2018-399-E Arts - Hillsborough Arts Council salary support arts grant

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DocuSign Envelope ID: 6C20D6C2- CD25- 4B09- 85C1- D62726BBA343 Moving forward, financial sustainability and support to the art community will be key to steady growth to meet the needs of our growing community. But we can't do it alone. As our only part time staff position of Program Coordinator held by Eileen Ferrell develops into a full time Executive Directors position, our board members time is being freed up to reach out to the community more than ever. In the past year of employment and learning about the arts council, Eileen has been assisting in developing the ED position. She has developed appropriate systems and has established herself as the face of the council. She has been keen to see fund raising opportunities that has given the board confidence to push for her new position. This new energy gained by the board has pushed them to put in more time to reach our goals. We are meeting one on one with other organizations and businesses to inform and strengthen our partnerships. We are increasing our communications through email and meetings with our town and county commissioners to not only keep them informed of our progress, but to listen to them on what they would like to see in the arts. The Town of Hillsborough Commissioners has excepted our invitation to present them with regular reports keeping them informed about the state of the arts and how they can support our efforts. We invite the OCAC to be included. These are the building blocks for more involvement and support in the arts council. The area of earned income is being looked at from all angles for all programs by a newly formed committee. More impressively is our preliminary study of forming an education program which will bring classroom experiences to the community. Through this year, we have established that we have a broad customer base and we have the artists who want to be employed to teach. Since we started to move forward with our inquiry we have been offered many spaces and partnerships to help establish art classes. We also have received donations of clay studios equipment and supplies adding up to over $30,000. The only missing piece is finding the time to establish and oversee a coordinator /chair for the program. Our new fundraising committee is led by our newest board member who is broadening our efforts through corporate, foundation and business outreach, We have come a long way to get ready for this point in our development. But we still need your help to attain better financial sustainability. We need funds to create our own funds with the hope that soon we will become more self- sustained, relying less on your financial support. Without a full time Executive Director to support the efforts and strides that our board has made, we will not be able to maintain our momentum. Though without your increased support the Hillsborough Arts Council will refocus to maintain our existing programs but that is all we will be able to do. What we will loose is the time and effort we put in to maintain the needed connections and involvements to grow and strengthen the organization. Finally, our efforts to establish this position has created additional support from the Town of Hillsborough, Hillsborough Tourism Board, the County and from businesses and our local base of Artists.