High Plains Arts and Cultural Heritage Initiative

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Executive Summary

High Plains Arts and Cultural Heritage Initiative is a nonprofit in Wyoming that brings the arts to rural communities. Teaching artists lead workshops and residencies in schools, libraries and senior centers, a mobile art studio travels to small towns, local artists are paid to teach and exhibit, oral histories and traditional crafts are recorded with permission and heritage festivals celebrate local work.

Rural communities have long creative traditions and few places to practice them. Arts programs are concentrated in cities, and rural schools and towns often have no arts funding.

With this grant we will serve about 600 residents in Year 1 in 6 towns. We keep or share no one's story or artwork without written permission and we respect the cultural protocols of tribal and community partners. We do not promise any attendance or sales. We promise safe, respectful programs and honest records.

Our Year 1 budget is about $206,500, growing to about $289,500 by Year 5 as we add sites, coaches and participants. Each year's budget is planned to balance, with a small surplus each year. We have 5 staff in Year 1 (an Executive Director, a Program Director and three part-time teaching artists) and 9 by Year 5.

We are asking the High Plains Creative Communities Foundation for $55,000 for the Program Director, art materials and mobile studio travel. Our other income and startup support cover the rest. These numbers are estimates based on the assumptions listed at the end of this proposal, and we do not promise any result beyond what we describe.

Company Description

High Plains Arts and Cultural Heritage Initiative is a nonprofit organization in Wyoming. We are a registered charity with a volunteer board of directors, a written conflict-of-interest policy and a yearly budget the board reviews.

Our mission. Every rural community has stories, skills and creativity worth celebrating, and every child and elder there deserves access to the arts.

What we do.
- Send teaching artists to rural schools, libraries and senior centers for workshops and multi-week residencies.
- Operate a mobile art studio that travels to small towns with supplies and equipment.
- Support local artists with paid residencies, commissions and exhibition opportunities.
- Collect and share oral histories and traditional crafts with the people who hold them.
- Host heritage festivals and exhibitions in partnership with towns and tribes.
- Document and share the work with communities and archives, with permission.

Our values. Respect for every participant, honesty with families and partners, safety first and a place for everyone who wants to belong.

What we do not do. We do not keep or sell any person's story or artwork without written permission. We respect the cultural protocols of tribal and community partners. We do not take political positions. We do not promise any attendance or sales. We follow the rules of our partner sites and our insurer.

How we got here. A group of artists, a retired teacher and a librarian began taking a pickup truck of art supplies to small towns on weekends. Children and elders came and asked when the truck would return. We kept simple records of who came and what they made. This proposal asks for support to move from a pickup truck of supplies to a steady program with paid, trained staff and the materials to match.

Problem & Opportunity

Rural communities have long creative traditions and few places to practice them, and young people may see no future in staying where the arts are not part of daily life.

Cost. Art supplies, instruments and travel cost money, and rural schools and towns often have no arts funding.

Access. Arts programs are concentrated in cities, and rural residents may live hours from a gallery, a class or a performance.

Safety and trust. Communities want programs that are respectful of their traditions and safe for children, and funders want accountability for every dollar.

Missed benefits. When arts programs are missing, children miss creative outlets, elders' stories are lost and towns lose a source of pride and visitors.

What we hear.
- A teacher says her students have never held a paintbrush.
- A rancher says his grandmother's quilts are worth putting in a museum.
- A librarian says the mobile studio brought out people she had never seen at the library.
- A student says her mural is the first thing she is proud of.

We do not claim that a program can solve every challenge. We believe that when the arts come to a small town, young people and elders find creative voices and the town finds shared pride.

Products & Services

High Plains Arts and Cultural Heritage Initiative gives rural children, elders and artists a safe, welcoming place to make and share art in their own towns.

How the program works.
1. Partners. We partner with schools, libraries, senior centers and tribal and town governments that host our visits.
2. Workshops. Teaching artists lead one-day workshops and multi-week residencies.
3. Mobile studio. A trailer with supplies and equipment visits towns on a published schedule.
4. Local artists. We pay local artists for residencies, commissions and teaching.
5. Oral history. Participants record and share stories and traditional crafts with permission.
6. Festivals. Heritage festivals and exhibitions celebrate local work.
7. Documentation. We photograph and record work with permission and share it with communities and archives.

