Press Release from Boeing A&E Collaborative Grant

The Boeing Company and the Arts and Education Council Announce

$50,000 in Grants to St. Louis Arts and Education Programs

St. Louis, MO - The Boeing Company, in collaboration with the Arts and Education Council, announced today that it has awarded $50,000 in grants ranging from $5-10,000 each to seven arts and arts education programs in the St. Louis bi-state area. The Boeing Company and the Arts and Education Council partnered to offer this unique funding opportunity to organizations that create and promote a more sustainable arts and cultural environment that engage people to become lifelong arts participants, patrons and practitioners. Special consideration was given to those programs which included a component aimed at developing future leaders skilled in the successful creation and operation of viable arts organizations.

“Partnering with The Boeing Company on a project emphasizing the longevity and sustainability of local arts organizations speaks to the value that business leaders place on having a vibrant arts community. We’re thrilled with this year’s projects and look forward to the long-term benefits these grants will have on these organizations,” said Cynthia A. Prost, President of the Arts and Education Council.

The following programs were chosen to receive a Boeing Collaborative Grant:

• Cinema St. Louis – Fellowship

The fellow, a recent graduate potentially interested in film or arts-nonprofit careers will receive a thorough grounding in all aspects of the St. Louis International Film Festival, participating in the full range of related activities: marketing, venue setup and supervision, print shipping, guest hosting, student screenings, program introductions, website updating, social networking and tech assistance.  The fellow will also participate in overall operations immediately following the festival.

• Grand Center – Non-Profit Arts Practicum <----THIS IS ME!

This program will be a practicum by educational standards, wholly immersing college students or recent graduates in the day-to-day operations of the fast-paced, multi-faceted organization and encouraging them to collaborate with full-time staff and to feel free to share opinions, ideas and strategies.

• Jazz St. Louis – Internship

This year long program will allow an individual to work up to twenty hours a week and apprentice under the direction of seasoned staff members to fully engage in and learn the business of arts management while advancing the uniquely American art of jazz via the nonprofit model.

• Opera Theatre of Saint Louis – Administrative Internship Program

This internship program provides important training, job experience and the guidance of Opera Theatre’s professional staff and the artists who stage each spring festival season. Each opera season, the company hires six college students or recent graduates to work for one specific department in the company, including artistic administration, education, development, finance, marketing and patron services.

• Stages St. Louis – Spotlight on Careers

This apprenticeship program provides learning opportunities for qualified college students, recent college graduates, and young professionals actively pursuing careers in professional theater who are interested in acquiring a broad understanding of theater leadership, management, company organization, and administration.

• St. Louis Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts – No Artist Left Behind

This initiative will make sure that no student majoring in an arts discipline at a St. Louis area university or college will graduate without exposure to basic legal and business matters. This project will provide guest speakers, free easy-to-understand guides and affordable professional development for faculty members.

• The Black Rep – Teen Techs

This program provides middle and high school students, as young as 14, the opportunity to gain experience in the technical careers of the theatre by actually working on main stage productions through apprentice-type relationships with the lighting, costume, and sound designers in the mounting of productions.

Arts and Education Council – Since 1963, the Arts and Education Council has raised nearly $100 million in private funding for the arts – an important task that directly affects the quality of life of our region.  With those funds, the Council annually assists approximately 70 non-profit arts and arts education organizations.  Additionally, the Council provides office space, state-of-the-art technology, rehearsal and performance space for 16 arts nonprofit organizations in the Centene Center for Arts and Education, a unique arts incubator located in Grand Center.  Visit http://www.keeparthappening.org/ or call 314.289.4000 for more information.

The Boeing Company – The world's leading aerospace company, Boeing is the largest manufacturer of commercial jetliners and military aircraft combined. Additionally, Boeing designs and manufactures rotorcraft, electronic and defense systems, missiles, satellites, launch vehicles and advanced information and communication systems. As a major service provider to NASA, Boeing operates the Space Shuttle and International Space Station. The company also provides numerous military and commercial airline support services. Boeing has customers in more than 90 countries around the world and is one of the largest U.S. exporters in terms of sales. Visit http://www.boeing.com/ for more information.

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This almost feels like a promotion....

I got more hours!!  It's great since I feel like I can get more done in a work week and take on more projects.

