Fine Arts Series Committee Annual Report 2014

 UNT Fine Arts Series: Executive Summary 2014 – 2015 Season The UNT Fine Arts Series accomplished many firsts during the 2014 – 2015 Season. For the first time in many years, the Campus Appointed Committee operated at full member strength. Also during the early part of the Season, the Committee added 2 appointments from the Graduate Student Council, bringing our student representation to 8 and raising our total number to 18 members. FAS committee member attendance 2013 – 2014: Name Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. June Mark Packer P P P P A LauraLee Brott P P P P P Faculty Shelley Cushman A A P P A Prathiba Natesan A P A A A Sue Parks A A A P A PR Chandy A A A P P Andrew Justice A P P A P Staff Megan Heber A P P A A Margarita Venegas A P A P A Herbert Holl P A A P A Tracee Robertson A P P P A Erin Lancaster P A A A P Students Kam Willard P P P A A Hanna Bagheri A P P A A Adam Hasley A A P P A Troy Garrick A A P A A Nicole Darling A P P P P Jon Denis A A A P P P – Present A – Absent Attendance and student participation Approximately 9,199 students attended YTD, and/or participated in the production of, and/or engaged one‐on‐one with these artists through master classes and small student interactions. It is our hope that each of these students received information, motivation, understanding, and cultural awareness from the Fine Arts Series event he or she attended. Budget The Fine Arts Series will once again be able to offer summer events during summer 2015. This is partly due to the ticketing revenue obtained from the Laverne Cox event in the UNT Coliseum. The Committee will be presenting an Indian Cultural Percussion program on July 9 and we have partnered again with Dr. Donna Emmanuel in helping to present a public concert as part of the UNT Mariachi Camp on July 25. 2014 – 2015 Schedule of Events: 13 programs were part of the 2014 – 2015 Season published in the FAS Brochure. This was up from 10 programs in 2013 – 2014. Eight of the programs were collaborative efforts with academic departments. For the second year, Fine Arts Series is programming events during summer. Two additional programs are planned for summer 2015, and FAS is co‐sponsoring an event with Distinguished Lecture Series during First Flight 2015.  Bobby McFerrin  Discoveries of the Meeting Place Gomez Residency Artist UNT Art Galleries Performance Thursday, February 5 at September 11 ‐ October 18, 2014 8pm Collaboration with CVAD and UNT Art Murchison Performing Arts Center Galleries Collaboration with UNT Jazz Studies  Scott Dikkers “The Funny Story behind the Funny  ELENI of SPARTA February 13, 2015 Stories" UNT Main Auditorium at 8pm September 18, 2014 at 8pm UNT Main Auditorium  Laverne Cox  24th Annual Texas Medieval “Ain’t I a Woman: My Journey to Association Conference Womanhood” Early music performance on Friday, February 24, 2015 at 7pm rd
October 3 , 5‐6pm Murchison Performing Arts Center College of Music Recital Hall, Room 301 Collaboration with CVAD and Medieval  Bill Rosemann Studies Program February 27, 2015 at 7pm UNT Main Auditorium  Harpist Alice Giles October 22, 2014 at 8pm  African Cultural Dance and Music Murchison Performing Arts Center Festival Collaboration with UNT Harp Studies April 11, 2015 at 8pm Voertmann Hall  Actors from the London Stage Collaboration with UNT College of Residency Week Music October 28 – November 1at 8pm Performances October 28 and  Daniel Roth November 1 at 8pm April 22, 2015 at 8pm UNT Main Auditorium UNT Main Auditorium Collaboration with UNT Organ Studies  Collections, Cultures and Collaborations  14th Annual Campus Songwriters UNT Art Galleries Competition Curated by Tempestt Hazel April 28 at 7:30pm January 29 – March 7, 2015 Gateway Ballroom 34 Collaboration with CVAD and UNT Art Galleries The UNT Fine Arts Series presented its first program at the UNT Coliseum during Spring 2015, Actress Laverne Cox from ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK. Even though a weather related University closing moved this event from its original date, the program had the highest attendance for any Fine Arts Series presentation, 3,541 total attendees. 2014‐15 Marketing Initiative Social Media advertising has played a large role in the marketing plan for the 2014 – 2015 FAS Season. Over the past year and a half, FACEBOOK Likes for the Series have increased from 800 to nearly 2,000, and nearly 750 people follow the Series on TWITTER. The staff has invested money in FACEBOOK ads and has planned promotional opportunities hoping to increase social media traffic. Assessment Efforts in the 2014‐2015 Season In an effort to provide effective and efficient service to our campus community, the Fine Arts Series has embarked on an effort to assess our strengths and weakness in programming and overall campus awareness. To evaluate our effectiveness we used information from card swiping data and audience surveys dispersed online through the Qualtrics system and paper surveys were passed out to audience members at FAS events. What we learned from our assessment: Audience demographics from card swiping • A majority of our audience is female (60%) • Average GPA is 3.0 • The breakdown of class year is 35% Freshman, 20 % sophomore, 25% Junior and 15% senior and 5% graduate student. • Attendees to Fine Arts Series events are predominately full time students • Age range of our audience is primarily 19‐24 • The audience ethnicity makeup is still predominately white To measure the learning outcomes associated with the Series, the UNT Fine Arts Series sends out a post event survey following each program when email addresses are available. Using a Thought Cloud Survey tool, participants were asked to select phrases that matched their feelings after attending a Fine Arts Series event. Some of the most highly selected phrases included: • “Event was educational” • “Entertained me” • “Educated me on the arts” • “Experience was fun” • “Exposed to new culture” The UNT Fine Arts Series Committee will continue to use this survey tool and other assessments to better plan the Series in the future. We learned from this year’s data that: • We can improve on educating our audiences how our events are art related • Students who attend Fine Arts events rate their experiences positively • Most students report that they learn something at FAS events • Students find out about FAS events through traditional means: class, posters, and email The Fine Arts Series is very pleased with the data collected from our assessment initiative. We will use this data to provide better programming for our students, and targeted marketing to students are aware and interested in the Fine Arts Series. Goals for 2015 – 2016 Season: The Fine Arts Series is committed to providing the students of the University of North Texas with access to world class artists and performances. As always, we strive to present a well‐balanced season of performing, visual, and literary arts events. The proposed performances for the 2015‐2016 Fine Arts Series are:  Permanence & Impermanence exhibition at the UNT Art Galleries  RJ Mitte, actor from Emmy award winning series “Breaking Bad”  Artist Jarrett Krosoczka – illustration and graphic design workshops  Eighth Blackbird – presented by the College of Music  Artist Siona Benjamin at the UNT Art Galleries  W. Kamau Bell, social advocate  Don Quixote, Indian cultural dance  Brandon Stanton, photographer, Humans of New York  PANAMA 500 w/ Danilo Perez, Gomez Residency, Presented by the College of Music  African Dance & Music Festival– Presented by the College of Music  15th Annual Campus Songwriter Competition The Fine Arts Series will continue to gather demographic data through card swiping, and we will continue to pass out surveys to audience members in order to measure our progress. With the assessment data gathered in the 111th season, we will focus our efforts to increase attendance and awareness of the Fine Arts Series by:  Increased marketing efforts to students in arts related programs and schools  Strengthen efforts to reach out to students for programming suggestions  Reinforce the connection with faculty members as a means of targeting advertising to students