Tag Archives: SEMAC

SEMAC awards Legacy Amendment grant to Vintage Band Festival

On November 19 the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council (SEMAC)  awarded Vintage Band Festival (VBF) a $10,000 Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund grant for its summer 2025 one-day event. Other Northfield recipients of SEMAC grants in this cycle are the Bridge Chamber Music Festival, the Northfield Jazz Festival, the Paradise Center for the Arts, and the Healthy Community Initiative.

The SEMAC grant will enable VBF to recruit 3 high-caliber bands for the schedule in addition to funding part of the audio technology necessary to achieve a great audience experience.

VBF 2025 will be held on Saturday, August 2, 2025 in Downtown Northfield, Minnesota. Without this financial support from SEMAC, it would be much harder to balance the budget of Vintage Band Festival. Thanks to SEMAC and thanks to the Minnesota voters who supported and continue to renew the 2008 Legacy Amendment to the state constitution that provides for ongoing funding for arts and culture in the state of Minnesota.

Vintage Band Festival awarded a 2023 SEMAC Legacy Grant

The Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council (SEMAC) has awarded Vintage Band Festival a 2023 Legacy Grant for Organizations. The $10,000 grant will be used to partially fund the upcoming Vintage Band Festival 2024 next summer.

One member of the review committee had this to say about our application:

“The people involved in this project are very qualified and have varied skills…great that you are helping to keep Big Band music alive and bringing high quality music to your community….by varying the styles of music it is a educational experience for your audiences and keeps it enjoyable…the location keeps the event very inclusive of all…by mixing amateur and professional bands everyone learns from each other and that makes it a win win for everyone!”

Another reviewer commented:

 “A very unique event that evolves and keeps your community involved because of the quality bands and the live music experience….great that you are including Latino bands also…this project seems to have lots of community support from donors to volunteers to attendees…  Community involvement is great for this project, and there appears to be planning to improve upon past experiences.”

We’re grateful to our fantastic grant writer, Joy Riggs, for another successful outcome. We’re also grateful to the Minnesota legislature for passing the Clean Water Land and Legacy Amendment in 2008. That legislation provides the funding for SEMAC and other regional arts councils in Minnesota to administer.

Vintage Band Festival receives SEMAC grant

 

Last month Vintage Band Festival received a $10,000 grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council in support of the forthcoming one-day festival in 2023. We are honored to have our application approved and grateful

The intended use of the grant is to build on the efforts made in the summer of 2022 to assist seniors with safe transportation to and from the outdoor venues at Vintage Band Festival and seating during the performances. Several other community partners worked with VBF on this project and the hope is that they will do so again next summer. These partners included the Northfield Retirement Community, Three Links Care Center, Benedictine Living Communities, the City of Northfield, and Age-Friendly Northfield.

Other Rice County  recipients of SEMAC grants in the most recent cycle include: Cannon Valley Regional Orchestra, Carleton College, Northfield Arts Guild, Northfield Healthy Community Initiative, Northfield Troubadors, and Paradise Center for the Arts.

In November 2008, Minnesotans passed the clean water, land, and legacy amendment to the Minnesota Constitution.  As a result, over the next twenty-five years, a small portion of the state’s sales tax will be dedicated to: a clean water fund, an outdoor heritage fund, a parks and trails fund, and an arts and cultural heritage fund.

Proceeds from the arts and cultural heritage fund “may be spent only on arts, arts education and arts access and to preserve Minnesota’s history and cultural heritage.”

Three Links Care Center returns as a Vintage Band Festival Stage Sponsor in 2022

 

Sponsorships are vitally important to the success of Vintage Band Festival 2022. We want to welcome back Three Links Care Center as a Stage Sponsor for VBF 2022 and Hogan Brothers as a Day Sponsor. Pam Tidona, Marketing Manager at Three Links and Greg Heymans, Proprietor of Hogan Bros., are both enthusiastic supporters of Vintage Band Festival. Greg has told us that Vintage Band Festival weekend is typically his best weekend of the year!

Sponsorship benefits accrue at various levels, including frequent publicity on VBF social media, prominent recognition on banners and signs at the performance venues and in the official Vintage Band Festival program and an invitation to an exclusive donor reception just prior to the festival weekend in July.

Sponsorships are open to both businesses, non-profits and individuals. Stage Sponsorships are achieved with a $1,000 donation, Band Sponsorships occur at the $500 level, and Day Sponsors are named with a $250 donation. Donations of $3,000 or more are designated as Festival Sponsors. Festival Sponsors for VBF 2022 are the Wenger Foundation, the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and JoAnn Polley and Mark Ulmer.

If you would like to learn more about becoming a Vintage Band Festival Sponsor, please contact Jan Stevens, Fundraising Committee Chair, for more information. Jan can be reached at507-244-0500 or janofdundas@gmail.com.

