Noblesville Creates Annual Meeting Recap

17 Jul Noblesville Creates Annual Meeting Recap

If you missed this year’s Annual Meeting on July 12th, fret not!  The transcript and Powerpoint Presentationfrom the meeting are available here!

Click here to view the Annual Meeting Powerpoint Presentation

TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome: presented by Corrie Meyer

• Thank you for joining us today!
• Once a year, we take time to reflect on the past year, share our accomplishments, and look ahead to the future.
• I would like each board member to now introduce themselves, including how long they have been on the board and what their interest in this organization has been
  • Board members:
    • Darren Peterson, incoming President
    • Leslie Geiger, Vice President
    • Jocelyn Vare, Secretary/Treasurer
    • Gino Johnson
    • Chris Jensen
    • Liz Foley
    • Brenda Myers, Ex-officio
    • Bobbi K. Samples (newly elected)
    • John Scott Foster (newly elected)
    • Katie Thompson (newly elected)
• I have been the President of the Noblesville Creates Board of Directors since 2015 and today is my final day in that role
• I have seen this organization grow in many ways during my tenure, including:
  • Becoming a 501-c-3
  • Creating two successive strategic plans
  • Assisting with the installation of more than half a dozen pieces of public art
  • Providing arts instruction to dozens of students
  • Working with hundreds of artists
  • Exhibiting thousands of pieces of art
  • And cultivating a million ideas!
• I will look back on my time as president fondly and can’t wait to see all of the amazing things that the board, staff, volunteers, and community members will come up with in the coming years.
• Today, we will share with you the roadmap we will be using to guide our actions in the coming years: our latest Strategic Plan was developed with careful reflection on the evidence we have gathered during our first six years of operation and with a focus on continuing to build financial stability into our futures.
• We also want to share some numbers with you
  • In 2017, 6,918 visitors came to our Noblesville campus, which is pretty steady with the year before. Holding steady was our goal, since we put more of our focus in Atlanta and Fishers in 2017.
  • We invested $38,204.07 in partner organizations
  • We paid $18,228.55 directly to artists for teaching classes, organizing programs, in prizes, and for commissioned art!
  • Artists sold $26,466.64 in art from our galleries and gift shop
  • As part of our 2018 Fiscal Year budget (which ended on June 30th), we added over $70,000 to our operating reserve, which is about 20% of our annual expenses, and was much higher than our goal for the year. This is very important because it adds to the cushion we need to help us weather economic turmoil and improves our grant applications to many foundations
  • And we want to share a new metric: we made 8 on-air appearances in 2017, promoting events, artists and other cultural assets in our communities, leading to approximately 80,000 impressions!
• We want to build on this success with cultivating resources, sustaining our growth, and building the reputation of our arts community, and that’s why we ratified a new mission & strategic plan. I’ll let our new President of the Board, Darren Peterson tell you more!

New Mission & Strategic Goals: presented by Darren Peterson:

• Hello!
• I have served as a board member since 2016 and I am excited to be stepping up as the President of the Board because this is a great time for the arts! Opportunities are growing in each of our communities, and the Noblesville Creates team is just the right group to keep the momentum going and build on those opportunities so that we all can benefit and enjoy even more great arts experiences
• As Corrie mentioned, this spring, we ratified a new mission statement and a new strategic plan
• Our new mission statement is “Noblesville Creates cultivates arts resources to enrich the lives of everyone who experiences our community.”
• This new mission moves us away from supporting, promoting and providing experiences and instead directs us to develop the tools, resources, and connections necessary to help everyone prosper and expand their own creativity.
• So, while we’ll still put on beloved events like ‘Welcome to Fairyville,” you may see us more often at the table with city departments, discussing integrating art assets into the city infrastructure, or promoting funding opportunities for artist projects, or learning the details about another group’s classes so that we can effectively cross-promote them.
• Here’s a quick overview of our new strategic plan:
  • We’ve broken it down into three sections
  • We’re going to focus on Cultivating Arts Resources by:
    • Increasing artists’ economic viability and highlighting their impact on the community
    • Celebrating patrons’ impact and influence
    • Recruiting advocates within municipal administrations, education, and volunteer sectors
    • Maintaining a professional staff with expertise in arts & nonprofit management
    • Promoting the value of community-based public art assets
  • We’re going to Sustain Growth through:
    • Cultivating a diverse network of partners committed to working together to achieve our goals and further our mission
    • Diversifying funding partners through careful and strategic investment of staff and board time and effort
    • Establishing and maintaining an operating reserve
    • Collecting and leveraging data to drive viability
    • Maturing organizational leadership
  • We plan to Build Reputation by:
    • Becoming the trusted leader in community arts development
    • Developing and refining the channels necessary to communicate our story and legacy effectively
• I know that’s a lot to absorb, and believe me, the staff has spent weeks digesting these points and figuring out what they mean for daily operations.
• But the biggest takeaway is that we are going to focus on the big picture and how we can strategically invest our time & resources to improve that big picture to help artists, residents, visitors, businesses and our community as a whole thrive.
• Good thing we have a great team here at Noblesville Creates to help make all of this happen! I am now going to turn things over to Aili McGill and her staff to talk a little bit more about our recent accomplishments and our plans for next steps.

