By Kathy Kelsey Foley, Director
“Congratulations! Your project has been chosen . . .” have
to be among the best words a museum director can hear or read.
We all know there are no “gimmes” when it comes to competitive
grant applications. What we do know, however, is that if you don’t apply, your
organization – or project – is not in the hunt.
That said, Woodson Art Museum staff leapt at the opportunity
to pull together a project and a narrative proposal in response to the
Community Foundation of North Central Wisconsin’s call for applications for a
“25 for 25 Anniversary Grant.”
The timeline was tight – and smack in the middle of Birds in Art catalogue proofing – with
information about the funding opportunity shared in early July and a July 25
(appropriate!) deadline. Notification would follow on August 3, so the
turnaround was fast not only for applicants, but also for the Foundation.
The grant program is part of the Community Foundation’s 25th
anniversary celebration and presents a terrific win-win for Marathon County
organizations and for the Foundation. Twenty-five projects were selected to receive $2,500 grants each – and, yes, the Woodson Art Museum’s project is one
of the twenty-five; more about our project below. Also, now through September
17 via public voting – each dollar equals a vote – organizations have the
potential to benefit from an increased grant award.
In addition, the project/organization that receives the most
votes/dollars – 50% of the dollars contributed go to the Community Foundation’s
Marathon County Fund and 50% to the donor’s designated project/organization –
receives a $25,000 Community Foundation endowment fund that will yield annual
support in perpetuity.
Everyone wins with this project, especially our community.
What a great way to celebrate the Foundation’s 25th anniversary and launch an
array of projects.
What does the Woodson Art Museum have up its sleeve?
Thanks to the good news that our project was chosen to
receive a 25 for 25 Grant, the Museum will introduce “This Art Is Your Art” in
spring 2013. The intent is to take artworks in the form of framed reproductions
out of the Museum and place them in unusual as well as interesting public
places throughout Marathon County. Each reproduction will have a descriptive
label that introduces the artwork and gets folks thinking and talking. It’s
like a pop-up food truck that generates buzz around town . . . only we’re doing
it with artworks. A pop-up art museum, so to speak.
Similar projects have met with tremendous success: The
Detroit Institute of Arts shared reproductions in a three-county area with Inside-Outside;
Cincinnati’s Taft Museum placed eighty reproductions around town to celebrate
its 80th anniversary; and the Delaware Art Museum recently embarked on Art Is
Everywhere to celebrate its 100th anniversary.
To give blog readers an idea of how we envision the look and
feel of This Art Is Your Art, check out these mocked-up images designed to
suggest the project’s potential and just how much fun it will be.
We can see Mark Eberhard’s The Birdwatchers at Central Wisconsin Airport. Are those folks with
binoculars along the bottom of the painting looking at birds or for airplanes?
Hmm.
We have a list of possible locations and appropriate artworks.
If you have suggestions and/or favorite artworks that you’d like to see out in
the community, let us hear from you.
And, if you think this project is worthy of additional
dollars – and, in turn, your votes – click through to the Community Foundation’s secure online contribution/voting page and help make This Art Is Your Art even
bigger and better.
We’ll be grateful for every dollar and every vote!
Fab - U - lous! What a wonderful idea and happy to hear of the museum's receipt of the grant.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Terry.
ReplyDeleteWe're super-excited about the project. As you can imagine, we have more great pairing ideas -- artworks and community locations -- than we have dollars to execute the project. We'll be pushing our creativity to the max to make the largest number of off-site installations possible. What fun this will be.
Looking forward to seeing you soon,
Kathy
LOVE IT. Congrats on the award - Art in the Community is Success on all terms. Great Concept - we will share with our followers -
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ken. You're so right . . . getting the community energized about art is great. A real win-win.
ReplyDeleteAll best,
Kathy