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Vintage Band Festival awarded $10,000 SEMAC grant

On November 10, 2021, the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council (SEMAC) announced that Vintage Band Festival has been awarded a $10,000 Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund grant for use in staging the 4-day Vintage Band Festival 2022. The grant was one of five awarded to Rice County non-profits organizations.  Here are the other four:

• Faribault Parks & Recreation — $5,000 Arts and Cultural Heritage grant for Faribault Concerts in the Park series.

• I Cantanti Chamber Choirs — $5,000 General Operating Support grant for facilities & staffing.

• Northfield Arts Guild — $9,925 Arts and Cultural Heritage grant for focused arts learning, home school/after school.

• Paradise Center for the Arts — $10,000 Arts and Cultural Heritage grant for Marquee Children’s Theatre.

Vintage Band Festival will use the grant to help fund a number of brass and wind musical ensembles from Minnesota that will be invited to perform in Northfield in July of 2022. SEMAC has been generous to our organization over the  past 15 years and we are grateful to our elected representatives for continuing to support the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund that was established in 2008. This initiative benefits all Minnesotans!

Thanks to VBF Secretary Joy Riggs for her skillful writing in the SEMAC application!

The Financing of Vintage Band Festival

 

Each Vintage Band Festival event requires financial support from various funding sources in order to be produced. Our organization is a non-profit corporation that relies on grants, sponsorships, and donations from private individuals and businesses to underwrite our expenses.

GRANT AWARDS

As we ramp up preparations for Vintage Band Festival on July 31, 2021, we want to take a moment to thank our loyal and continuing supporters in the granting community. We have been fortunate to receive assistance multiple times from Wenger Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board (MSAB), and the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council (SEMAC). These wonderful arts supporters have been generous not only to Vintage Band Festival, but also to a number of our performing ensembles as well. In recent years, funds granted by both MSAB and SEMAC are the direct result of dollars provided by Minnesota taxpayers through the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment enacted by the Minnesota State Legislature in 2008. Please thank your representatives for this marvelous and thoughtful legislation!

SPONSORSHPS

In 2021, we have sponsorship opportunities for organizations to assist us with the financial needs of the festival. The top level of sponsorship is the Stage Sponsor. We’re pleased to announce that both the Northfield Rotary Club and the Northfield News have agreed to be Stage Sponsors of Vintage Band Festival 2021. Thanks to both of these fine partners for their support this year and in years past.

   

LEGACY GIFTS

2021 is the 16th year of Vintage Band Festival’s life. During that time we have established a track record of great performances, a collaborative spirit, and many memories for our performers and our audience. We have started to see our friends respond to this work in wonderful ways.

In the past 12 months, Vintage Band Festival has received nearly $10,000 in legacy gifts from two longtime supporters of the festival. Both of these donors have requested anonymity, but we wanted to let our audience know how incredibly grateful we are for this recognition and for their generosity. One of the gifts came from a musician family in one of our performing ensembles and the other was inspired by the work of one of our ardent volunteers. In each case, the donor expressed gratitude for the joy that Vintage Band Festival has brought to their lives and the hope that this experience will continue for many years to come.

HOW ABOUT YOU?

If you are considering becoming a 2021 Stage Sponsor ($1,000) or a 2021 Band Sponsor ($500), we’d love to hear from you soon so that we can include your name in all of our promotion and marketing activities. If you are considering a legacy gift to Vintage Band Festival or a 2021 sponsorship, please contact our Fundraising Committee at vintagebandfestival@gmail.com. Thank you and hope to see you in Northfield, MN on July 31! The music starts at 9:30 am.

For continuing updates about Vintage Band Festival, visit our website at www.vintagebandfestival.org and follow us on Facebook at Vintage Band Festival.

Vintage Band Festival awarded $10,000 SEMAC grant

On May 21, 2019, the Board of Directors of the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council (SEMAC) awarded 42 grants for a total of $269,205 in funding to applicants throughout southeastern Minnesota. This included 24 Arts & Cultural Heritage grants for $217,935, nine Presenter/Production Assistance grants for $25,520, and nine Small Towns/Rural Areas grants for $25,750.

In this grant cycle, Vintage Band Festival received a $10,000 Arts and Cultural Heritage grant for Vintage Band Festival 2019. We are thrilled to make this announcement and want to thank our grant writer, Board member Joy Riggs. This is not the first successful grant application that Joy has written for us and we are so grateful for her skill and dedication to this effort. Previous grants awarded to Vintage Band Festival 2019 were from the Wenger Foundation and the Minnesota State Arts Board.

Vintage Band Festival 2019 will take place in Northfield, Minnesota and surrounding communities August 1-4, 2019. Follow this link to find the complete daily schedule at the two outdoor stages and a roster of the participating bands.