Questions and funding

Hello Franzy and Hajoe,

I feel really sad that the rest of the videos did not live.  That is so disappointing.  I would love to see the original video if you have time to send it one day.  Do you want me to return the camera to you?

Lena and I had a chance to talk on Friday.  Beyond helping you place the stand on URA owned land, if that is what you wanted to do, the URA does not have a funding stream available for projects like this.  The exception would be if you wanted to go through one of their loan programs to buy land and operate a business there.  I think the URA is supportive, in that they are willing to see where this leads to, but they don’t have the ability to fund this type of a project.  We both wish there was more flexibility, but we always knew URA would not be a funding source.

I don’t know what resources Kingsley would have, but you never know.  The original spirit of our grant was to have artists and organizations collaborate, developing trust and belief…and potential for change.  I would love to see you communicate this idea back to Maria and Malik and see what they think.  For all I know, they might have resources to share or suggest.

Their willingness to participate in this project is going to be key for me to raise additional funds.  If they don’t want to do it, it will be hard to raise the money based on the original funding concept for this project.  And because I am not a commissioning organization, I can’t raise money for artist projects.  (hope that makes sense, it’s complicated).  However, if they are into it, I would be willing to go back to the Sprout Fund and Hillman Foundation to see if they would be at all interested. If Kingsley is not, I wonder if there are other paths you can take with funding streams here independently.  We can talk about that later.

Can I also ask a few questions?  When I think of a nine-year lemonade stand, I think of the ability to mark what changes in the community by contrasting it with a constant (the stand).  Is this a way (among others) that are you thinking about it too?  How would that be documented?  If that is not how you are thinking about it, help me understand the conceptual framework behind it.  The Hillman Foundation would be especially interested in the documentation.  One of the family members that is part of the foundation is a film maker and photographer.  He is currently living in New York, so I would like to try to get you together with him if this moves forward.

How much money would you need to come this August?  Would you be willing or able to wait to get paid until we raised the money after your trip?  I am sorry to ask you this, but I think we are very late to try to raise money for August from foundations. But, I don’t want to do nothing in August if we can avoid it.  I am afraid that doing nothing could put more distance between you and Kingsley, when I want to be building trust and belief.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Renee