Project Updates:

1. Still pushing ticket sales for CMSSL's Benefit Dinner.  Slowly we're getting there.
2. Still working on copy for our annual appeal brochure...Jay hasn't gotten a chance to look at my first draft yet and is out today, so I keep re-writing it.
3. First Night is fast approaching.  Artopia is scheduling artists and I'll be working on button sales and added value folks.  Our weekly meeting is this afternoon.

Kind of a slow Monday so far. Hopefully that will change.

To Quote My Favorite Musical...

Wicked.
"I couldn't be happier right here." My cheese-factor just flew through the roof, but we just got a letter from Boeing/A&E...

AND WE GOT $7,500 FOR THE PRACTICUM PROGRAM!!

2/3 for getting money for my grant apps! (Gannett Foundation was my fail.)  But who wants to think about that right now? Not meee!

In One Month...

Wow. I cannot express how busy the last month has been as Grand Center, Inc.  I apologize for my blogging falling by the wayside...

There has been much progress with the Chamber Music Society's gala mailing (as in it should be out in the mail by day's end tomorrow).  Their stationary looks fantastic and I can't wait to see what a great return they will get.

Dancing in the Street has taken place and was a smashing success for Grand Center, Inc. and a huge hit with the community.  1. 12,000-15,000 people attended  2. The performances by Regional and National dance troupes were amazing.  3. I succeeded at artist hospitality  4. I desperately hope to volunteer next year.

I submitted the Boeing/A&E grant I was assigned for the continuation and expansion of the Grand Center Arts Practicum.  Fingers crossed!  I should hear back by mid-October!

The Grand Center Gala is this coming Friday at the Sheldon.  I'll be attending and working registration and representing the wonderful institution that Grand Center is.

I thoroughly have enjoyed the past month and love being a part of Grand Center.

As time marches on and my practicum draws to a close, I'll keep you posted on how my job search progresses.  I have no doubt that Grand Center has prepared me to move up and out into the non-profit world....hopefully still in the arts.

SUCCESS!

HEARD BACK FROM BANK OF AMERICA!

$5,000  towards SCAPE's third public sculpture!!!

BOO-YEA!  Great way to go into the weekend :)

Dancing in the Street

Whoo...been busy here in preparation for Grand Center, Inc.'s next big festival, Dancing in the Street.  I've been in contact with many of the Company Directors gathering information for the program.  Technological difficulties reign with people not understanding "attachments."  I feel pretty well caught up now, and I've also been putting together CMSSL's Solicitation List.  That has been the most time consuming since the list we created is a combo of their list, our lists, etc.  I really hope we get it to them soon, as even I am getting nervous about their timeline being met.

Also, last weekend was our SLU Welcome Week-Grand Center Concert brought about 2,000 students and got us over 200 names and email addresses of students interested in receiving cool info about the goings-on of Grand Center. Looked

My newest grant assignment is to write a proposal to Boeing/AEC for the continuation/renewal of the grant that has allowed me this opportunity at Grand Center, Inc.

Getting truly upset that I'll have to leave eventually.
Anyone out there hiring young professionals with development and event planning experience?

Young Friends (and Older Friends)

Yesterday, I went to the Grand Center, Inc. Gala Kickoff Event at Kota.  I was pretty much there to facilitate the check-in/name tag process.  It was a really nice event, and Ken Kranzburg gave a really nice "motivational" speech to the crowd of host-committee guests. In attendance were Danny Ludeman-CEO of Wells Fargo, Mayor Slay, CEO of Brown Shoe Co, and many more of St. Louis' finest philanthropists.  Mr. Kranzburg made a really great point when he argued that St. Louis is lucky enough to be one of the most diverse cities, and as far as attractions go, can grow to be on par with Chicago, Boston, and NYC.  He also said that Grand Center could be like Times Square...not so sure of that one...but a noteworthy dream to say the least.

Afterwards/During, the Young Friends of Grand Center hosted their very first event!  We enjoyed happy hour at Kota among other young professionals.  Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and the mini-raffle we had of Dirty Dancing items was a great success.  In total, I would say there were around 30 people in attendance.  Not too bad!

Also, this week the St. Louis Beacon published a really great article about the wonders of Grand Center highlighting our developmental progress, new institutions, etc.  It's a great read so check it out!

Progress

I can't believe it's already well into August.  Less than two months left here at Grand Center, Inc. 

