Rural and Community Art Project Grants

This project will produce a temporary exhibit of artwork that utilizes Non-Timber Forest Products to showcase the talents of Itasca area artists, highlight non-timber uses of our natural forest resources, and excite the public's interest and imagination around traditional and fine crafts. The showcase will reach an audience of 800 during the four days it is open to the public in August 2015. Four artists will be directly involved in demonstrating their work and 8 - 10 artists will have work on display. The project will also feature Russian birch bark weaver Vladimir Yarish in a presentation and weaving class open to the public. We aim for an attendance of 40 at the presentation and 20 - 30 students in the class. The students will also be invited to show their projects in the exhibit in August. The exhibit will include a guest book for visitors to sign in and a larger comment panel where visitors can share their experience with the work on post-its. Attendance numbers will be tracked and the artists participating in the demonstrations will be surveyed about their experience. Attendees at the presentation will be informally surveyed about their experience, and participants in the class will complete a written evaluation of the program.