MONROE - Monroe Arts Center got a big boost Tuesday to promote its new Wisconsin Music Arts Festival this summer in Monroe.
Secretary of Tourism, Stephanie Klett, handed over more than $33,000 through a Joint Effort Marketing grant that will nearly quadruple the center's marketing area.
"It will extend the reach of our publicity," said Richard Daniels, director of the MAC, "from 15,000 households to 55,000 households in southern Wisconsin, northern Illinois and eastern Iowa."
Wisconsin Music Arts Festival, June 20-22, will feature concerts and workshops throughout the city. A Wisconsin Music Arts Festival "has never been done before," Klett said.
Featured artists performing include Michael Perry and The Long Beds, Livingston Taylor and BoDeans. Daniels said music professionals will present workshops covering topics ranging from lyrics writing to the business side of the music industry. About 2,000 people are expected to attend one or more of the festival events.
The MAC application for this state JEM grant is its first attempt, and for a first-time applicant to be chosen to receive one of the grants is rare, according to Klett.
"You never get one on your first (application)," Klett said. But it was not by accident or coincidence that MAC received their funding, she added.
Daniels, after learning about the JEM grants from Klett just a few months earlier, set up a one-on-one meeting with Abbie Hill, JEM Coordinator at the Wisconsin Department of Tourism, to learn more about the application process.
"His application was 100 percent thumb-up," Klett said.
The application is time-consuming and painfully detailed, Klett said. It was Daniels' ability to define the Wisconsin Music Festival and to project and quantify the return on the state's investment that made a significant impression in the grant awarding process. The projection has to be almost spot-on, because the department follows up with grant recipients to verify it, as a step in accountability to taxpayers, Klett said
The MAC expects the festival to draw to Monroe 900 new visitors from the region and for them to spend 585 nights, or about $120,700, in local motel and hotels.
Klett said Monroe's quaint shops, taverns and restaurants against its historic courthouse backdrop draw everyone from "Harley riders to Sunday drivers," to the community, and the festival is one more venue to bring people into town, many for the first time.
Mayor Bill Ross said the Klett's impression of Monroe is correct. "People think we're Mayberry RFD," he said.
Ross also noted the grant funds up to 75 percent of a project's first year advertising and marketing costs and continues to provide support in the second and third years in decreasing amounts.
"For a three-day music event, it doesn't get any better than that," he said.
JEM grant funds are available to non-profit organizations to promote tourism events and destinations. In fiscal 2012, the state Department of Tourism reported funding 50 JEM projects, awarding more than $1.1 million. Visitor expenditures driven by the marketing of these projects is expected to exceed $29 million, according the department.
For more information on Wisconsin Music Festival, visit www.monroeartscenter.com/performances.
Secretary of Tourism, Stephanie Klett, handed over more than $33,000 through a Joint Effort Marketing grant that will nearly quadruple the center's marketing area.
"It will extend the reach of our publicity," said Richard Daniels, director of the MAC, "from 15,000 households to 55,000 households in southern Wisconsin, northern Illinois and eastern Iowa."
Wisconsin Music Arts Festival, June 20-22, will feature concerts and workshops throughout the city. A Wisconsin Music Arts Festival "has never been done before," Klett said.
Featured artists performing include Michael Perry and The Long Beds, Livingston Taylor and BoDeans. Daniels said music professionals will present workshops covering topics ranging from lyrics writing to the business side of the music industry. About 2,000 people are expected to attend one or more of the festival events.
The MAC application for this state JEM grant is its first attempt, and for a first-time applicant to be chosen to receive one of the grants is rare, according to Klett.
"You never get one on your first (application)," Klett said. But it was not by accident or coincidence that MAC received their funding, she added.
Daniels, after learning about the JEM grants from Klett just a few months earlier, set up a one-on-one meeting with Abbie Hill, JEM Coordinator at the Wisconsin Department of Tourism, to learn more about the application process.
"His application was 100 percent thumb-up," Klett said.
The application is time-consuming and painfully detailed, Klett said. It was Daniels' ability to define the Wisconsin Music Festival and to project and quantify the return on the state's investment that made a significant impression in the grant awarding process. The projection has to be almost spot-on, because the department follows up with grant recipients to verify it, as a step in accountability to taxpayers, Klett said
The MAC expects the festival to draw to Monroe 900 new visitors from the region and for them to spend 585 nights, or about $120,700, in local motel and hotels.
Klett said Monroe's quaint shops, taverns and restaurants against its historic courthouse backdrop draw everyone from "Harley riders to Sunday drivers," to the community, and the festival is one more venue to bring people into town, many for the first time.
Mayor Bill Ross said the Klett's impression of Monroe is correct. "People think we're Mayberry RFD," he said.
Ross also noted the grant funds up to 75 percent of a project's first year advertising and marketing costs and continues to provide support in the second and third years in decreasing amounts.
"For a three-day music event, it doesn't get any better than that," he said.
JEM grant funds are available to non-profit organizations to promote tourism events and destinations. In fiscal 2012, the state Department of Tourism reported funding 50 JEM projects, awarding more than $1.1 million. Visitor expenditures driven by the marketing of these projects is expected to exceed $29 million, according the department.
For more information on Wisconsin Music Festival, visit www.monroeartscenter.com/performances.