Next Steps: presented by Aili McGill

• Thanks, Darren and Corrie!
• Yes we are very excited about this new direction, which is exemplified by the new relationships we have with the city of Noblesville and the City of Fishers.  As of Jan 1, we are the arts consultant for each city, helping them organize and manage their arts assets, keep communication open with local arts organizations and artists within the city, and plan ahead for the future.
• Importance of partnerships: working together, not duplicating efforts
• And artists are still a core part of what we do.
• You are going to hear from several staff members:
  • Rachael O’Dell, Artist Liaison & exhibit coordinator
  • Kristi Rowe, Operations and Partnership Coordinator
  • Joan Seig, Guest Experience Intern
• We have a lot to do
• But it’s worth it

Artists: presented by Rachael O’Dell

• We are always looking for new ways to connect artists to good opportunities
• In 2017 we:
  • Sold 2,465 items by 76 different artists
  • Increased sales by almost 50% over 2016
  • Coordinated 39 exhibits
    • 12 in the Judge Stone House
    • 11 in the Stephenson House
    • 8 in Fishers City Hall
    • 5 at Meyer Najem
    • And 3 in our Atlanta space
  • Coordinated events on 200 days
• This is why we are always exhausted
• But this is also why we have a huge impact. We used the Americans for the Arts Economic Prosperity Calculator to analyze last year’s numbers, which indicates that our 2017 programs and services:
  • Supported 20.7 Full-time-equivalent jobs in the community
  • Drove nearly half a million dollars of household income
  • And brought in about $25,000 in income for local governments and $28,000 for the state government
• The Arts drive economic development in our community and that’s why we think it is so important to support and celebrate local artists of all kinds
• In the next year, we plan to:
  • Continue to coordinate exhibits in Noblesville, Fishers, and Atlanta and support Third Thursdays in Cicero
  • Explore opportunities for artists with the new Nickel Plate Heritage Railroad, which will be opening up new avenues for the arts in Arcadia and Atlanta, in particular
  • Continuing to offer ‘The Art of Business’ professional development opportunities in partnership with the Noblesville Chamber
  • Promote artist-run classes on our campus and through our partners
  • Develop public art
  • Look for opportunities for artists to increase the leadership roles they play in each community
• We always want your input and ideas to help springboard our next projects.  Please contact me, especially if you have suggestions for:
  • Exhibit themes for 2019
  • Volunteers who want to help hang exhibits, teach classes, organize programs, or develop public art
  • Professional development opportunities for artists
  • Ways to more efficiently or effectively pair up with other organizations or businesses that also want to celebrate the work of local artists, performers, and musicians.
• That leads us right into partnerships, and for that, I’ll turn things over to Kristi Rowe

Partners: presented by Kristi Rowe

• Thanks, Rachael
• The longer we have worked in this field, the more we have realized that effective partnerships are critical for the overall health of our arts community: we have found more than a dozen arts-focused organizations and businesses operating just within Noblesville, and it’s critical that we figure out how to work together so that we can share resources and benefit from each other’s strengths.
• In 2017, we had 9 official partners, plus our consultancies with the cities of Fishers and Noblesville
• We also has 25 corporate sponsors, all of whom were interested in growing the creative economy
• As Corrie said, we contributed $38,204.07 to our partners to support their missions.  This included:
  • $5,775 in cash
  • $13,221 in print ads and online promotion
  • and $19,01.07 in in-kind services (meaning staff time devoted to planning and projects for other organizations)
• We also helped to support the planning for Ignite, the new makerspace at the Fishers library – grand opening on July 21st. Each of the Noblesville Creates staff will be there, supporting the library staff in engaging patrons in artistic learning
• It is very important to us to share our resources wisely to help other organizations, businesses, and individuals grow.
• In the the next year, we plan to:
  • Expand the impact of the Noblesville Arts Council through collective impact
  • Strengthen the relationships among Fishers arts organizations and businesses to improve their effectiveness and impact
  • Relaunch the Atlanta Artists Studio Space
  • Continue to look for connections within and outside of our region that can benefit artists and partners alike
• As Rachael said, we are always eager for your ideas. Please contact me if you have ideas about:
  • Improving connections and collaboration among arts organizations
  • Professional development opportunities for arts administrators and volunteers
  • More effectively sharing information about upcoming events
  • Programs or services that you think are needed in this community, but aren’t yet present.
• Again, as we move forward, Nickel Plate is going to put a large emphasis on partnering effectively with other groups in order to help all of us achieve our full potential, and we want to find organizations who want to become official partners or members of our organization.  
• There are also opportunities for individuals to become members and have a huge impact on our organization.
• To tell you more, here is Joan Seig, our Guest Experience summer intern from Ball State.

