CAROLINA PARENTS COUNCIL: 2016-2017 GRANT APPLICATION PART I Grant application consists of two parts: Part I requires contact and program information and the executive summary Part II requires budget and financial information Together Part I and Part II should not exceed six (6) pages. All requested information is required Applications must be received at parents@unc.edu no later than November 2, 2015 at 5:00 p.m. (refer to Grant Application Instructions Details and Guidelines for details) Contact Information: Name of contact person: Carolyn Allmendinger, Director of Academic Programs Allison Portnow, Public Programs Manager Address: Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Campus Box 3400, Chapel Hill, NC Telephone number: (919) 966-5736 Email address: carolyn.allmendinger@unc.edu Please name others participating in this grant application: The Ackland will partner with Student Friends of the Ackland, the Residence Hall Association, and other campus organizations focused on Student Life (https://studentlife.unc.edu/ ) to meet the objectives of this project. Name of Department s financial manager: Warren Ray Email address: warren_ray@unc.edu Telephone number: (919) 962-1121 Program Information: A. Name (title) which will best describe this grant application: Ackland Art Museum Every Student Every Year B. What is the timeline for beginning and completion of program/event? In the academic year 2016-2017, the Ackland will launch a Student Life initiative designed to promote the mission of the Museum and extend the message that the Ackland is for Every Student Every Year as broadly as possible. Beginning with Week of Welcome (WOW) events (mid-august 2016), the Ackland Art Museum will host events every month in partnership with other units on campus to engage undergraduate students at every level of their degree program in positive museum experiences. Among these, for example, will be the Transfer Student Program, the Summer Reading Program, Fall Fest, Senior Marshal s Senior Night, and others. The Ackland has a track record of service with these and other campus initiatives, serving as a site for student discussion groups, events, campus-wide celebrations, and as a venue for student receptions. At the same time, the Museum will partner with the department of Housing and Residential Education to reach the approximately 8,500 students who live on campus. With almost 29% of the entire student body living in settings already predisposed to fostering a sense of community, the Ackland will partner with the 15 traditional resident communities, including Ram s Village and Odum Village, the 2 nontraditional resident communities, and the 9 Residential Learning Programs housed in 10 dormitories. One strategy we are currently exploring is a partnership with the Residence Hall Association (RHA) Community Cup Competition. The RHA program is a year-long competition between the Residence Hall Communities to encourage fun programs, community service and active engagement in the University environment. We envision opening the Museum for extended hours on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday
evenings, with special invitations sent to residence halls. Our working title for each of these events is: Community Night at the Ackland. Each residential community would be given an evening and would be encouraged to obtain 100% participation in friendly competition. Participants at the Ackland would enjoy an evening with light refreshments, student led tours, music, and other hands-on activities. In the final weeks before commencement weekend, similar, targeted end-of-year programming will be developed with the Student Giving program, Senior Marshals, and others to round out the year of consistent opportunities for student participation. With support from the Parents Council, the Museum would also design and implement a marketing campaign (with traditional print and social media), OneCard registration when entering the Museum, and a program of evaluation. We will complete the active phase of the project by graduation weekend, May 2017. C. Outline the proposed program/event objective(s). At the Ackland Art Museum, we believe that an essential part of higher education is the introduction of human creativity expressed through works of visual art. These objects are evidence of cultures across time and around the world and provide unique opportunities to investigate, explore, discover, and infuse all aspects of one s life with the measure of excellence found in an art museum. In 2011, the Ackland adopted a new mission statement to reflect the potential of the Museum to serve the students, faculty, and staff at Carolina, as well as the surrounding communities: The Ackland Art Museum collects, preserves, and presents great art to educate, inspire, and engage the university and its regional, national, and international audiences in free and open inquiry. We are particularly engaged by practices that support free and open inquiry. Inviting individuals and groups to come into the Museum for direct encounters with unique objects is our first strategy for engagement. To that end, the Ackland has established service to every Carolina student, every year of their academic career as a strategic priority. Working closely with our colleagues in the College of Arts and Sciences, as well as the Office of Student Life, the Ackland has designed a plan to systematically engage students and invite them to experience the strength of the Museum and its potential to shape their lives, regardless of their field of academic study. Envisaged as a three-part approach to student engagement at the Ackland, we request support from the Parents Council of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to support the efforts of the third part, the Student Life initiative. Part