After the Event, Hot House

This After the Event is all about the Sprout Funds annual event, HOT HOUSE.  If you know anything about the Sprout Fund, and I am sure that many of you do, then you know something about, or have heard about HOT HOUSE.  This year the crowd was bigger, the spectacle was bigger, and the event was fantastic!  How could it not be though?  Food, liquor, beer, wine, art, lively people, there was one eye catching experience after another.  The opportunity to learn about some businesses and projects in the community that I had never even knew existed, is the cherry on the cake for me.  I realized that that is only our perspective, the happy party goer. What about the event coordinators  themselves, what about their perspective?  I had a brief conversation this morning with Matt Hannigan of the the Sprout Fund to get the collective thoughts of the non- profit, and share some of how they felt about the HOT HOUSE event this year, and to learn more about the Sprout Fund.

SLP :   How did you like the Don Allen location compared to Bakery Sqaure last year?

Matt Hannigan : I think that they were really different sites, ...all the sites are very different that we do so generally each one has its own benefits.

SLP :  Did you guys meet your goal this year?

MH :   Yeah, I think that we got the volume of people that we were looking for.  For us it an opportunity to showcase the projects and activities that we've supported over the last year.  So, in looking at the event and seeing how many people were stopping by the project booths and learning a little more about what they are doing in the community, that is a really important aspect of what the event is about.  Some people think its just a really fun party but for us it does have that secondary purpose as well.

click play to view pics

SLP :  For people who are not familer with the Sprout fund, could you breifly summarize what you all are in place to do?

MH :  What we basically provide is catalog support for community projects, and we do that through small grants and through the creation of works of public art.  We have a couple of grant making programs, where people can apply to us for support and try to get there idea off the ground.  Then we have a public art program thats focused on creating murals around the town.

SLP :  Thanks for all the great info Matt, one last question before you go, any new projects or collaborations that the Sprout Fund is currently engaged?

MH :   Well, the thing thats coming up the fastest for us right now after HOT HOUSE is the application deadline for a new funding program that were offering which is called SPRING.  Thats a program that focuses on programs that are related to biodiversity, and that application deadline is  Friday September 24, 2010.  So we're hopeful to get  projects from across Pittsburgh and Allegheny county to come back to us with ideas of community projects that would kinda measure the impact of the biodiversity within the Pittsburgh region.

If you would like more information on the SPRING program or any more info at all about the Sprout Fund click the title link to there website.  The Sprout Fund is located at 5423 Penn Avenue Pittsburgh, Pa, 15206-3423