Membership: presented by Joan Seig

• Thanks, Kristi!
• Hello, everyone! I am going to be a Senior at Ball State in the art department, pursuing a career in museum education, and I am so excited to be the Noblesville Creates Guest Experience intern because it gives me a chance to gain real-world experience with many different aspects of arts & nonprofit management.
• This summer has already been quite an education!
• One of the projects I’ve been working on is updating our Membership Database and improving the ways we serve members
• This project has really emphasized to me how important members are
• Members are cheerleaders: every time someone becomes a member, it’s their way of saying that they think the organization is on the right track and making good impact in the community
• Members also help sustain an organization financially: renewing your membership each year helps provide funds that support key community services, such as:
  • Free First Friday open houses
  • Second Saturday Art Labs
  • Our online calendar of events and monthly e-newsletter
  • And much more
• Last year, we had 61 members.  
• This year, our goal is 80.
• We’re already at 33.
• 80 memberships should generate about $10,000 in unrestricted funds to our organization
• Please consider helping us support our mission and our goals today: members not only get the joy of supporting a really important cause, but you also get a window cling and a t-shirt designed by a local artist!
• You can contact me for more information
• Membership is an easy way to support our organization, but there are many others. I’ll let Aili tell you more

Donors: presented by Aili McGill

• Thanks Joan.  We are so happy to have you and our other intern Samantha for the summer. In fact, I think we’re very fortunate to have a great team of staff, interns and volunteers and I am reminded daily about just how much a good team can accomplish!
• If you want to help this amazing team continue to grow our impact, please consider making a donation to Noblesville Creates.  
• Your gift can help us:
  • Continue to provide affordable studio space for artists
  • Bring activities to community festivals like Street Dance and Arts Crawl
  • Provide and/or support art classes for children and adults
  • Coordinate exhibits
  • Advocate for the importance of the arts in daily life
  • Drive the development and installation of public art
• Your gift is tax deductible, but, more importantly, it can enrich the lives of everyone who lives in or visits this community and for that, we all thank you.
• If you can’t make a donation today, then perhaps you’ll mark your calendar for September 12th, which will be the evening of our 6th Anniversary Gala.  Here is Anniversary Party chair Bobbi Samples to tell you all about this amazing event!

Anniversary Party: presented by Bobbi Samples

• Thanks, Aili
• I want to personally invite each of you to the Noblesville Creates Anniversary Gala on Wednesday, September 12th, 2018 from 6:30- 9:30 pm at the Milltop Banquet and Conference Center, just down the street
• This is going to be a gorgeous, black-tie gala full of surprises unlike anything Noblesville Creates has done before
• If you didn’t know, tradition has it that your 6th anniversary is your candy or iron anniversary (as opposed to your diamond or golden anniversaries ), so our theme for the evening is “strong and sweet,” which are both qualities that show up in a lot of the Noblesville Creates staff’s work!
• The evening will include dinner by Jacquie’s Gourmet Catering and the 3rd Annual Noblesville Creates Awards
• We will also have a silent auction and a live auction featuring some truly fabulous items, including a  OOps – I guess that will be a spoiler “-)
• We have a fabulous team of volunteers who are working hard to bring this event together, and I want to be sure to acknowledge their efforts
• Corporate Sponsorships and tables are still available. Anyone/or organization who is a Corporate Sponsor or purchases a table will also receive an invitation to our VIP pre-party at 5:30. There will be Artists showing, demonstrating and mingling along with a wine and beer tasting and butlered appetizers.
• If you would like to sign up for tickets, a table, or a sponsorship, I have forms for you here and I can sign you up tonight! Or, you can find additional information and a link to register on our website.
• We also want to announce that nominations are officially open for the 2018 Noblesville Creates Awards. Nomination packets are available here or on our website.
• We hope to see you on the 12th – it’s sure to be an amazing evening!

Closing: presented by Aili McGill

• Thank you so much for joining us today for our Annual Meeting
• Does anyone have any questions?
• You now have 3 options:
  • These wonderful board members would love to chat with you one-on-one, so please feel free to hang around, enjoy some snacks, and tell us about yourself
  • We also have a few printmaking activities to go with this month’s exhibit. Joan and I would love to help facilitate those for you
  • Also, we want to make sure that you know about the White River Visioning session being held at Noblesville’s City Hall tonight from 6-8. That team would love to have your input as they start to plan the next phase of their project and they asked us to personally invite you to participate!
• Please enjoy your evening & we look forward to working with you more in the future!