One: The Student Friends of the Ackland (SFA) Our first effort to more deeply engage students came from the students themselves in the establishment of an official student organization in 2006. The SFA creates opportunities for students to engage in the life of the Museum as participants and volunteers. SFA hosts extracurricular events and programs ranging from social events to panel discussions in the Museum. SFA has an active membership of close to 200 undergraduate students and a listserv that reaches close to 1,000 students. The SFA reconfigured its board in 2014-2015 to 13 active members focusing on strategic areas of engagement, marketing, events, and programs. The SFA will be a substantial partner in the success of our Every Student Every Year project. For example, over the past several years, the SFA has hosted very well attended events for students. Among these are the opening reception for the Master of Fine Art exhibition held every spring at the Ackland, and in partnership with the Senior Marshals, a celebratory Senior Night in the week prior to commencement. In its first year, Senior Night was among the most well-attended evenings of the year: 600 seniors came to the Museum for a celebration of their academic accomplishments. Part Two: Academic Engagement In 2008, the Ackland received a 1 million challenge grant (1:1 match) from the Andrew Mellon Foundation to support academic outreach to all units on campus. The successful completion of this endowment challenge yields ongoing support for positions and programs designed to increase the number
of students and faculty who engage the collection as part of their academic course work. In 2015-2016, the Museum will host approximately 10,000 university student and faculty visitors in guided tours and presentations within the Museum. These students and faculty come from 24 departments and professional schools across the campus, including both expected and surprising units. Art history and studio art constitute a large portion of these visitors, but departments in the sciences, including nursing, team science, and medicine also use the collection for teaching and learning. Student dancers, writers, journalists, and romance language students also engage the collection for classroom assignments. Part Three: Student Life Initiative The final part, and the one for which we are applying for Parents Council support, will create a year-long outreach program establishing the Museum as a cultural hub for student life on the campus. Our plans include opening the Museum for evening hours three nights a week, creating attendance challenges for resident halls, and promoting incentives for participation: special talks with Ackland curatorial staff, visiting artists, and other senior staff; Meet the Director evenings with Art after Dark tours; Up and Down/In and Out tours of Ackland galleries, art storage, and art on campus; and hospitality nights for targeted official student organizations with customized tours (see: https://studentlife.unc.edu/ for a complete list of student organizations). A collectible art button and other art-based projects will introduce collecting to students and help motivate and inspire students to enter and enjoy the Museum. Every Student Every Year strives to meet a more substantive goal than simply increasing the number of students attending, but rather, solidifying a deeper appreciation of the power of visual art and museum practices, and thereby cultivating lifestyle choices that will serve students in their post-academic endeavors. D. Describe how students will benefit and what student needs are being addressed. At the Ackland, as in all academic units at Carolina, our goal is to enhance classroom learning with individual research, scholastic pursuits, and lifestyle opportunities. We see the Museum as a laboratory, a hub, an incubator where works of art inspire creativity and positivity on our campus. We also recognize that undergraduate students are creating lifelong habits of engagement, and participating in and with cultural organizations is one among many ways to support community life. Our goal is to ensure that every student on this campus is encouraged to visit the Ackland, to discover and learn its collection, and over time, to root their subsequent relationships to cultural organizations in their undergraduate experiences at Carolina. E. Describe the profile and estimate the number of undergraduate students served. This project targets every undergraduate student enrolled at the University (in academic year 2014-15, 18,350 undergraduate students). F. Describe how the overall success of the proposed program/event will be measured. The Ackland will measure the success of the program by installing a OneCard reader at the entrance to the Museum and inviting every student who enters to swipe in. This will give us accurate information about nonacademic use of the Museum. We have tracked student participation in courses with formal learning experiences in the galleries and study rooms to date, but have been unable to systematically count those students who attend exhibition openings, public programs, and other events. Similarly, we have not been able to specifically track the number of students who use the building as a place for consolation, solace, personal reflection and revitalization within the context of their education. The Ackland will incentivize student participation with collectible buttons, designed by local artists, manufactured by a local printer who has agreed to underwrite all or part of the production expense, and distributed to students who enter the Museum each semester. The distribution of these collectible buttons will also be an informal measure of participation. A social media component will track Every Student Every Year buttons across campus.