What a typical session looks like. Participants arrive and check in with a staff member, settle in together, work on the day's activity in small groups and finish with a short talk about what went well. Staff praise effort, correct mistakes kindly and make sure no one is left out.

Staff. Our teaching artists are working artists who pass a background check, complete our training in working with children and elders and are paid for their time.

Access and fairness. Programs are free. Programs are free. We welcome every resident, and we offer materials in English and Spanish and adapt to different abilities.

Market Analysis

Who we serve. Children, adults and elders in our rural towns, and rural artists who want to teach and share their work. Every resident of a participating town may take part, and no one is turned away for lack of experience or ability to pay.

How we estimate need. We cannot count every young person who could benefit, so we plan from what we can see. In our weekend visits we served full rooms in every town and were asked to return. Teachers and librarians told us that many more towns want a program than we can reach. For Year 1 we plan to serve about 600 participants at 6 towns. By Year 5, with more staff and sites, we plan to serve about 1400.

Where participants come from.
- Schools, libraries and senior centers.
- Town councils and tribal governments.
- Local artists and heritage groups.
- Residents who tell a neighbor.

Who else benefits. Children gain creative skills. Elders gain a way to pass on knowledge. Towns gain visitors, pride and a stronger community.

What the numbers mean. Every number here is a child holding her first finished painting. We keep our early counts modest and honest so we can do the work well.

Competitive Landscape

What young people can find today, and how we are different.

1. School art classes. Valuable and often cut by budgets. We bring artists into the school.

2. State arts councils. Fund programs and rarely deliver in small towns. We deliver.

3. Museums and galleries. Rich and far away. We bring art to the town.

4. Community theater groups. Strong and volunteer-based. We support them.

5. Online art classes. Convenient and not shared with neighbors.

What makes us different.
- Free programs in small towns.
- A mobile studio that comes to residents.
- Paid local artists.
- Oral history and heritage preserved with permission.
- Festivals that celebrate local work.

Why this gap matters. Existing programs do good work, and most serve people who can already pay or who live close to them. The people we serve are the ones left over: they live in the wrong neighborhood, have the wrong schedule or have no one to ask. We are built to reach them.

We have spoken with school districts, tribal and town governments, libraries and other rural arts groups to make sure we are filling a gap and not duplicating services. Their letters of support are in the attachments.

Marketing & Sales Strategy

How young people and partners will find us.

Reaching young people.
- Schools and libraries. We will share a one-page schedule and a named contact.
- Town councils and tribal governments. We will meet leaders and agree on how we work together.
- Local artists and heritage groups. We will invite them to teach and exhibit.
- Local newspapers and radio. We will share our schedule and stories.
- Word of mouth. Residents tell neighbors.
- A simple website and a phone line with a text option.

Reaching staff and sponsors.
- Recruit teaching artists through arts councils, colleges and artist groups.
- Offer an orientation, a background check and training in safety, privacy and respectful practice.
- Give partners a short report each quarter with counts of participants and what they said.

How we decide who joins. We use a simple sign-up form and enroll participants in the order received, with priority for those with the greatest need and for people new to the program. We keep a waiting list when the program is full.

What we watch. Sign-ups, attendance, workshops held, artworks made and how many participants return for a second season.

Operations Plan

How the program will be carried out.

Timeline for Year 1:
- Months 1 and 2 (July and August): Hire the staff, buy equipment and materials, finalize the waiver, consent form and privacy policy with our attorney and sign site agreements.
- Month 3 (September): Outfit the mobile studio and begin the first town visits.
- Months 4 to 10: Visit towns on a regular schedule, hold residencies and festivals and record oral histories.
- Months 11 and 12: Hold a regional exhibition, survey participants and partners, report to funders and plan Year 2.

Space. Programs are held in schools, libraries and community halls, and the mobile studio travels to each town.

Safety and privacy.
- Teaching artists pass background checks and work in view of others when with children.
- Recordings and photographs are made only with written permission.
- Every staff member and volunteer passes a background check and completes safety training.
- Staff work in pairs or in view of others whenever participants are minors or in a vulnerable situation.
- We keep an emergency plan at every site, and participants complete an emergency contact form.
- We keep records private, share them only with a participant's permission or as the law requires and follow a written policy.

Equipment. We buy about $14,000 of equipment once at the start: mobile studio trailer fit-out and equipment ($9,000), display and staging equipment for exhibitions ($3,000), recording equipment for oral histories ($2,000). Later years replace or add a few items.

