Activity Introduction

There has been a recent surge in space travel. Partly thanks to colonies developing on the Moon and Mars, and additionally to the James Webb telescope discovering a new habitable planet near to earth. You have been assigned to a team of Arts Administrators to advocate for arts in space and seek out funding to support a new arts endeavor.

Instructions

Students will be randomly divided into project groups. Once in your group, you will read the complete instructions together. For this activity make a copy of Space Tour a Fundraising Strategy.  This document will help you get the most out of this activity.

Selecting Options

Choose one (1) from each:

Space Tour

• The Trip – Thanks to new technologies, the space flight to Earth B-Meta-X will only take 20 years to reach our nearest habitable planet. While future inhabitants of the planet will have an opportunity to develop their own arts and culture strategies, the Earth B Corps is excited to help travelers celebrate earth culture as they travel to new galaxies and prepare to embark on the next chapter for mankind. Mission Control is interested in building a relaxing experience to manage effects of the long-haul trip. Arts Administrator advocates must develop suggestions to support arts experiences on the way to Earth B-Meta-X.
• Mars Colony – The Mars Colony has been thriving for the past 5 years, but 75% of Martians report extreme boredom and lack of cultural connection. Mars colonists were provided a survey of types of experiences they would most like to experience, the overwhelming majority, 87% identified arts and culture as a primary interest to help fill the time they were not working in the many Mars industries. Several noted lack of activities made their lives on Mars dull. Arts Administrators must advocate for arts programming to support Mars culture and community development.
• Lunar Comet Cruise – An 8-day cruise to the Moon and back. Travelers fly for 3 days in our top of the line Starbucks StarJump or economy McDonalds Junior Suite accommodations to reach the Lunar surface, experience 2 glorious days at Lunar Base where space cruisers get to experience Lunar surface exclusives like the 0-G Gravity Jump, hike to the first lunar landing site, and mine for lunar treasures, all before their 3 day travel back to Earth. Comet Cruises is looking to expand their on ship and on surface programming and are seeking proposals.

Experience Type

• An active arts experience, where participation is necessary to engage in the arts experience.
• A passive arts experience, where participants serve more as audience but experience a curated event or event series.
• An arts learning experience, where participants engage in art making or learning about art modalities.

Fundraising Strategy

• Major Donor – a major donor is someone that may be able to provide a significant sum or portion of funding, for this activity, assume that they will be able to cover the entire cost of the project. The donor pool is broad and you can select a single appropriate donor, such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, or Richard Branson.
• Grant –  a grant is funding provided by a government agency, foundation, or community fund, which is awarded after the successful completion of an application. Applications will often include a full profile of your organization, details on why you are applying for funding, and the amount that you are requesting. Donors for this assignment might include a government agency like the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), NASA, or Space Force, or could include a major arts grant funders like Andrew W. Mellon Foundation or the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
• Crowdfunding – crowdfunding is done by posting donation call on social media or by creating campaigns on special websites designed to promote projects that would have mass and targeted appeal. For instance, organizations might use Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok to call for donations or they could create a GoFundMe, Indigogo, or Patreon to call for donations.

Prepare Your Strategy

Follow the steps on your copy of Space Tour a Fundraising Strategy.

Share

Once you have developed your strategy, be sure to share in the comments section! Use the following format:

Identify

• List your three (3) choices (example: The Trip, Arts Learning, and Major Donor).

Detail

• A brief description of your arts experience.
• Brief explanation of why you feel the experience is a good fit for the tour.
• Review of your donor
  • Why this donor?
  • How you plan to approach them and ask for funding?
  • Why you think the donor will be persuaded to fund your arts experience?
  • What challenges might you encounter with this donor?

Reflection

• Consider the engagement with the donor groups. What influenced your choices for this activity? Consider your communication style, prior knowledge, and/or experience as they may have influenced your choices.
• Identify Purpose. Why do you think the author has developed this activity as an introduction to Fundraising for the Arts?
• What about this activity stood out to you? You may consider other responses that resonate with you.

All images used are AI-generated, note misspellings (intentionally included) and awkward use of language. In selecting these AI-generated images with intentional errors, we can better understand limitations, see how AI can be imperfect, why getting details right matters in professional communications, and how we might creatively address and consider challenges with these tools in our own work.