Finally, every student who attends the Museum will receive an electronic survey requesting feedback on their experience (available through an existing university contract with Qualtrics). This feedback will be invaluable in building a sustainable program of service to our students. G. Is this a new or existing program/event? Is this a one-time or continuing program/event? This program builds on previous years engagement with students in both academic and nonacademic museum programs. The Ackland Film Forum and Art à la Carte, both seeded by Parents Council generosity, have become important contributions to student life. In addition, the Student Guides Program was also initially funded by the Parents Council. We believe that this project, when fully designed and implemented in 2016-2017 will create evidence to support continuing in subsequent years and will be a very popular choice for donor directed support. Executive Summary: The Ackland Art Museum requests support from the Parents Council to underwrite Every Student Every Year, a year-long project designed to provide every undergraduate student with a positive experience in the Ackland during every year at Carolina. These experiences may be curricular or cocurricular (rooted in the work of our academic programs department); as part of the official student organization (Student Friends of the Ackland); or, as part of our student life initiatives. Every Student Every Year significantly expands our existing efforts to increase awareness of the Ackland as a student resource by offering students multiple approaches to museum participation. The Museum will record student attendance to confirm that every undergraduate student has an Ackland experience in 2016-2017 and conduct an evaluation protocol to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the project. CAROLINA PARENTS COUNCIL: 2015-2016 GRANT APPLICATION PART II Financial Information: Section A (1): Please consult with department s Financial and HR Manager to complete in order to ensure accuracy. TRAVEL Air Cost Ground Transportation Cost Mileage Reimbursement Rental Car (explain how this is the cheapest form of travel for reimbursement purposes) Motor pool Meals Lodging Registration Other Travel Expenses TOTAL TRAVEL Number of travelers? Name/position of travelers: Please check all that apply to your travel In-State Travel Out-of-State Travel Attending Conference Retreat
OTHER EXPENSES Other Continued on next page OTHER EXPENSES List Location of Travel List details - Supplies and Materials* 1500.00 Postage 00.00 Printing * 11,500.00 Miscellaneous Expenses * 12,000.00 Meeting Expenses * 22,563.00 Describe expense included in each starred item on page 2 of Part II) TOTAL OTHER EXPENSES 47,563.00 TOTAL COST 47,563.00 SECTION A (2): Describe in detail the type of expense being included in the sum of each starred line item (examples: printing what is being printed; supplies what type of supplies). Funding is generally not granted for food, prizes, or give-a-ways. It is best not to ask for these types of items unless they are a vital part of the grant proposal. If a vital part of the program, please provide a detailed explanation. Contract Security For extra open hours One Card reader purchase and installation Marketing & PR 12 Daily Tar Heel Ads Poster Design & Printing PARENTS COUNCIL Ackland/OTHER FUNDERS 13,338 9,225 1,5000 12,000 4,000 18,000 Collectable Art Buttons Design Manufacturing SECTION B 3000 4,500 From the budget projected in Section A, please list the specific items and dollar amounts for which you are requesting Parents Council funding. PARENTS Ackland/OTHER COUNCIL Contract Security for extra open hours 13,338 9,225 One Card reader purchase 1,500 Marketing & PR 12 Daily Tar Heel Ads 12,000 Poster Design & Printing 4,000 Collectible Art Buttons 3,000 4,500 Total Parents Council funds requested 33,838 13,735
SECTION C From Section B above, review the budget items that you are requesting Parents Council funding. Then determine and list only those items that are absolutely imperative to this program s efficacy. You should also consider other funding options that may be available for support of this grant proposal. Insert the budget items and include the dollar amount requested per line item. Making this determination is essential, as the Parents Council may find this grant application worthy of funding, but funds may or may not be available to grant a full approval of the requested amount in Section B. Parents Council Funding amount absolutely imperative to program efficacy: Support for after-hours contract security 13,338 Collectible art buttons (design only) 3,000 OneCard reader & UNC installation and tech support 1,500 Essential Parents Council required for this program/event to be effective 17,838 Section D Briefly explain why Parents Council funds are necessary for this program/event. Current university support is applied chiefly to costs related to staff salaries, collection exhibitions, and collection management. New initiatives and outreach programs require extra support. Once established through initial funding, the Ackland has a strong track record of securing additional support to sustain these types of projects and programs. In the event that the Council cannot fund the full amount particularly the marketing funds the Museum will implement an all-digital program of marketing and/or seek additional funding from other sources. Section E What other anticipated financial support, dollar amounts and resources is expected to be applied toward this grant proposal? The Ackland is in conversation with its National Advisory Board members, individuals and businesses for support for this project. Specifically Jason s Deli, Harris Teeter, Whole Foods for food and beverages at events; Classic Graphics for support in the manufacture of art buttons; and other individuals to support security costs for additional open hours. Section F Has your department or organization ever received Parents Council funds before? If yes, when, how much, and for what purpose? The Ackland has received three grants from the Parents Council which have supported the first efforts to engage and serve students in non-curricular activities. The Ackland Film Forum, Art à la Carte (studio art classes for non-art majors), and the Student Guides Program (training students as volunteer docents) are now successful, ongoing programs supported by donors. Section G Provided the program/activity is successful, how do you anticipate sustaining it financially in the future? The initial investment will document the additional service possible with additional open hours, the efficacy of campus marketing efforts, and thereby create incentives for other funders through positive, measurable impact. We are confident that with one successful year we will be able to secure funds to continue the project. The Ackland has demonstrated this capacity in all three projects previously funded by the Parents Council.