Director's Letter
Fiscal Year 2016
At the end of each fiscal year, we are required to report statistics on all of our grant programs to the Minnesota State Arts Board. While fulfilling an important requirement, this process also provides a snapshot of how broadly access to excellent arts activities is spread as the result of State of Minnesota funding.
In the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2015, MRAC received 838 applications and awarded 457 grants totaling $3,214,221 to organizations, including a grant to VSA Minnesota for its regranting program, the ADA Access Improvement Grants for Metro Arts Organizations. All of these grants were funded by an appropriation to MRAC from the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the State’s general fund, and a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund. MRAC also received 346 applications from individual artists in the Next Step Fund program and awarded 37 grants totaling $180,450 with funds from The McKnight Foundation. MRAC also provided, free of charge, 14 arts management training sessions and 32 grant application workshops.
My point in providing these statistics is not to boast about MRAC, but rather to help illustrate the phenomenal amount of arts activity in our region. A common observation from grant review panelists is how interesting it is to learn about the number, breadth, and depth of artists, organizations, and projects in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. Indeed, the list of activities funded by MRAC in the “Recent Grant Awards” section of our website illustrates the large number of activities, the vast array of art forms, and the widespread access to the arts in all seven counties of the region.
With our 2016 fiscal year just under way, we look forward to another great year, and I encourage you to contact us with any comments or questions.
Sincerely,
Jeff Prauer
Executive Director
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