2015 started in high gear and hasn't stopped:

On January 2nd, we became the first arts organization to become a public benefit corporation in the state of Minnesota. Our social purpose is to be an economic engine for the arts. This means we will be raising new revenue through the arts and putting it back into the arts by providing ongoing paid opportunities for artists, growing new audiences for the arts, adding creative jobs, increasing vibrancy, and elevating the arts profile of the region. We were fortunate to be selected by Fredrikson & Byron to be part of their public benefit cultivator program. This program includes pro bono legal services as well as 3rd party consulting services. The latter resulted in our work with The Improve Group who helped us develop a logic model related to our social purpose; we identified what we would be tracking and reporting on to the state each year.

On January 5th, we put out our first Call for Artists for the 18 artist-designed mini golf holes. We received over 200 proposals! We have selected 18 amazing mini golf hole proposals. We were fortunate to hire a project manager who was a longtime head carpenter for the Orpheum Theater. He is working with our mini golf artists to coordinate build out, fire department approved materials, ensure ADA accessibility, etc. Here are some of the artists we will be working with:

• Andree Tracey

• Jason Quick

• Jim Defeo

• Ame Caldwell-Dass & Bryce Bonine

• Dusty Thune

• Luke Lyons

• Sarah Stone

• Cecilia Schiller

After 7 months of negotiations, we signed a ten year lease with excellent terms in April. We solicited general contractor bids and made our selection. Currently, our architect is working on finalizing the architectural drawings which will be submitted to the city for permits. 

In May we launched a one month crowdfunding campaign. We are pleased to announce we made 103% of our goal with 309 funders. The lead video provides a nice overview of our project: