Art School Museum Business Plan Leave a comment

It’s hands-on! Children’s Art Museum of Chicago. Hands On! ) is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization. Hands on! was created to offer unique and meaningful arts programming to all children, to teach children about the arts and to create a lifetime audience for the arts. We are committed to offering a dynamic and continually-evolving program. Although we will incorporate all of the fine arts into our programs, our focus is on visual art. Activities will be free-flowing and available to all. The Museum staff will consist of working artists. All structured activities are led by master teacher-artists.

The President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities and the Arts Education Partnership initiated a study last January to examine the effect of arts experiences on young children and to discover how and why they changed. The evidence shows that children who are active in the arts have a higher success rate than those who aren’t. This study, Champions of Change, found much evidence that learning in the arts helps develop habits that will support other disciplines, and that it can often reach at-risk students when other disciplines cannot. The arts provide youth with real learning experiences that are engaging for their mind, heart, and body. Arts education can be a learning tool for students. It can inspire creativity, self-discipline, as well as the skills and confidence needed to overcome the many challenges that they face throughout their lives.

The three founding board members, all of whom are mothers of young children, are uniquely qualified to bring this project to fruition. Karolyn Kuehner is the Executive Director. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano Pedagogy as well as a Master of Music in Piano Performance and Pedagogy with highest honors from Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University. Over the past 10 years she was a Roosevelt University lecturer in piano and served on the Elmhurst College and Concordia University piano faculties. Ms. Kuehner was honored with the D.H. Baldwin Fellowship to recognize her contributions in piano pedagogy. Ms. Kuehner is an active Brownie Troop leader with the Girl Scouts of Chicago and is an advocate for homeschooling. On Educate!, she was a guest. Channel 20 and Medill Reports at Northwestern University. Interviews featuring Ms. Kuehner can be found in Chicago Parent or the Homeschooling Link.

Sheri, Operations Director, holds both a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Public Administration degrees from Governors State University. Formerly, she was the Beverly Area Planning Association’s Housing Director. This is a non-profit community organization. She has also served as Assistant Planner for the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission. Ms. Jendra participates as a volunteer at St. Barnabas Catholic Church (Elementary School) and in a variety sports activities for youth.

Nancy McGourty, Marketing Director, holds a Bachelor of Science in Commerce degree with a major in Marketing from DePaul University. Former positions include Assistant Vice President/Marketing, Beverly Area Planning Association Economic Development Director, and First Chicago Bank Marketing Officer in Corporate and Institutional Banking. As a director of Southwest Beverly Improvement Association, as well a volunteer for Sutherland Elementary School and St. Barnabas Catholic Church as well the AYSO, Ms. McGourty remains active in Beverly/Morgan Park.

In addition to the founding board members, our Board of Directors is comprised of a diverse group of individuals including Grammy Award winning composer and pianist Ramsey Lewis, Michael Friedman, CEO of Premonition Records, James Lindsey, CPA with TTX Company, and Paul Tuminaro, Chicago-based arts advocate and member of the NewGroup Board at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

We are looking for funding to help us cover our initial start-up expenses. This could include legal costs, leasehold improvement, rent and other related expenses, as well as office equipment, furniture, inventory and cash for the first few months.

We estimate that approximately 60% of Hands On!’s annual revenue will be generated by a combination of membership, admissions, programming, retail sales, and related activities. The remainder of our funding comes from:

• Writing proposals for grants

foundations.

Objectives

Hands On

• To generate earned revenue through a combination of membership fees and admission fees. Programming, outreach, retail sales, special events, and programming.
• To obtain new funding sources such as foundation grants, government grant, private and corporate donations.
• To have 375 total paying memberships.
• Our outreach programs are designed to reach 1,500 children.

Mission

hands on! aims to help children of all age develop their creative potential through visual and performing arts. Hands-On! seeks to create an environment where children of all ages, abilities and experiences can freely imagine, create and welcome the arts to their lives through the fine arts. hands on! is a professional environment that encourages creativity, innovation, and respects individuals.

Keys to Success

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