, co-founder of Crescendo Youth Orchestra; Kayla Aubid: Native American craft artist, writer, employee at MacRostie Art Center; Ariana Daniel: mixed media artist, arts instructor; Kathy Neff: musician, Director, Fine Arts Academy at the University of Minnesota-Duluth; Ron Piercy: jeweler, gallery owner; Emily Swanson: arts administrator at Oldenburg Arts and Cultural Community.
Ariana Daniel: mixed media artist, arts instructor; Patricia Canelake: visual artist; Roxann Berglund: musician; Serenity Schoonover: writer; Greg Mueller: sculpture artist; David Dobbs: visual artist, Education Coordinator at MacRostie Art Center.
ACHF Arts Access
Our artistic goal is to present The Quiltmaker's Gift in a way that pays homage to the unique vision of the illustrator, Gail deMarcken, and that engages people in the arts in many ways. These are measurable outcomes: (1) Audiences will find the play to be entertaining and visually stunning. (2) Audience members will connect with the arts and artists through related community events. The Friends of Gail will conduct audience surveys at the performances. The survey form will elicit feedback about the quality of the performance, the sets, the music, and the play's entertainment value. The survey form will also ask audience members if they have participated in any of the other related activities. Drawing a large audience for the performances will be a marker of success. We will also track participation in other related arts activities.
Our artistic goal was to present The Quiltmaker's Gift in a way that paid homage to the unique vision of the illustrator, Gail deMarcken, and that engaged people in the arts in many ways. These were the measurable outcomes: (1) Audiences will find the play to be entertaining and visually stunning. (2) Audience members will connect with the arts and artists through related community events. We conducted audience surveys after all performances. Over 70 surveys were returned, and they confirmed that both outcomes were met. These are typical audience comments: ? Wonderful production, story, humor, acting! ? Colorful costumes, music, seeing friends perform ? I enjoyed seeing the community come together Illustrator Gail deMarcken attended all performances and nearly all rehearsals. She donated many yards of fabric and made the king's quilt and the quilt that covered the stage at the beginning and end of the production. Her suggestions were welcomed and incorporated whenever possible.
Other,local or private