Greater Flint Arts Council

Tunes At Noon Festival July 8 Aug. 16, 2024We produced the festival at Willson Park, a lovely oasis neatly nestled between UM Flint and the Farmers Market. We did 30 concerts total, 12:45-1:15pm daily. Our average daily attendance was 175 (5,250 total). Ninety paid musicians were engaged throughout the six week festival. Music styles included Jazz, pop, blues, gospel, African percussion, Latin, and funk. 41st Annual Flint Jazz Festival and JAZZWALK July 26-28, 2024We were not able to produce JAZZWALK in 2024 due to construction in Riverbank Park. We moved the festival to the Clio Amphitheater as it is the best outdoor entertainment venue in Genesee County. We contracted three stellar headliners for Friday through Sunday including Phil Denny with Kayla Waters, Jeff Lorber Fusion and the Roger Jones Jr Quartet. Due to moving the festival, attendance was poor at 750 attendees for the three day festival. PARADE OF FESTIVALSIn 2024 GFAC produced the Flint Jazz Festival and Tunes at Noon. We gave financial and marketing support to Cinco de Mayo, Juneteenth, DROP Fest, Goodstock, Alley Fest, Pride Fest, Porch Fest, Civic Park Blues Fest, Flint Restaurant Week and Flint City Comedy Festival. We managed a marketing campaign that included 18 festivals. To help regenerate business in downtown Flint, due to the construction project on Saginaw Street, GFAC began two new monthly programs, Music on the Bricks (First Fridays) and Friday Night Fever (Third Fridays). We pay bands and djs to play in 5-6 venues downtown on the same night. We are also working with a group of organizations to start a 4th Saturday family oriented STEAM event. It took time to re-organize this program after Todd Beard left it. Suzanne Lossing is now organizing the project and her first event took place at St Pauls Episcopal Church. It was a successful puppet making workshop incorporating making puppets using math, engineering and storytelling. Detailed information on all these programs is forthcoming in the Parade of Festivals final report.REGIONAL REGRANTINGAs a representative of the MACC Regional Regranting program, we were able to distribute funds from the State of Michigan to local projects in Genesee, Lapeer and Shiawassee Counties. In 2024, GFAC made 14 grants for arts projects totaling $30,555 and 2 professional development grants to individual artists totaling $2,220. CREATIVE PLACEMAKING PROGRAMThroughout 2024, 6,270 people attended 241 resident-driven placemaking activities and workshops including pop up fitness, music, art, performance, and technology small audience engagements. 54 artists were engaged to lead activities. A separate final report with more details has been submitted to the Mott Foundation.