This week I've been working on my Gannett Foundation grant application.  Gannett is KSDK NewsChannel 5's foundation, so hopefully they'll be excited about getting involved with my latest and greatest SCAPE app.
Cracker Barrel went out a few days ago thanks to Jay and Peg.

Below is a photo of the site for "Rabbit II" (still To Be Named) that I took this morning to post to our Facebook page, which is starting to do much better with a lot of new friends and an increase in posting activity. "Rabbit II" should be up in a couple weeks.  We still have to install the concrete base and transfer the sculpture using a crane!

The site is adjacent to Jazz at the Bistro and our building.  This is the view from one of our staff's windows.

Currently, I'm in waiting mode for CMSSL's next step.  They need to finish getting their Contact List together and then we'll be able to send the solicitation letters.

We have our first "Young Friends of Grand Center" event tomorrow evening at Kota and I am looking forward to it and I'll tell you all about it Friday.  Don't know that I'll stay for the movie afterwards since it's supposed to "feel like" 108 degrees tomorrow.  Really cannot wait for the temperatures to drop.  St. Louis heat is INSANE.

Chamber Music Society of St. Louis Benefit Dinner

Yes. This is my latest and greatest project.  You can check out their website HERE.

 I mentioned last week about being assigned to work with them, but I've been working on A LOT of documents for them, such as:

-Solicitation Letter
-Solicitation Letter for Season Subscribers
-Thank You letter
-Sponsorship Opportunities Form
-Pledge Form
-A very complicated, detailed Timeline... I love lists, but this was extreme.  Even for me :)
- And a Solicitation Contact List

Peg and I have been communicating with them daily, but I don't think they've received all final docs yet.  We're working on bridging the "solicitation language" gap and working out some of the bigger details.  It's very excited and I'm looking forward to moving forward with the project!

The event is being hosted by Michael Neidorff, CEO of Centene Corporation, at the new Centene Plaza building in Clayton.  Photo Above.

Needless to say I've been busy this week, but I'm taking a well deserved weekend trip to Indy to see the family!

What a Week...

Last Friday, I finally got to submit Farmers Insurance Group 2.0 ( the name 2.0 refers to the fact that I wrote it twice for two different 'asks' haha) and I am very happy to see it off. It was the first letter I wrote asking for support for First Night-St. Louis, so here's hoping we hear back good news.

Just began a new letter for the Cracker Barrel Foundation...so far it's only made me hungry. I'll be writing again for Students Creating Art for Public Enjoyment or SCAPE. Due to recent developments, I haven't progressed very far with it.

Also last FridayJay and I walked over to Kota to talk with Chris LaRocca about supporting our first official "Young Friends of Grand Center" event, which is going to be held as a part of Cinemania on August 12th. We'll be screening Dirty Dancing. We are expecting about 50 guests and will be giving a short spiel about Young Friends and well as charging $5 donation in return for a free drink at Kota. Jay's working on the e-vite, and it looks great!

This week I came in Monday morning for a meeting with Peg and the Chamber Music Society of St. Louis about their Gala fundraiser they are planning. I was busy before the meeting printing and editing their documents. With those documents in hand, we sat down for an hour or so to discuss some of the issues they are having with their contacts, as well as some of the changes I made to their letters/etc.

I really enjoyed meeting with them, and as of now, I am going to play a big role in the development of their fundraising. I left the meeting charged with drafting a solicitation letter (draft #1- in progress), a solicitation letter for their subscribers (draft #1-complete), as well as constructing a spreadsheet of names and addresses for their solicitation letter to go to.

All of a sudden I have way too much to do in the 16 hrs a week that I am here, but hey I cannot complain. This is all great experience!

I'd give more detail, but I have no time.

The Art of Writing Letters

Are you Mr. X or Mrs. X or should I write to you with your given name?

I really wish there were set-in-stone rules because I am getting a lot of varying perspectives and opinions. Then again, I want to write to everyone formally because it's one of those "manners" my mother beat into me when I was young. "Always address your elders as Mrs. or Mr. XYZ." So even now, it's weird to call colleagues by their first names.

Anywho...A little confusion/frustration stemming from that simple question, since for the past couple weeks I've been working extensively on some grant letters.

Here's my little list to catch you up on what I've been doing the couple weeks my blogging has been m.i.a.