Staffing. In Year 1 I serve as Executive Director. The Program Director, paid $42,000 a year, manages the schedule, artists and partners. Three part-time teaching artists, each paid $16,000 a year, lead workshops. We add artists as we add towns.

Management & Organization

Wanda Brewer, Executive Director. I lead the organization, report to the board and am responsible for budgets, partnerships and reporting. I came to this work as an artist who grew up in a small town and spent years driving to the city to find an audience. I will complete the training we require of our teaching artists so I understand the program from the inside. (Replace this paragraph with your own background.)

Staff. The Program Director manages the schedule, artists and partners, and part-time teaching artists lead workshops. Each passes a background check. These positions are part of our grant request.

Board of directors. Our volunteer board includes an artist, a teacher, a librarian, a banker who serves as treasurer, an attorney, a rancher and a tribal arts leader. The board meets every other month, approves our budget and reviews our safety plan. No board member is paid, and members with a conflict of interest step out of related decisions.

Advisory partners. A state arts council staff member, a museum educator and a heritage preservation specialist give guidance twice a year.

Staffing and pay in this plan: Executive Director, paid $50,000 a year; program Director, paid $42,000 a year; teaching Artist (part-time), paid $16,000 a year.

Milestones Narrative

Our goals, how we will measure them and when we plan to reach them.

Year 1 outcomes (July 2027 through June 2028):
- Serve about 600 participants at 6 towns.
- Run at least two full seasons and a summer session.
- Have at least 85 percent of participants attend most sessions.
- Have at least 80 percent of participants return for a second season.
- Receive positive feedback from at least 90 percent of families who answer our short survey.

What we count and how.
- Participants enrolled, sessions and games attended, from our records.
- Skills learned and goals met, from the coach's checklist.
- Equipment issued and returned, from our log.
- Participant and family feedback, from a short, confidential form.
We report what we find, including what did not work, and use it to improve.

Growth over five years.
- Year 2: About 800 participants at 8 towns.
- Year 3: About 1000 participants at 10 towns.
- Year 4: About 1200 participants at 12 towns.
- Year 5: About 1400 participants at 14 towns.

Learning along the way. At the end of each quarter, the director and the board review the numbers and decide whether we are on track. If we are behind, we will adjust our outreach, our sites or our schedule before asking for more money.

After the grant. By Year 5, grants make up about 56 percent of our budget, down from about 69 percent in Year 1, as partners and donors give more. We will keep building those relationships every year.

Funding Request

What we are asking for, and how the money will be used. Our request: $55,000 from the High Plains Creative Communities Foundation for the Program Director, art materials and mobile studio travel, for July 2027 through June 2028.

The request is spread across these budget lines:
- Personnel: Program Director salary, $42,000.
- Supplies: Art materials and supplies for workshops, $8,000.
- Travel: Mobile studio travel to towns, $5,000.

Other money in the program. This request is about 39% of our Year 1 grant income. Other grants and the income lines below pay for everything it does not cover.

Year 1 budget: about $206,500, planned to balance with a small surplus (about $8,700 after the yearly wear on equipment). Year 1 money coming in: Grant Revenue $142,500; state Arts Council Funding $36,000; local Business and Foundation Partners $20,000; individual Donors $8,000. Year 1 costs: executive Director $50,000; program Director $42,000; teaching Artist (part-time) $16,000; artist Fees and Residencies about $20,000; materials and Supplies about $8,000; travel and Mobile Studio Costs about $10,000; festival and Exhibition Costs about $6,000; documentation and Oral History about $3,000; administration and Insurance about $8,000; about $5,200 a year for the wear on equipment.

One-time startup costs. Startup costs of $23,000 are paid once from startup money, not from the yearly budget: $9,000 for mobile studio trailer fit-out and equipment; $3,000 for display and staging equipment for exhibitions; $2,000 for recording equipment for oral histories; $2,500 for attorney review of the partner agreement, permission forms and privacy policy; $1,800 for banners, flyers and a simple website; $1,700 for artist training and background checks; $3,000 for first insurance payment and trailer registration.

