Arts Activities Support

Two outcomes of the arts/cultural components of CLUES Fiesta Latina begin with our ability to showcase the work and artistic efforts of Latino artists and performers in the Twin Cities. The second most significant outcome was the higher than expected attendance at the event. We estimated that 500 people would attend; however, we estimate that close to 1,000 people attended the event. With our first annual Fiesta Latina, CLUES definitely achieved its artistic goals. Our goals with the event were to highlight the richness of Latino arts and culture in the Twin Cities. CLUES promoted Latino arts and culture in two specific ways: highlighting the dance and performance traditions of Latino and Hispanic cultures and we featured John Acosta, a local Latino artist, who led a mural project for participants and for CLUES Youth in Action program. Ten dance troupes representing the cultures of Colombia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Spain, to name a few, were featured at the event and 25 Latino youth worked on the mural project with John Acosta. Regarding strengths and challenges, the new Fiesta Latina was a significant improvement to our past health fairs. Including arts and culture in the Fiesta Latina increased participation and provided the neighborhood as well as the Latinos who attended the event a sense of civic and cultural pride. Going forward, CLUES would like to increase the arts and culture elements of the Fiesta Latina, perhaps including additional artists and diversifying the genres of Latino arts and culture, perhaps including poetry readings, dramatic presentations, and more music. The CLUES Fiesta Latina reached approximately 1,000 individuals, which was higher than the intended 500. We, indeed, reached our intended audience of Latinos and Dayton’s Bluff neighbors. As well, we are also proud to have provided exposure to Latino artists and performers, who were paid for their time. Regarding promotion, we found that promoting the event via social media to be especially effective. Facebook is more widely used than other social media platforms, so we focused our marketing/communications to Facebook. We created a detailed social media plan for the event, posted almost daily in both Spanish and English, and received a significant amount of shares and likes. As well, we advertised in Spanish focused newspapers. Approximately 80 percent of participants at the event were Latinos. Going forward, although we created postcards and other materials to hand out at area businesses, we would more than likely increase “physical marketing” more next year. As well, although we did a couple of radio interviews about the event, as well as a feature on Univision, increasing radio advertising and interviews about the event would conceivably increase people reached. Because the event was outside in the CLUES parking lot, we felt that the event was accessible to diverse audiences with diverse needs. We had two entrances, which increased the ways in which participants could enter the event and we had ample parking on the street and at an adjacent parking lot. In the future, we will increase the number of parking spaces, and perhaps encourage people to take public transportation.