1. Hiphip Hooray! Messing Family Charitable Foundation letter FINALLY went out today in its nice little package of: Letter, Ask Menu, 2009 Dancing in the Street Program, Event Photos, and our 501(c)3 non-profit certification letter. Upon Mr. Schoemehl's signature, it'll be gone.
P.S. Who knew it was so complicated to print a silly mailing label? The all-in-one return address/mailing address label....

2. Farmer's Insurance Group letter for Dancing in the Street....completely written and then tossed. A sad day last week....

3. Farmers Insurance Group 2.0-- Rewritten to ask for support for First Night-St. Louis. Now I'm working on the revision and will give it back to Ms. Weathers in a bit.

4. Also, RIP my Dana Brown Foundation grant. You'll be chalked up to good grant-writing experience, but you will never be sent out asking for SCAPE. I believe it will now be for Operating Expenses and the good Mr. Perry will be taking that one.

5. It's been quiet on the events side, but Ms. Weathers asked me today if I'd be interested in helping St. Louis' Chamber Music Society with their event planning. More on that to come....after our meeting on next Monday at 11:30 A.M.

6. Latest Annual Appeal Total: $2,665
Up from last week!! Very exciting....we hope to reach $3,000 now!


I think that's all for now, but I'll keep you updated on Farmers....Here's hoping it'll be out by the week's end!

I Lied When I Said, "This is my last essay ever."

It's been a pleasantly busy week so far with everyone back from the Holiday weekend, and I've been doing A LOT of writing. And re-writing. And editing. And writing. You get the picture. On that note, It's been really productive.

I finally submitted the Dana Brown Charitable Trust grant to Peg that I've been working on for ages for SCAPE. Granted....I'm not entirely pleased with what I've written so far. The dreaded Question #7 makes me want to pull out my hair, because really there is no way I can see to really answer it. We have written and rewritten #8 to the point where I don't know what I have and have not tried before. Anyway as always, Peg's purple pen will destroy it and what will come out will be a billion times better. So for now...I'm taking a break on that.

Also, I gave Jay the iPad ask for Digital Partners, Inc. that I wrote. Again, it was a little difficult to figure out the wording on that one too. Hopefully I'm closer on target...
Still looking forward to writing to Poptions more haha.

Jay assigned me a new grant letter to write too yesterday. The Messing Family Charitable Foundation is one of my prospecting discoveries (that word makes me feel like I'm looking for gold, but that note aside...). It was a good prospect and I have drafted a letter asking them for a gift for Dancing in the Street, which I hope we get since we are a little behind financially. I gave Peg the first draft yesterday and just resubmitted a bit ago.

So now it's the waiting game....Peg has two. Jay one. So until they are returned I am the lucky social media lady. Time for Grand Center, Inc. facebook updates, blogging, and oh yes, the new Annual Appeal Total: $2,295. Still far from our $4,000 goal, but respectable considering it was a blast of primarily lapsed donors in the first place. We had a lot of returned mail and a couple people's snotty responses to the new parking situation.

That's today's weekly update blogosphere!

Today's Top Five

Nope, sorry no essay-post today. I am opting for the condensed version in honor of the VERY extended holiday weekend.


5. Writing a letter to local computer sales companies to ask for donated iPads to raffle off at upcoming GCI Young Friends events like Dancing in the Street and perhaps....Cinemania.

4. Another $250 check for a seat at the Kranzberg for the Annual Appeal. Running Total: $2,085. Still staying optimistic that we will reach our goal!

3. Dancing in the Street applicants have been notified of acceptance/rejection for 2010's festival. Ready to move forward with planning/production!

2. The Grandel is haunted...Not sure that I will ever set foot in that building. Several sightings by several people (including Rachel) and consistent elevator "happenings" in the afternoons, children in the rafters, old ushers, and a staring woman. No thanks!

1. The discovery of Poptions.
This 'pun'ny store title was found doing research for popcorn companies that we could ask for some dinero for Cinemania. Definitely made 9 AM that much brighter.


and weekly promise: To attend Thursdays @ theIntersection. It's the fourth one tomorrow!

Photos!

Never thought about adding photos....kind of a silly oversight now that I figured out how. So let me show you some images of the projects I've been discussing.

Since I've been writing so much about the SCAPE (Students Creating Art for Public Enjoyment) Rabbits, I figure it's about time I show you.

#1 "Earth Rabbit"

You may have wandered by him at the corner of Grand and Washinton.