How we got our startup number. The Funding Need Calculator in this plan adds the startup costs ($23,000), the cash the program uses before it balances (about $0) and a cash cushion of about $48,800, which is about three months of Year 1 costs. In all, that comes to $72,000. We start with $6,000 from our founding board and $68,000 in startup support from a community foundation and a ranch family, $74,000 in all, which covers that amount with room to spare.

The next five years. Our budget grows from about $206,500 in Year 1 to about $289,500 in Year 5. Grants are planned at $142,500, $146,500, $151,500, $156,500 and $161,500 in Years 1 to 5. Other income grows: state Arts Council Funding from $36,000 to $60,000; local Business and Foundation Partners from $20,000 to $44,000; individual Donors from $8,000 to $24,000. Our surplus is planned at about $8,700 in Year 1, about $9,600 in Year 2, about $11,200 in Year 3, about $12,700 in Year 4 and about $13,900 in Year 5. We grow from 6 towns to 14 by Year 5, adding a part-time coach for each new site.

Savings. We plan to keep several months of costs in savings. The lowest year-end balance in the plan is about $63,200, at the end of Year 1. Some grant payments and partner payments arrive after we bill, so we plan for about $8,260 owed to us at the end of Year 1.

Cost per resident. In Year 1, our total costs are about $330 per resident served, which includes setting up the program. By Year 5, with more resident served and a trained team in place, that falls to about $197 per resident.

After the grant. State arts council funding, corporate sponsors and individual donors grow every year, so grants become a smaller share of our budget. Participants and families share their stories, and businesses can sponsor a team or a season by name. We will look for partnerships with schools and the city that want a safe, free rural arts option for every child.

Risks and how we will handle them:
- An injury. Certified coaches, proper equipment, groups matched by age and skill, a written emergency plan and insurance.
- A site is no longer available. We keep agreements with more than one site and a plan for bad weather.
- A coach leaves. We keep a list of trained backup coaches and share lesson plans.
- Low attendance. We adjust sites, times and rides based on family feedback.
- A privacy problem. We follow a written policy, use secure systems and train every staff member and volunteer.
- A grant ends. We keep savings and grow partner and donor support each year.

If you are just starting. A new organization can begin before it has its own 501(c)(3) status through a fiscal sponsor: an established nonprofit that receives grants for you and passes them to your program, usually for a fee (commonly around 5% to 10% of the grant, sometimes more; ask before you agree). Another way is to start smaller: one neighborhood, a handful of residents and a small team, tracked carefully. Strong results from a small start make larger grants easier to win.

Appendix Notes

Documents to attach with this proposal:

- Your IRS 501(c)(3) determination letter, or your fiscal sponsor agreement.
- Your most recent financial statements and your current year budget.
- A list of your board members and what each one does.
- Signed letters of support from partner schools, agencies and sites.
- Your site agreements and your insurance certificate.
- Your consent, waiver and privacy policy.
- Your safety plan and background check policy.
- Your program outline and schedule.
- Quotes for equipment and materials.
- Resumes for your Executive Director and key staff.
If you don't have any of this yet, no worries - let's continue.

The assumptions behind our numbers (change them in the Financials section to match your own):
- Grant Revenue: $142,500 in Year 1, growing to $161,500 in Year 5.
- State Arts Council Funding: $36,000 in Year 1, growing to $60,000 in Year 5.
- Local Business and Foundation Partners: $20,000 in Year 1, growing to $44,000 in Year 5.
- Individual Donors: $8,000 in Year 1, growing to $24,000 in Year 5.
- Pay (a full year, per person, including payroll taxes and workers' compensation): executive Director $50,000; program Director $42,000; teaching Artist (part-time) $16,000.
- Other yearly costs in Year 1: artist Fees and Residencies $20,000; materials and Supplies $8,000; travel and Mobile Studio Costs $10,000; festival and Exhibition Costs $6,000; documentation and Oral History $3,000; administration and Insurance $8,000. These grow between 4% and 5% a year.
- Equipment: $14,000 at the start, then $2,500 to $3,500 a year.
- Startup costs: $23,000, paid once from $74,000 in startup money.
- Participants served: about 600 in Year 1, growing to about 1400 in Year 5. Sites: 6 in Year 1, growing to 14 by Year 5. Visits run through the year, with festivals in summer and fall.
- About 4% of each year's income is still owed to us at year end.
- Tax: none, as a nonprofit.
- Every dollar amount is an estimate. Replace them with your own quotes and real budget.

Startup Costs