Success for Awardee of LRAC Legacy Grant
In April of 2022, the LRAC Board awarded 26 different organizations and individuals across the nine-county region funding for the Legacy Organization and Individual Grant rounds. Projects funded by these grants were to take place over the coming year.
Josh McGowan was selected to receive Legacy Grant Funding in FY22.
The goal of LRAC’s Legacy Fund for Individuals and Organizations is to create a strong arts legacy in Minnesota that will exist for a period of twenty-five years. Access to these grants is determined by projects that support activities the following three key areas:
Arts and Arts Access
Arts Education
Arts and Cultural Heritage
As we strive to continue bringing art to the rural communities within our region, here’s a quick update on one of the many artists we have been able to fund thanks to this beneficial program: Fergus Falls musician Josh McGowan and his Individual Legacy Project.
Increasing Arts Access for Our Region and Beyond
Among the awards given, $2,670 of funding went towards Josh McGowan’s project, which was to purchase equipment needed to create a series of videos for young musicians who don’t have private lesson instructors in their area (like many in rural areas).
McGowan is no stranger to teaching music to youth. As a middle school band instructor in Fergus Falls, he brought 10 years to the table with his proposal to create accessible music lessons that would be made available via the internet. “Many aspiring musicians in rural areas simply do not have the means to travel to larger cities for lessons,” he explained. He hoped that by creating short online videos to instruct aspiring musicians on the basics of the instrument, he could overcome the barriers presented by lack of ability to travel or receive individual lessons with a qualified instructor. Though all LRAC grants must impact our nine-county region, McGowan was hopeful that the online nature of this project would reach people from Minnesota and beyond.
Trumpet Basics and TikTok success
McGowan’s project took place over the summer of 2022, and to date he has posted seven videos in his “How to Play the Trumpet” series on his TikTok profile for the project, @mcgomusic. The reception has been swift and positive, with his most popular video in the series already having received over 26,000 views.
“The end result reached more people than I expected,” McGowan stated, adding that the nature of the platforms allows content to spread organically and reach a wider audience. In addition to many positive comments and feedback, McGowan has also seen people making their own videos learning to play the trumpet, and attributing their progress to his online instruction.
“It's super cool to be able to reach people I've never met!” he added. “It is clear that some students have learned a thing or two from my videos.” With the initial goal of the project achieved, McGowan intends to add videos introducing other instruments in the future and hopes that he can draw people wanting to learn all kinds of instruments back the channel over time. Those of us at Lake Region Arts Council commend McGowan for the success of his project and look forward to seeing how it will continue to increase arts access in the future.
Plan Ahead for the Next Legacy Grant Round!
Have you started to workshop your application for the LRAC grant cycle? We offer a variety of different grants geared for individuals, nonprofits, and public entities across our nine-county region. Legacy Grants like the one which funded Josh McGowan’s project are part of the Minnesota Legacy Arts and Cultural Heritage funding. This opportunity is made possible from an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.
Lake Region Arts Council is proud to support arts activities and opportunities throughout the region with support from our many wonderful grant programs. You can learn more about each of these programs as well as their guidelines, application process, and more by visiting our grants page HERE.