This photo is from First Night-St. Louis 2009

#2 The Creation Process of Rabbit 2

A Student in his studio intensive creating clay feathers to be part of the mosaic on Rabbit #2

Our professional artist, Catharine Magel, with the students' art

The layout of the pieces in a pattern ready for application on the Rabbit.

The form of our Rabbit #2, or as I unofficially named him and his compadre, "Harmonic Duo"

Hope you enjoy this sneak preview of the second Rabbit before his unveiling later this summer!

**Also, Update for the Total of the Annual Appeal:

$1,835
Almost half way there!

(Note: Jay does not always tell me when we get checks, so this could be slightly off.)

On that note, have a fabulous weekend!

Out with GrandPA, In with gARTen (NOT the real name I hope)

June 23rd?! This month is flying by.

Last week was fun with picking up Bill Roberti. Too bad the wreck on 40 made our drive a little less than perfect...I felt bad. I had to jump four lanes of traffic almost getting us killed so we could exit 170 on Brentwood. Poor Jay. Haha. Almost gave him a heart attack. We made it to the SLLIS Gala in time though with him in one Brooks Brothers-ed piece. He was a very friendly man. He'd just come back from South Africa and the World Cup...no big deal.

Speaking of which: THE USA MOVES ON! They had me a little nervous at minute 90 with 0-0, but they came through.

1. I'm still trying to get work done with the GrandPA deconstruction. Peg graciously offered to contact Joe Adorjan (assuming this is the man that SLU's Laclede Building was renamed for) and ask him about his affiliation with Ranken Technical College. We're hoping that the school might take on the project of helping get GrandPA OUT, so we can get the garden IN. If it is not something they are interested in, I'm not sure where we will turn. I don't think it's something that we could do a "sledgehammer" for. The walls look to be 8-9 ft of cement brick... So again, I don't know.

I think that getting it out is going to be more difficult, than getting it in. I've found several grantmakers that have potential, and getting kids involved in the planting will be easy. Definitely starting to feel a more specific timeline....like this is not going to be finished until next spring/summer. Haha. My generation needs to learn patience. If we get this taken out by fall and get all of our funding in line by spring, I think that it would be the perfect time to plant the garden.

I hope that this will be more than a "planting" experience, and that the neighboring schools will be able to incorporate the garden into their curriculum. I know when I was in grade school that we had a little garden, where we'd have a couple classes a year and learn about plant biology. I hope this functions a little like that. I also hope we don't nix the location as a potential home for public art....I foresee a "Rabbit" sculpture there in the near future.

Below is a photo of GrandPA as it stands now:

2. On the other side of the office, in Artslyvania, I've been helping Rachel with Dancing in the Street. After I went through all the applications and entered them in a spreadsheet, we went through all the DVDs they submitted on Monday to see if they worked. Most did. Some did not.

We did this for our Tuesday luncheon panel. The panel consisted of Sally Bliss, Mary Strauss, Amy of COCA, Alicia, a dancer and soon-to-be instructor at Webster U, Michael, a former dancer & all-around-riot, Kelly Weber, Mrs. Rachel Kell, and I.

Rachel was on video. Kelly on last year's schedule of dance performances. I was holding onto all the applications so I could readily whip out information that was not listed on the lists they were holding for the panel. It was very interesting to sit in on the panel and hear feedback on all the groups in St. Louis metro area. Of the 35 groups or so that applied for our main Washington stage, the panel voted for about 25 of them to perform on Washington. Many will also perform on the Grandel stage.

I am looking forward to continuing helping with Dancing in the Street.

P.S. Looks like we are getting a SWEET dance act to come down from Chicago for the event. Won't spoil the surprise though.

3. My newest grant proposal assignment: The Dana Brown Charitable Trust
-Purpose: Fund Rabbit #3
-Background: They were the foundation responsible for the funding of "Earth Rabbit." They do not accept grants on consecutive fiscal years, but now we are cleared to apply once more.
-Progress: Pretty good. More writing than Bank of America, but I'm getting close to a first draft to give Jay and Peg. Yay! Probably will be able to give it to them on Friday.

First Grant Submission!

The Bank of America grant I wrote for SCAPE, or Students Creating Art for Public Enjoyment was submitted yesterday (6/15/10)! Feels good. Got notified that they received it and we will know within 90 days whether we receive a grant or not.

