Looking ahead by looking back: A TAP year in review

You may have read my arts sector wrap up in Monday’s Forum, but I want to take some time to wrap up our fabulous 2019 from The Arts Partnership’s standpoint, too. First of all, thank you to everyone who supported TAP in so many ways throughout this past year. We can’t do what we do without your financial, moral, physical and emotional support, so thank you for all of that.

Here are only a very few of our highlights:

• These last couple of years at TAP have seen tremendous growth in interest in the arts from the business sector. In 2019, we posted a record number of Calls for Artists from around the Metro. That means a growing number of artists are seeing their work on utility boxes, benches, Eames chairs, public murals, inside businesses and so much more. AND, artists are getting paid for this work—a point of particular interest to us as we work to help the community better understand that “exposure” doesn’t put food on tables or pay bills. Artists are entrepreneurs and small businesses in their own right, and we are thrilled at all the paid opportunities that opened up last year.

What #holidaytravel stress? Dr. Earnest Lamb, Dean of the College of Arts, Media and Communication at @MSUMoorhead, played in this morning's #FlyFargo @Arts_TAP musical performances. See who may be playing when you're traveling: https://t.co/Soj597R62R #ArtWORKS #airportart pic.twitter.com/mBVudLaSG6

— Fargo Airport (@fargoairport) December 23, 2019

This week we had the opportunity to vinyl wrap city benches with designs from local artists to be displayed in the downtown community! 🤩

S/O to @FargoACC + @Arts_TAP + @DowntownFargo for making this collaboration possible!#WheresOSCWednesday #OfficeSignCompany #ILoveSigns pic.twitter.com/G7OviJOnNd

— Office Sign Company (@OfficeSigns) November 20, 2019

• We hosted a series of Business Breakfasts with leaders from outside the community to engage the local business sector in understanding the value of the arts to their bottom lines. Thank you to the Consensus Council for a grant to support these programs. Thank you to Flint Communication and Microsoft for additional sponsorship.
• We brought in Deborah Diamond, Director of Campus Philly, to discuss how to better attract and retain our college and university graduates to the Metro through a program called Campus FM. Thank you to Gate City Bank for sponsoring that program.

Dr. Benjamin Sung performs at A Salon pARTy

• We launched Salon pARTy, a new way to engage in the arts from an intellectual and community-drive experience. Thank you to Dr Benjamin Sung and Emily Williams-Wheeler for being such excellent artists at our sold out first event.
• We worked with West Acres to open *Aptitude, a 6,000 square-foot space incorporating 19 artist studios, a kiln room and opportunities for artistic engagement with the larger community. As the single largest gift in the history of The Arts Partnership, this newly opened space is being defined and redefined as we work in real time with the permanent studio artists and guest artists for various opportunities.
• We grew our ArtWORKS program to 15 venues, including now providing live music at Hector International Airport in addition to the visual art. Thanks to Choice Financial, Office Sign Company, Vetter Dental, NDSU’s Barry Hall, Block E Moorhead, Luna, Nichole’s Fine Pastry, Regional Small Business Center and The Fargo Forum for also being locations for this exciting program.

Yesterday evening we got to see the fabulously creative staff at @OfficeSigns draw imaginative creatures with artist @markericelton through our ArtWORKS program. #SupportLocalArt pic.twitter.com/alIhJjOVa7

— The Arts Partnership (@Arts_TAP) August 16, 2019

We hosted a series of successful Holiday Art Markets leading up to Christmas. We learned so much about who this largely new-to-us audience of mall shoppers is, and we were delighted with the positive response we received from so many people who were thrilled with the prospect of meeting and purchasing from actual artists.

One aspect of Aptitude that has excited us from the initial conversations with West Acres was the idea that this space, inside this dynamic community gem, would be a gateway to the rest of the arts sector. We know that people from hundreds of miles away routinely travel to the Metro to enjoy all that West Acres has to offer. How might we use this new location to introduce all the arts in the community to guests of the mall?

Well, we couldn’t love this any more! Thanks to @designknight and @firelineneon for taking Henri Matisse’s words and bringing them to light in this most glorious way at #Aptitude to #support local art https://t.co/5kMlhNXBTv

— Dayna Del Val (@DaynaTAP) November 20, 2019

Aptitude has the intriguing mystery of the wardrobe in C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Our long entryway could dissuade the casual shopper from making the trek down, but the inviting “Creativity Takes Courage” sign from Fireline Neon Company and Cereal, by way of Henri Matisse, draws people in despite their initial hesitation. Once they walk down the hallway, however, a whole new world of nearly two dozen charming artist studios opens up to them, and you almost always hear an, “Oh wow!” or an audible intake of breath at their surprise. We want that surprise to be experienced in both the actual space and for Aptitude to be the place that opens up to the rest of the arts in the community, too.

Going forward this year, we’re envisioning Aptitude as an interpretive center for the arts, similar to any state or national park interpretive center. Aptitude will be an all-inclusive, immersive arts experience where people learn about how to even more deeply explore all of these artistic opportunities within and beyond our doors and out into the rest of the Metro. Already, Aptitude has art for sale made by local artists, many of whom are renting space and whom you can meet in person. We’re working with West Acres to develop a First Fridays free concert series with local performers outside Aptitude’s main entrance. We expect to start offering artist talks and art making opportunities for the public very soon in this new year as well.

Inside Rockgirl Studios, Dina Schulz balances workspace including a jeweler’s bench and various tools with her jewelry and rock displays. Photo by Ethan Mickelson of The Arts Partnership

Aptitude will be most successful and serve its greatest purpose if it is a springboard to promote the entire arts sector. We have installed a massive 4k monitor to introduce and promote the more than 120 Partner organizations, artists and arts-related businesses in the community through calendar events, advertising, videos and more. We want to ensure that those who come to Aptitude have a better sense of all that this arts community has to offer them.

BEFORE: Brad Schlossman of West Acres Mall and Dayna Del Val of The Arts Partnership.

AFTER: Dayna Del Val, Brad Schlossman and artist Tara Fermoyle insider her brand new studio.

They say success begets success, so the ultimate barometer of absolute success for us will be if you, the public, move from wondering about what’s going on in that corner space of the mall to walking in to Aptitude to experience the various opportunities that will be available. And then, will you take it even one step further and head East towards downtown and in to Moorhead to take advantage of the artistic opportunities we promote and the avenues to deepening your artistic engagement that are scattered all around this artistically-rich community?

This is an exciting time for the arts and The Arts Partnership, but more crucially, it’s an exciting time for the community to participate more fully in the arts. That’s why, in 2019, the Board of Directors of The Arts Partnership voted to change our mission statement from “cultivating the arts in the community” to “cultivating the community through the arts.” We invite you to step inside the wardrobe and see what a glorious world exists down the hall and out into the Metro. Believe me, you will love what you discover.

*Special thank you to The Fargo Moorhead Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, Office Sign Company, and private donors for additional funding to assist in our completion of Aptitude.