North Valley Arts Council wants to keep a better eye on expenses for Grand Cities Art Fest this year, members of the nonprofit's executive board said Friday.
The board engaged in a lengthy discussion at its Friday meeting about how much to spend on advertising this year for the annual festival, as NoVAC has recently been working to improve its financial situation amid some recent struggles, including unusually low revenue from Art Fest last year due to rain on one day of the outdoor festival.
Art Fest this year is June 13 and 14 in downtown Grand Forks and East Grand Forks.
"We want Art Fest to be profitable," Board Treasurer Katie Darling said Friday.
The board initially approved $1,000 as part of its weekly expenses Friday for advertising for Art Fest in the Herald, but later decided to hold spending that money pending more research on what type of advertising is available from the Herald and what will be needed and effective.
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The board also discussed how much money to spend on T-shirts and other Art Fest merchandise.
Darling said the board should not approve any expenses until it knows exactly what is needed and where that money will be going, and other board members agreed.
"I want to know what kind of value we're getting," Darling said.
She said it's difficult to estimate how much money NoVAC should spend this year to make Art Fest successful, as expenses were not always properly documented in previous years. Darling joined NoVAC as its treasurer this year.
She had estimated Art Fest netted a profit of about $80,000 to $85,000 last year, but NoVAC Events Coordinator Kathy Emmons and Board President Bonnie Peterson disagreed with that calculation.
"I'm not saying you're wrong, but I don't agree with that. I think that needs to be looked at again," Emmons said.
Peterson said she remembers a profit closer to $35,000, which Emmons said sounded more accurate, but both said they weren't certain of the exact number.
Either way, Darling and other board members said the goal is to better track expenses for Art Fest this year and make sure the event is profitable, as it is NoVAC's largest single source of event revenue annually.
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"We're kind of starting over," Peterson said.
NoVAC's board of directors has largely been overhauled the past year, with the departures of five board members since the beginning of this year and four board members last year.
NoVAC has also had two executive directors leave the organization the past year and has not yet filled that position.
Also Friday, Emmons discussed some new features of Art Fest this year, including many new artists, new food vendors and roaming entertainers, rather than just musicians on the stage in Grand Forks' Town Square.
"We have many new artists and new food vendors, it's exciting," she said.