Also, we are starting to get more responses from the Annual Appeal. We've recouped all of our money (postage) and our total as of today is $1,255. They were sent only a week and a half ago and we are doing well so far reaching our projected total of $4,000. It's been worrisome and frustrating because the post office insists on sitting on them for a few days before delivering and initially we had several returns because of bad addresses, etc.


I am getting started on several other projects this week including:

-Dancing in the Street. I have been going through dancer applications and entering them in a database, so that they will be ready for panel next week.

-Prospecting potential grantmakers through a program called Foundation Center online for a new project in the section of Grand Center called GrandPA (Grand Public Art) between the Powell and Third Baptist Church. We are hoping to deconstruct GrandPA and replace it with a garden space (To be named) that will involve District youth and educate them about the environment, gardening, and community building.
Thus far, I've found a few potential grantmakers, but I still have quite of bit of research on Foundation Center to do.

Oh! I almost forgot....Today I am heading to the airport with Jay to pick up William Roberti, the managing director of Alvarez and Marsal, former CEO of Brooks Brothers. I know several of my close family friends that will love that tidbit. (Cough...Roxanne). How much do we want bet what he's wearing?

Anyway, Heading to Lambert now!

On to June

So happy to have gotten the bulk of the annual appeals out last Friday. With the help of Jay and Judy, we stuffed nearly 1000 envelopes. Just today, we got our FIRST response back from the appeals....a $250 check (the highest amount on the buck slip) and our donor has chosen to get an engraved nameplate placed on the back of one of the Kranzberg Theatre seats. Hopefully, we get many more just like that one :)

This week I'm continuing to work on the Bank of America grant for SCAPE, or Students Creating Art for Public Enjoyment. You may better recognize the project as the big Rabbit sculpture at the corner of Grand and Washington. Currently the second sculpture is being constructed and is set to be installed later this summer. The grant I am currently writing is for the THIRD sculpture, which is in the design/planning stage. I got my first notes back from Jay, who gave me edits. Then I gave it to Peg, I got a lot of purple on that one. haha. My second...really third draft is ready to go back to her for more purple.

Also, I got tickets for Circus Flora for tomorrow night. Very curious and excited to check it out.

Annual Appeal

Got my final approval for the Annual Appeal letter that I wrote yesterday. Exciting. Also, reworked a past letter for a target audience that purchased buttons at First Night. Right now Jay and I are working on finalizing the list of recipients. We are having a little difficulty getting the spreadsheets integrated, but after lunch we should be able to begin printing and stuffing envelopes.

I've also been assigned my first grant to work on by myself. It is a Bank of America grant that we have gotten before for our Students Creating Art for Public Enjoyment (SCAPE) program, so I have a guideline and precedent to help guide me. We are going to ask for $30,000 that would fund the third installation of the "Rabbit" series. The first being "Earth Rabit" and second currently unnamed project that is a Rabbit and a Bird playing a saxophone together. Anyway, I've written or in some cases reworked the longer paragraph questions, so that is going to Jay to look over and then I'll be set to start entering it electronically.

It's been a busy week, but I feel like I've made a lot of progress and have enjoyed my first grant-writing experience and annual appeal. I'm already nervous for the return though. I hope it's successful!

Belated Thoughts on Visionary Awards

Sadly, I've been away for a few days since the event, but last Wednesday I got to experience my first Grand Center, Inc. event on the organization's side: The 2010 Visionary Awards.

I was particularly looking forward to this event because it exclusively honors women in the arts in St. Louis. In preparation for the event, I got to read the bios of the women being honored. I was blown away by their accomplishments and achievements. I'll go into detail about the six fabulous women a little later.

I arrived the day of the event at 9 AM ready to help prepare for the event. The office was buzzing and I was soon sent over to the Sheldon. With help, I boxed off seats with ribbon to help control the seating process and keep everyone centralized in the venue. Using Rachel's seating chart, we attached name or corporation sheets to each VIP seat. Once the auditorium was set up it looked beautiful, especially with Brown Shoe's decorations on the stage and in the reception area.

After a full day of preparations, Rachel, Travis, and I worked at reception with the guests tickets and name tags. With very few speed bumps, everyone received their ticket and was sent along to the cocktail and appetizer reception upstairs. It was very exciting to see everyone whose names I had heard of so many times in preparation for the event. It was the generosity of these individual and corporate sponsors that made the event possible.

