MRAC e-newsletter

June 2014

In This Issue

Arts Learning Grant Awards

Arts Achievement Awards

Arts Activities Support Workshops

Next Step Fund Panel

Arts Activities Support Panels

FY 2015 Deadlines

Green Line Launch

Resource Updates

Holiday Hours

FY 2013 Annual Report

Photos Needed!

Forward to a Friend

FY 2013 Summary

Quick Links

MRAC Home Page

Make Sure Your Organization Is Counted!

Your arts and culture nonprofit has an impact on your community's economy, but no economic impact study of the nonprofit arts and culture sector has been done in Minnesota since 2007. To fill this gap, Minnesota's arts funders have partnered with Minnesota Citizens for the Arts (MCA) to create a new State of the Arts and Culture Report to be released in January 2015. The report will include data collected from multiple sources including the Cultural Data Project (CDP). Funding partners include The McKnight Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and the 11 Regional Arts Councils.

Make sure your organization is counted as part of Minnesota's arts economy! Fill out a brief online survey for your organization at http://research.zarca.com/k/SsVWVWsQUSsPsPsP. If your organization has filled out a CDP profile for FY 2012, you don't need to do this online survey.

Want to know more about the project? Visit http://www.mncitizensforthearts.org/learn/artsresearch/2014-eis-study/.

Sincerely,

Jeff Prauer

Executive Director

Arts Learning Grant Awards

On May 27, 2014, MRAC awarded 244,507 to 26 organizations in the second round of its FY 2014 Arts Learning grant program. The Arts Learning projects chosen will provide high-quality arts education for Minnesotans of all ages to develop knowledge, skills, and understanding of and/or through the arts by engaging in extended arts experiences and activities with clearly articulated learning objectives. The Arts Learning grant program is a direct result of the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund of the Legacy Amendment. All applications go through a competitive peer review panel process. The MRAC board of directors makes the final decisions on all panel recommendations.

Click here for a list of awarded projects sorted by county of activity. Organization websites are included when available as a way to get more information about the groups and awarded projects. Please note that the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul are separated from the surrounding suburban Hennepin and Ramsey counties.

Arts Achievement Awards

MRAC is pleased to honor the St. Paul Art Collective and Yellow Tree Theatre as this year's Arts Achievement Award recipients! The groups will be recognized at MRAC's annual meeting on July 22, 2014. Full write-ups will be in the August newsletter.

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FY 2015 Arts Activities Support, Round 1 Grant Workshops

The FY 2015 Arts Activities Support, Round 1 grant application deadline is Monday, July 14, 2014 with an earliest project start date of September 24, 2014. Grant guidelines and a link to the online grant application interface are available on the Arts Activities Support grant program page.

MRAC offers workshops designed to help groups prepare MRAC Arts Activities Support grant applications. Participants become familiar with the program, online application process, and learn how to write effective MRAC grant proposals. This is a great opportunity to get questions answered on your project ideas. The Arts Activities Support workshops will be held:

Monday, June 9, 3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Tuesday, June 10, 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Thursday, June 12, 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Friday, June 13, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

The workshops are free, but we ask that you register in advance. To register, click on the linked workshop date. The workshops will be held in the MRAC conference room at 2324 University Avenue West, St. Paul, MN 55114. Please contact us if you need special accommodations to attend an application workshop.

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Next Step Fund Grant Panel

The FY 2014 Next Step Fund grant applications will be reviewed Wednesday, June 11 2014. The panel review meeting will begin at 9:00 a.m. with a short panel re-orientation. Click here to see the order of reviews for the day.

Panel meetings are public, open meetings, and constituents are encouraged to come and listen to the reviews to gain a fuller understanding of the process and hear the panelists' comments directly. Applicants may listen to the proceedings, but are not invited to make presentations.

FY 2014 Arts Activities Support, Round 2 Grant Panels

The FY 2014 Arts Activities Support, Round 2 grant applications will be reviewed the week of June 16, 2014. The panel review meetings will begin at 9:00 a.m. with a short panel re-orientation. Click on the linked panel date to see the order of reviews for that panel day.

FY 2015 Grant Application Deadlines

Below are the FY 2015 grant application deadlines. All applications must be submitted using the online MRAC Grant Interface. Unless otherwise noted, all applications must be submitted by 4:30 p.m. on the deadline date. "Submitted" means that your application has been received and time-stamped by the MRAC Grant Interface server.

7/14/2014 Arts Activities Support, Round 1

9/8/2014 Capital

9/8/2014 Organizational Development

10/6/2014 Community Arts, Round 1

11/3/2014 Arts Learning, Round 1

1/12/2015 Community Arts, Round 2

3/2/2015 Arts Learning, Round 2

3/2/2015 Next Step Fund, (11:59 p.m.)

4/6/2015 Arts Activities Support, Round 2

4/13/2015 Arts Achievement Award

Weekly Management Training Fund

Weekly Emergency Accessibility

Monthly Management Consulting Fund

Green Line Launch, June 14, 2014!

Thank you for your patience during the LRT Green Line construction along University Avenue! Metro Transit has announced that the trains will officially start running on June 14, 2014. Join the community celebrations at stations along the line from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on that day. The Raymond Station's Green Line Launch party (the station in front of MRAC's building) is in the parking lot on the east side of the Midtown Commons buildings on the corner of LaSalle Street and University Avenue. The launch party will feature live performances, public art, demonstrations, food, and more. Find out more or get involved at creativeenterprisezone.org.

