Excellence:

• Mission statement and goals are reasonable, clear, and inclusive
• 30 proposed exhibitions (themed, solo and special) on and off-site reflects a wide array of media and germane themes (K-12 student mask making, feminist iconography, etc.) and shows a commitment to reaching divergent populations (age, abilities, locale, etc.)  and elevates visibility and potential for quantitative and qualitative growth (in event attendance and memberships).
• Educational programs and partnerships are clearly described and fully support the mission and the volunteer program involvement and operations are encouraging
• Consider asking external independent jurors to take on an expanded consulting role to gather expert objective data on the strengths, areas of concern, and comment on the qualitative and quantitative aspects of a given event and/or overall programming.
• Partners and relational context are appropriate and very clearly delineated
• Evaluation methods are appropriate and indicate forethought about assessment (measurable criteria and data analysis). Consider adding stretch targets to activities to further enhance benchmarking

Impact:

• The numbers of total people engaged (29,283), school based youths (1,572), non-school youths (3,049), adults (4,039, and artists (425) is a good cross-section blend.
• Narrative hints at quantitative and qualitative impact statement and “creative class” ROI for proposed activities. Citing a corresponding source that can show how Artel Gallery invests approximately 50% of our annual budget back into the local economy will validate your value-added impact on the local economy.
• Consider using American’s for the Arts, AEP5’s economic impact calculator, statistics and/or testimonials to help fortify the value-added claims that cultural tourism helps cycle new dollars through the local economy
• Hiring small local printers and caterers show the commitment to keep local dollars local, which further sustains the local economy which engenders a cycle of creative class benefits for individuals, artists and arts agencies, businesses, local government, etc.
• Broad strategic marketing plan
  

Management:

• Very confident in Artel’s financial stability and ability to carry out proposed activities in grant cycle and sustain future porgramming
• Evaluation methods are measurable and help Artel fulfill its mission and proposed programs.
• Consider adding external evaluators (or increasing the role for jurors and related independent experts to review data collection and improvement plans)

Accessibility:

• Compliance descriptions detail how physical and economic impediments to access are mitigated. Artel also strives to improve accessibility for all people by empowering disabled volunteers with help from a partner, Pyramid, INC. Taken together this exemplary approach for a small organization exceeds required accessibility compliance (504 Self Eval, compliance staff person, ADA compliant, etc.)

Outreach and openness seem strong - eg. Brownsville and Lobby Lagniappe programs. 

Quality and ambition could be stronger. Leans heavily on juried shows.

Budget is very modest. No staff.

This application is very strong. The grant request is not that high given the list of services, breadth of people served and collaboration. To be an all volunteer organization for over 20 years and offering this array of activities to this many people is impressive.

Excellence: Very clear and thorough breakdown of goals, objectives, and activities. Measurable objectives, but would have been stronger if how statement was included (ie. Increase membership 5% through targeted appeal to people who live in 32502 zipcode). Timeline could be flushed out more. Letter of support affirmed the excellence section.

Impact: In economic section, unsure how 50% of annual budget goes back into the economy. Use of economic impact calculator would strengthen this section. In education, would have liked to have seen more details about what your outreach programs entail at area festivals.

Management: Addressing how the organization plans for long-term sustainability despite an all-volunteer staff would have strengthened the application. In the evaluation section, some items need to be expanded upon (ie. what donor trends are you measuring, what counts as a student/teacher interaction and is that the best way to evaluate success). Additional point subtracted for multi-year track record of late submissions.

Accessibility: Positive to see free to the public, but left question about where admission revenue in budget comes from.

What makes the gallery experimental? How are artists pushed in their practice? 

Great to be serving an area that does not have a lot of art.