After reception, Travis and I were in charge of seating the attendees. When everyone was seated, the event began.

Everyone's hard work and planning paid off and the event went off without a hitch.

Want to hear more about the honorees? Promise it won't disappoint. *Note-For brevity's sake, I am limiting myself to achievements and observations.

Alison Ferring-Major Contributor to the Arts
A practicing artist, who has served as a curator and non-profit gallery director, but is best known for her unyielding passion and support of the arts and the greater St. Louis community. A founding member of the Shakespeare Festival and Spirit of St. Louis Women's Fund. She serves on the board of COCA, Laumeier Sculpture Park, Places for People and Voices for Children. Alison is also a member of the St. Louis Public Library Foundation Board....And insane as it is....there is more. Alison's involvement in the St. Louis community and her contributions are immeasureable. Seen by everyone whose lives she has impacted, she has made substantial improvements in the St. Louis community.

Renee Franklin- Outstanding Arts Professional
As the community Partnersihps Director at the Saint Louis Art Museum, Renee leads efforts to provide visitor-friendly engagement opportunities for diverse audiences and beyond the museum walls. She has instituted programs such as Friends of African American Art Membership Program, Youth smART, and Art With Us youth programs. Previously, she was head of community and school programs. She was responsible for increasing the diversity of teacher and student partnerships through implementing Master Teacher Summer Fellowship Program and Exploring with the Artist high school program. Her present roles include instructor at Webster University, faculty member for the Regional Arts Committee, and again...there is more.

Lee Nolting-Outstanding Arts Educator
She is a founding faculty member for COCA, and over her 23 years there, has played an instrumental role in establishing pre-professional dance scholarship TIP (Talent Identified Program), student performance companies and award-winning outreach programs. The impact of her work was demonstrated through the anecdotes she shared about East St. Louis youth and the manners in which dance "saves lives." COCA is now nationally recognized by dance companies and her students have better access to a dance career in New York than Nolting could muster for herself. Personally, her story was the most touching to me.

Celia Shacklett- Emerging Artist
Oh, Celia. Upon accepting her award, she brought her guitar on stage and sang along with the crowd a song a young student had written with her entitled "I Love Myself." It was definitely a highlight of the event. Her contagious energy caught onto the entire group.
Celia's accomplishments include her multitude of performances with several bands and well as solo. She collaborates with Celia's Big Rock Band, Fire Dog, Sweet & Low, and performs in her own Celia's Yuletide Express. She dedicates her sumers to SCOSAG (St. Louis City Open Studio and Gallery) as a camp counselor, and truly lives out her mission to "Spread the love."

Susan Slaughter- Successful Working Artist
What an incredible woman. Susan joined the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in 1969 and became the first woman EVER to be named Principal Trumpet of a major symphony orchestra. Susan founded the International Women's Brass Conference, an organization dedicated to providing opportunities and recognition for women brass musicians. In 1996, she founded Monarch Brass, an all-women's brass ensemble, which has toured the US and Europe to critical acclaim. She is a truly groundbreaking woman and I was blown away by her achievements.

Sally Bliss- Lifetime Achievement Award
She has had an extensive dance career performing with The National Ballet of Canada, The Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Metropolitan Opera Ballet, and New York City Opera. In St. Louis, she is best known for her work with Dance St. Louis, which she revived into a growing and thriving arts organization, cultivating the award-winning outreach program. She also served a six-year term on the National Council on the Arts (appointed by Ronald Reagan) to make final recommendations on all the National Endowment for the Arts grants recipients.
These are but a brief summary of one woman's incredible life.

Kind of gives you a lot to live up to, huh? The Visionary Awards left me inspired and motivated. Probably will attend next year as a ticket-buying patron.

A Lot of May

So...it's been about a month, but with finals, graduation, and moving it doesn't feel like it.

Don't worry I've been here.

Lately, we've been working a lot on the development end. I wrote my first "ask" letter to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for First Night, our New Year's Eve event. My job was to rework it, so it sounded new, but asked the same thing. Then I had to find, edit, and attach: organization descriptions, project descriptions, budget, and sponsorship benefits. Ironing out the benefits seemed to be the most troublesome since the event is still pretty far away and details are not completely established.

I feel like I am getting into the groove here too. I just drafted our Annual Appeal letter, which is off to Jay and Peg for notes and editing. I think it sounds good, but we shall see.

