Fundraising

After hearing that we had the winning proposal by Salt Workshop and Grace Noel Art, Tim and I got to work on strategizing how to create the new Grand Lake Marquee and sculpture. The materials for the marquee were fairly straightforward to decide on but we were unsure about what materials to use for the sculpture. We deliberated on sculpture materials for weeks, seeking consultation from fabricators of all kinds. Ultimately we landed on making the sculpture out of steel and ski lift cable aka haul rope from Winter Park Ski Resort. We then set out on a search for a metal fabricator who would help us create this sculpture. After a couple of our first points of contact failed to respond with fabrication quotes, we were at a loss, who would help us with the metal work? Then I remembered my colleague Angela Davila, from the Denver Art Society, which is an Artist Cooperative and Non-profit that I have been a member of since 2013. Since 2020, Angela had completed trade school for welding and metal fabrication and I thought I’d ask her if she could help with the project. To my greatest luck, Angela said she would be happy to help, and all of a sudden the project finally had a metal fabricator! What a relief and blessing!

Now with Angela in place, we received a quote for metal fabrication which was badly needed for budgeting and fundraising. Thanks to Angela’s quote, we were able to move forward with a draft budget that was used for applying for grants, crowdfunding, and beginning the construction process of the actual marquee. Tim, Ken Fucik of the Grand Lake Creative District, and myself put together multiple grant applications hoping to reach the total needed to complete the project. Unfortunately, none of our applications were awarded. In Sept 2021, Ken sent me a grant application for the Colorado Creates Creative Corps ARP grant. This grant was intended to pay for the Artist Fee of the project submitted on the application. I submitted the grant regardless of my time constraints to building an Immersive Art Experience at Spectra Art Space and being a full time new mom. In the end it was worth it because come Dec 2021, I received an award letter from Colorado Creative Industries (CCI) in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for my Colorado Creates Creative Corps ARP grant application. The team now had a sizable fund to begin building the Grand Lake Marquee public art piece titled We Are All In This Together.

However, the sculpture budget still needed funding. So in Feb 2022, I created a crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe to source the rest of the funds needed for the sculpture. The crowdfunding campaign was an “Adopt an Animal Campaign” which was Tim’s idea. I created the final artist drawings of the sculpture in Feb 2022 which provided us a total of how many animals were adoptable and how much each one cost to fabricate. Ken was the main lead in bringing in private donors who adopted nearly every animal silhouette by May 2022.

Now, with the Colorado Creates Creative Corps ARP grant and Adopt and Animal crowdfunding, the sculpture called We Are All in this Together, was supported at all levels: from the local people of Grand Lake to the National Endowment for the Arts.