HomeMy WebLinkAboutMemo - Mail Packet - 10/24/2023 - Information From Kelly Dimartino Re: Memorandum From Nick Heimann Re: Cultural Community Programs Annual ReportMEMORANDUM
DATE: October 5, 2023
TO: Kelly DiMartino, City Manager
THROUGH: Tyler Marr, Deputy City Manager
Dean Klingner, Community Services Director
Jim McDonald, Cultural Services Director
FROM: Nick Heimann, Cultural Community Programs Manager
RE: Cultural Community Programs Annual Report
Purpose
The purpose of this memo is to highlight the impact of the first full year of the ARPA-funded
Cultural Community Programs to the City Manager. The attached report includes statistics and
narrative describing one year since first Program activation, June 2022 through June 2023.
The following statistics are included in the Annual Report demonstrating the impact of the
Program:
•108 unique engagements implemented.
•33 internal and external partnerships engaged.
•249 artists hired, including members of a group such as a band.
•4,700+ community members engaged, including passive and active engagement.
The Program achieved its impact in part due to various partnerships, including:
•City departments including: Transfort, Parks, Equity & Inclusion Office, and
Neighborhood Services.
•External partners including: Boys and Girls Club of Larimer County, Colorado State
University cultural centers, Harmony Village Mobile Home Park, and CARE Housing.
Since June 2023, the following highlights additional impact not included in the Annual Report:
•Supported five (5) community-produced, music-centered events made possible from
an unsolicited $25,000 grant from Bohemian Foundation.
o Includes two (2) CARE Housing events, Rogers Park neighborhood block party,
Mexican Independence Day event at Poudre Valley Mobile Home Park, and an
event at Harmony Village Mobile Home Park.
•Implemented an additional 32 engagements reaching 1,100+ additional community
members.
For additional information on Cultural Community Programs, please contact Nick Heimann at
nheimann@fcgov.com.
Enclosed: Cultural Community Program Annual Report 6.22-6.23
Cultural Services Department
215 N. Mason St.
Fort Collins, CO 80522
fcgov.com/culturalservices
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October 19, 2023
TO: Mayor & City Councilmembers
FROM: Kelly DiMartino
FYI /sek
ANNUAL REPORT
June 2022—June 2023
Cultural Community Programs
Cultural Services Department
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Background
The Cultural Community Program works to equitably
integrate arts and culture into the Fort Collins
community, especially in locations not typically
programmed and beyond conventional cultural
facilities. The Program is part of the City of Fort
Collins’ Cultural Service Department, and both staff
and programming have been funded from American
Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars since 2022. In May
2022, the contractual role of Cultural Community
Programs Manager was filled by Nick Heimann,
fulfilling an objective in the 2019 FoCo Creates Arts
and Culture Master Plan (Plan).
The Program is activated in various ways to achieve
the outcome of integrating art and culture into the
community:
Pop-up performances: hiring and often co-creating
with local artists to design and implement pop-
up art performances and engagements held in
unconventional public places such as trails, parks, and
within neighborhoods.
Plugging in: supporting externally coordinated events
with strong alignment to the Program by funding arts
and cultural components.
Co-creation: deferring decision-making and vision
to local artists to produce initiatives driven by local
creatives. While co-creation has led to the production
of unique projects, the approach also underpins
essentially all Program initiatives.
Approach
The Plan outlines a vision for equitable, inclusive, and
diverse arts and cultural programming across the Fort
Collins community. The following goals have become
fundamental principles for the Program to adhere to
in order to accomplish various objectives outlined in
the Plan:
• Ensure equitable opportunities for diverse artists
to reach and engage with diverse and often
underserved community segments.
• Fund and support the Fort Collins creative sector
as a whole.
• Create and integrate a diverse, proactive suite of
programming into the community that highlights
all art forms and disciplines, designed in ways
that facilitate learning, capacity building, and
engagement when feasible.
• Promote collaboration and co-creation with
partners internal and external to the City as well
as across and within artistic disciplines.
108
Number of engagements
33
Internal and external
partnerships
249
Artists hired (including
individuals part of a group),
a vast majority of which
self-identify as a member of
a typically marginalized social,
socioeconomic, or racial and
ethnic group
4,700 +
Public participation and
engagement, active and
passive
Progress to Date
The following metrics outline Program
achievements from June 2022 through June 2023:
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Year One Highlights
Each Cultural Community Program engagement is
unique and offers the possibility of serendipitous,
meaningful moments between the Fort Collins
community and local artists. A few examples are
highlighted here:
Pop-up Performances
Multiple series of pop-up engagements have occurred
between April and June 2023.
Spring 2023 featured a series of performing arts pop-
ups including musical theater, contemporary dance,
and live music titled Dancing in Our Sorrow and Joy.
In May, five musicians and four literary artists popped
up at select transit stations in a series titled Let’s Ride:
an arts-bound transit experience. During Rainbow
Rhythms, eight local LGBTQ-identifying musicians were
hired to perform for one hour each while being driven
around the community in a cargo bike lent from the
Fort Collins Bicycle Co-op.
Plugging in
The Program continued to support external initiatives by
hiring local creatives to augment planned events.
2023 began by continuing a partnership with Boys
and Girls Clubs in Fort Collins, which included near-
weekly programming with two local clubs and three
unique artists facilitating themed engagements.
Black History Month featured significant support to
various Black and African American organizations and
events. In April, the Program partnered with Colorado
State University (CSU) to implement a t-shirt screen
printing pop-up series aligned to Asian Pacific and
Desi American Heritage Month, including a meet and
greet at City Hall with the facilitating artist.
Throughout the fall, winter, and spring, a partnership
with CSU’s Dance Department brought 15 student-led
dance performances to various community locations
including Columbine Health, The Matthews House,
and a partnership with Poudre Library District’s all-
electric mobile library.
Harmony Village Mobile Home Park and CARE
Housing communities were also included in
programming between Fall 2022 and Spring 2023,
including a magician, live music, and hip-hop dancing
demonstrations.
Co-creation
Through co-creation, the Program defers decision-making to community members and local creatives to leverage their
interests and expertise in planning and implementing a variety of programming.
In collaboration with Fort Collins’ Poet Laureate and a team of literary artists, a collaborative community poetry
project, titled Our Animal Body, included a 10-foot sculpture used to receive community responses to select
prompts, two community events to create the community poem, and a physical “zine” distributed to coffee shops,
Free Little Libraries, and other accessible locations.
A youth-led team collaborated on the first LGBTQ-identifying youth “prom” called Magical Masquerade, which was
hosted at the Museum of Discovery to start Pride Month in June 2023.
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Partnerships
The following list includes all partners engaged with since December 1, 2023:
For additional information:
Nick Heimann, Cultural Community Programs Manager | nheimann@fcgov.com
Community Partners
Boys and Girls Clubs
• Fort Collins Club
• Harmony Club
• Wellington Club (in concert)
CARE Housing
CSU Annual Flower Trial Gardens
CSU Asian Pacific American Cultural Center
CSU Black/African American Cultural Center
• United Men of Color
• United Women of Color
• GPS Program
CSU Dance Department
CSU LEAP Program
CSU Pride Resource Center
EcoThrift and Funktional
Fort Collins Bicycle Co-op
Fort Collins Musicians Association
Full Expression! A Dance Collective
Harmony Village Mobile Home Park
Interfaith Solidarity and Accompaniment Coalition
(ISAAC)
Juneteenth community event organizers
La Familia
Old Town North
Poudre Library District
Race Amity Day community event organizers
Summitstone Health Partners
The Matthews House
United Way
Wolverine Farm Press
City of Fort Collins Partners
Art in Public Places
Equity Office
FC Moves
FCTV
Historic Preservation
Museum of Discovery
Neighborhood Services
Parks
Recreation
Transfort
23-25646 | Auxiliary aids and services are available for persons with disabilities.
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