Rural and Community Art Project Grants
Celebration of the Arts in Downtown Grand Rapids
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; Moira Villiard: visual artist and student of arts and communication at University of Wisconsin-Superior.
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; Mark King: actor, theater reviewer, musician; Adam Guggemos: graphic designer, art events promoter; 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; Moira Villiard: visual artist and student of arts and communication at University of Wisconsin-Superior.
Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, Robert DeArmond (218) 722-0952
ACHF Arts Access ACHF Arts Education ACHF Cultural Heritage
Grand Rapids Arts will stage events in a downtown parking from 4 - 8pm on the Fridays of August 7 and September 4. Goals include engaging the public in creative activities, using an art event to fill a parking lot, promoting walking from one section of downtown to another, stimulating community thought on how to best use a vacant space for creative placemaking. Count of number of adults and children who took part in the activity. Count of number of adults and children who observed the activity. Collection of people's ideas on how to turn a parking lot back into paradise." Collection of ideas about how to get people walking around downtown using art and culture. Artists' evaluation of the experience."
The outcomes are as follows: Number of adults participating in the activity: 167 adults and 3 children. Number of adults observing the activity: 5. Suggestions for parking lot: bean bag toss, roller derby demo, garden, hay bales, music and fresh food, trees, farmers market, green space, bike rack, skating rink, monthly outdoor tap room, put things on table for puttering, statuary, Christmas market, Christmas trees decorated by groups, outdoor restaurant, bouncy house, food truck once a week, grass. Suggestions for people to walk around downtown: luminaries, develop empty parking lot, restaurant/bar, ticket red light runners on Hwy 2, marked pathways with benches and flowers, educate drivers, pedestrian bridge. The suggestions were placed on a sticky wall next to the activity. Artists' evaluation: It was difficult to get the passersby to actually participate in making a sculpture and doing improvisation. They wanted to observe an arts' event.
Other, local or private