Excellence:

• The ACM mission is straight-forward and describes the organization and activities
• Broad goals were not delineated but clear objectives were listed with sub-categories: Exhibitions, Education, Events, and Other.
  • Some objectives were difficult to measure, while others were clear, measurable and included a target (e.g., under heading: Education: Increase the visibility of youth programs to attract more students, increasing attendance by 5-10% annually through print & social media advertising).
  • Consider adding a timeline or stretch target to improve assessment efficacy.

• Likewise, there was a similar mix in the activities. Some were measureable and others were aspirations or perfunctory statement without quantitative components.

• Extensive, clearly defined, purposeful community-focused partner collaborations with thepotential for impact on many levels: creative, cultural, socio-economic, personal and professional development, etc. Two additional burgeoning partnerships that warrant involvement/investment are: Solve (providing residential maternity homes for at-risk pregnant women and their babies) and Hope Family Services (where they aim to establish visual arts programs for the adults and children a domestic violence shelter.
• Very confident in the value-added impact of the event and in the organizations ability to carry out the proposal within the grant cycle

Impact:

• Provides vital cultural service to the community (as reflected in the value-added partner collaborations which, aligned by shared a civic purpose, provide valuable social service and amplifies the organization mission
• Citing an annual economic impact on $1.7M and contributing 55FTE jobs and $191,850 to state and local government is praiseworthy and politically relevant.  Consider using more than AFTA’s Arts & Economic Prosperity 5 (Prosperity calculator) which is loaded with case studies, testimonials, valuables quotes, charts and other impactful easy to use statistical data.
• Addition of online sales portal from Giftshop will be helpful valuable addition.
• Very appropriate and effective marketing and promotional activities are in place.

Management:  

• Financial stability (very confident: 
  • 9-month reserve (50% more than the recommended 6 month reserve)
  • Endowment is $592,165.
  • Net assets were $3,035,578 (2016).
• Strategic plan reviewed monthly by BOD (along with fiscal oversight)
• Financials recorded and reviewed monthly (Director, BOD, and Treasurer)
• Independent audit is performed by a CPA (annually).
• There are little to no concerns about the organizations ability to carry out proposed activities during grant cycle or sustain the programs after the grant period

Accessibility:

• Appears to meet ADA accessibility criteria (504 Self Eval, compliance staff person, etc.)

Excellence: Very strong opening synopsis sighting 81 years of operation. Clear, measurable objectives the majority of which detail how they will be achieved. Could strengthen events and other objectives by including how they will be achieved (ie. grow event sponsorships by 5-10% by asking oldest supports to increase their gift). Application strengthened by including documentation in list of activities. Strong partnerships and extensive timeline. 

Impact: Strong economic impact communicated clearly and concisely. TripAdvisor and Facebook statistics demonstrate commitment to marketing and promotion. 

Management: Strong fiscal condition. Appreciated that cash reserve was cited by months of reserve as opposed to dollar amount. Evaluation did list how you track attendance at events.

Accessibility: Arts and Healing program strengthened this section. Also addressed benches within the galleries which no other application mentioned.

creative approach to exhibitions