NDCA Statewide Arts Conference & Governor's Awards 2007

March 5-6, 2007

North Dakota's biennial Statewide Arts Conference will take place at the Ramkota Hotel in Bismarck on March 5-6, 2007.  This conference will include an intensive, four-hour workshop by Creation in Common co-founder and consultant, Carlo Cuesta, titled “Effective Participation Building: Creating a Strategy for Growing Your Organization's Audiences and Supporters.”  Learn how to identify target groups, learn specific cost-effective and time saving techniques for researching these groups, create strategies to build participation with them, and how to evaluate the results of your efforts!  Carlo will also be giving the luncheon keynote "From Me to We: The Arts as the Ultimate Community Development Tool.”

In addition to Carlo Cuesta's workshop Ben Klipfel, Director of the Arts Marketing Services in Grand Forks, will give you arts marketing ideas that work; Craig Dunn, VSA Minnesota, will share information on the VSA national program and how to make your organizations places where all people with disabilities learn through, participate in and enjoy the arts; insurance representatives will hold a discussion on the insurance needs of artists and arts organizations; and a new statewide communication tool, Culture Pulse, will be explored.  These are interesting topics, and all of them are relevant to anyone involved in the North Dakota arts scene.  Please make plans to join us for this two-day conference event.  Expenses for the conference have been kept low in order to encourage your attendance!

NDCA Artist-in-Residence rostered Visual Artists, Performing Artists and Literary Artists Showcases will be featured in conjunction with the 2007 statewide arts conference scheduled for March 4-6, 2007 at the Ramkota Inn, Bismarck, North Dakota.  During the Showcases, artists will show samples and/or demonstrate an art form; and describe what they do in the classroom and community during a school residency. In addition, an exhibit hall will also be set up during the conference for participants to visit with the showcase artists.

NDCA’s Board meeting will take place on Sunday, March 4, 2007, at the Ramkota Hotel, in Bismarck, from 1-4 p.m. in Room 3160. The public is invited to attend.

Registration for the conference is $55. Make your check(s) payable to the Dakota West Arts Council (DWAC). Mail the form along with your registration fee to: NDCA, 1600 E. Century Avenue, Suite 6, Bismarck, ND 58503-0649. For more information contact NDCA at (701) 328-7590, or E-mail amschmid@nd.gov.

ND Governor’s Awards for the Arts Kicks off NDCA’s 40th Anniversary!

In conjunction with the arts conference is the North Dakota Governor’s Awards for the Arts Dinner and Awards Ceremony, which also kicks off the 40th Anniversary celebration for the North Dakota Council on the Arts! The North Dakota Governor’s Awards for the Arts program is presented by the Governor’s Office and the North Dakota Council on the Arts to recognize individuals and organizations who have made outstanding contributions to the arts in the state.

The 2007 Governor’s Awards for the Arts Dinner and Awards Ceremony will take place on Tuesday, March 6, 2007 at the Ramkota Hotel in Bismarck honoring: Little Country Theatre/NDSU Theatre of Fargo, in the Arts Organization category; Laurel Reuter of Grand Forks, and Beth Gigante Klingenstein of Valley City, in the Individual Achievement category; and Cynthia Schumaier-Jelleberg of Belcourt, in the Arts in Education category. Reservations are required and tickets are $25. To order your tickets, please fill out the registration form, call (701) 328-7590 or email jwebb@nd.gov. Social hour starts at 5:00 p.m., followed by dinner at 6:00 p.m.

Creation in Common Collaborator to Deliver
Keynote Address at Arts Conference

As Managing Partner, Carlo Cuesta oversees client services and leads research and planning engagements. He has 17 years of experience leading and working with nonprofits, foundations, and government agencies with a particular focus on participation-building, branding and fundraising. Carlo received his Master’s of Business Administration from University of St. Thomas, with a concentration in venture management in December 2004.

Carlo is lead trainer for the Minnesota State Arts Board’s Statewide Audience Development Initiative; and Co-Author of McKnight Foundation commissioned report – Bright Stars: Charting the Impact of Art on Greater Minnesota. He has led research and planning engagements with Sidney Health Center, The Jerome Foundation, Minnesota Care Providers, Minnesota Citizens for the Arts, Irish Fair, Plains Art Museum, and Illusion Theater; and led the Playwrights’ Center through a successful capital campaign that led to the renovation of its 100-year-old Victorian church into a state of the art theater facility. Currently providing campaign counsel for Commonweal Theater Company’s $3.5 million capital and endowment campaign. As the Producer and General Manager for Shakespeare In The Park (Dallas/Fort Worth, TX), Carlo created outdoor summer festivals that drew thousands of people per night, strengthening this professional company’s market share and relationship with corporate sponsors.

About Creation in Common (CIC) - Now in it’s fourth year, Creation In Common’s mission is to strengthen communities through shared creativity. CIC believes: engaged collaboration is the ultimate method in which to create vibrant communities working in harmony toward a shared vision; knowledge is in constant motion and is formed through playful interaction, the active exchange of ideas and concepts, and the testing of solutions that lead to enlightening truths and courageous failures; and real change is made possible by guidance and leadership that supports creativity, passion, diverse perspectives, and debate.

CIC’s organizational promise is to create a global network of collaborators who together are recognized as leaders at strengthening communities through shared creativity.