My other continuous project is our District Presentation list, which has me on Google and Excel constantly attempting to find people and their employers, so I can get an address. Good thing that my time spent in college on Facebook and LinkedIn were not as much of a waste as I'd thought. The list contains about 700+ names, and probably only a quarter of them were found in our donor database.

Also, I got to sit in on part of a session at Craft Alliance, where children were working on our next Earth Rabbit installation. The students make the individual pieces, and the other day they were working on feathers for the bird.

Other goings-on at Grand Center, Inc. have included the first meeting of "The Twelve," who are beginning to create GCI's "Young Friends of Grand Center, Inc" Group. We met at Kota after work to throw around ideas for what will be our inaugeral event in October.

I'll be back on Wednesday all day to help with Visionary Awards!

Round Two: Events!

If you are familiar with Grand Center, Inc, then you may have heard of the Visionary Awards. These awards honor women for their contributions to the St. Louis arts and culture community. And I quote from grandcenter.org, "Grand Center's Visionary Awards is one of the most prestigious recognitions in the local arts community. The women selected not only demonstrate a mastery of their fields, but a vision that furthers the arts in new and innovative ways, thereby inspiring and promoting positive change in our community." The event will take place on May 19th at the Sheldon Concert Hall.
And the awards go to:
Major Contributor-Alison Ferring
Successful Working Artist- Susan Slaughter
Outstanding Arts Educator- Lee Nolting
Emerging Artist- Celia Shacklett
Arts Professional-Renee Franklin
Lifetime Achievement- Sally Bliss
I would love to go more in depth about each of these amazing women, but I'll save that for a later post.
Back to work related things...Cheri Hutchings, the event planner, came in last Wednesday (23rd) for a meeting where she went over details and the Run of Show......and I got to sit in on the meeting along with Rachel, Peg, Cheri, and Kelly. Pretty cool. Although I've had experience planning events before, I have never had to plan anything quite so detailed. Anyway, an interesting new look at the grown-up side of event planning.
Cheri came in with a three-page checklist, which we went over in detail. We went over programs & name tags, guest lists, sound & lighting, florist, catering, and entertainment. It seemed like most of the details were in order, which is awesome since we have about a month to finish preparing.
So far it looks like my role will be: keeping track of RSVPs and donations, who gets VIP parking, and pretty soon I may be working on name tags. Not super glamorous, but still important details to help with the flow of the event.....
Current update: I'm a little nervous that the RSVP excel sheet I was working on Wed (21st) is now missing Mon (26th). I'll let you know when it shows up.

Welcome to Developmentopia

I had heard about the practicum position that Grand Center was offering through Saint Louis University's Spring Career Fair. (Thank you SLU!). The organization sounded exactly like what I was interested so I stopped by. Three days later I applied and several weeks (and a little anxiety) later I got the call that I was in. So excited.

My first week at Grand Center, Inc introduced me to a side of the District that after four years next door at SLU I never knew existed. I spent the morning before my first day of work in Photography lab, but I did not get much accomplished since I was anxious to get started. Once I arrived Jay and Rachel took me onthe Grand Tour. Here's the breakdown:
I discovered that the Big Brothers Big Sisters building (aka Woolworth Building) had two theatres inside and Craft Alliance which hosts SLU art classes. The Metropolitan Building, sided with the murals, is one of our last big development projects. Also, very exciting news: UMSL's KWMU plans to move in right next to KETC bringing public radio and public television together.
Around the corner I found a hidden gem of burnt-up, architecturally-unsound church, also known as Spring Church. Rachel and Jay explained to me the issues with the property getting restored ($$$$) and also the aesthetic value. I think I still fall on the side of saving it for events and art installations....We'll see.
Farther along, I saw buildings that cater to the "starving artist" with affordable studio and living space. This apartment buildings are next door to The Beaux Arts Building, which is being redeveloped as a Visual and Performing Arts School. Rounding third, we passed the Missouri Theatre Building, which will soon become the Hyatt Place Hotel and Apartments. This building is on the East side of Grand Blvd across the street from a Grass field or as some people call it "an art installation." I guess I don't quite get it...
Seeing all these buildings and organizations that I never knew about intermingled with the Fabulous Fox Theatre, The Contemporary Art Museum, and KETC makes me so honored to be the newest addition to this organization, so here we go!