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Resource Updates (These non-MRAC opportunities are listed at MRAC's discretion. The listing does not indicate an endorsement.)

Bloomington Theatre and Art Center and the City of Bloomington invites artists and creative placemakers to engage in a week of planning, design and community building activities for the Bloomington South Loop during their creative placemaking charrette, June 12 through June 20, 2014. More information about how to get involved, project opportunities, and the placemaker's idea prize is available at http://btacmn.org/placemaking/artists.html.

The Minnesota State Arts Board's Artist Initiative program supports and assists artists at various stages in their careers. It encourages artistic development, nurtures artistic creativity, and recognizes the contributions individual artists make to the creative environment of the state of Minnesota. More information is available at www.arts.state.mn.us/grants/artist-initiative.htm. There are three deadlines for the FY 2015 Artist Initiative grant applications, depending on discipline:

Literary arts; poetry and prose: June 13, 2014
Performing arts; dance, music, and theater: July 11, 2014
Visual arts; media arts, and photography, and visual arts: August 1, 2014

Call for Artists: Post Offices...an Endangered Species is a nonprofit mail-art project that asks artists working in any medium to adopt a Minnesota post office, explore the community history, and create a visual design or written work for display on their website gallery, as a way to inform decision makers and the public about the important economic and community role the United States Postal Service plays in our Minnesota communities. More information is available at www.po4ever.com. Deadline: June 30, 2014.

The Minnesota State Fair's Fine Arts Department presents an annual juried art competition open to Minnesota residents. Works selected by the jurors will be displayed in the Fine Arts Center during the State Fair. In 2013, a total of 1,885 pieces were submitted and 340 works were accepted. More information is available at http://www.mnstatefair.org/competition/fine_arts.html. Deadline: July 7, 2014.

The Minnesota State Arts Board's Cultural Community Partnership program is designed to enhance the artistic and career development of artists of color. It supports collaborative projects between two individual artists or between an artist and an organization. More information is available at http://www.arts.state.mn.us/grants/cultural-community-partnership.htm. Deadline: July 18, 2014.

The Minnesota State Arts Board's Arts Tour Minnesota program is designed to give Minnesotans greater access to high quality artists and arts organizations, regardless of geography. Arts Tour Minnesota project grants support touring performances, exhibitions, and other related arts activities throughout the state. More information is available at http://www.arts.state.mn.us/grants/machf-atm.htm. Deadline: July 25, 2014.

Interested in a non-MRAC training opportunity, but not sure that your organization can afford the fee? MRAC offers a training fund grant for management or administrative-related training opportunities that will strengthen your organization. Click on the link for more information on MRAC's Management Training Fund grant.

MRAC Holiday Hours

MRAC will be closed on Friday, July 4, 2014 for Independence Day.

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FY 2013 Annual Report

All of our grant awards from FY 2013 are available in a downloadable document--the MRAC 2013 Annual Report is now online! Thank you to all of our awarded groups whose work helps us meet our mission of increasing access to the arts in 7-county metropolitan area communities. We also thank Ananya Dance Theatre - photo by V. Paul Virtucio, Bedlam Theatre - photo by Farrington Starnes, Cleveland Neighborhood Association, Dream Songs Project - photo by Greg Kaiser, Hinterhands Puppet Company - photos by Bruce Silcox, Iraqi and American Reconcilliation Project - photo by Shari Hagen, KAIROSalive!, Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association, Rosemount Area Arts Council, and zAmya Theater Project for supplying the photos we used in this year's report.

Please note: with 472 grants awarded last year, the annual report is a fairly large file and may take a moment to download. If you wish to submit photos from your MRAC-funded events for use in MRAC and RAC Forum materials, please visit www.mrac.org/news/photo-submission.

Photos Needed for a New Brochure!

The Metropolitan Regional Arts Council needs photos of arts activities from the past year to use on our website and in our print materials such as our brochure and annual report. We are looking for a variety of photos that will show the diversity of our community and the range of arts activities and arts disciplines that MRAC funds. Photos will be selected for use based on our needs and photo quality.

For more information and to submit your photos, please visit our photo submission page or contact Mara Miller by email at mara@mrac.org.

Forward to a Friend

Please forward our e-newsletter to people who may be interested in information about MRAC grant deadlines and awards, workshops, training opportunities, resource updates, and other MRAC news. We do not share our e-mail subscriber list with others.

MRAC FY 2013 Summary

In FY 2013, MRAC received 801 applications and awarded 434 grants totaling

2,979,141 to arts organizations and/or projects including a grant to VSA Minnesota for its regranting program, the ADA Access Improvement Grants for Metro Arts Organizations. These grants were funded by an appropriation from the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the State's general fund, and by the voters of Minnesota, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund. MRAC also received 376 applications from individual artists in the Next Step Fund program and awarded 38 grants totaling 180,225 with funds from The McKnight Foundation. MRAC also provided 16 arts management training sessions and 30 grant application workshops.

Photos for top ribbon provided by: Caponi Art Park, Twin Cities Housing Development Corporation, Twin Cities Women's Choir, Weavers Guild of Minnesota, and the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.