Communications Projects Portal

I’m working with the College of Education on a one-of-a-kind concept paper in the hopes of establishing a partnership/funding opportunity with the Dollywood Foundation and the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. This involves the Anita Zucker Center for Excellence in Early Childhood Studies, so I’ve been working closely with DO Jim Burke and center faculty to develop the attached concept language.

The Imagination Library delivers a storybook monthly to millions of kids across the country, so I’d like to emulate that storybook approach in our concept design. I spoke with Rob this morning to determine the viability of this creative strategy and to ensure I wasn’t being unrealistic about timing and resources. He indicated that this approach is doable, so I wanted to get the ball rolling with the initial design phase. Including some details below to help get things started:

• Jim from the College of Education is working to get a meeting on the books with his contact at the Dollywood Foundation. His ideal deadline is a month from now to have a hard copy in hand.
• Design – layout would mimic a kid’s storybook. Attached document has high-level suggestions for how to lay out the content and integrate other visuals. I will work with the AZCEECS team to access their approved images of faculty and children reading. Based on the amount of text and the visually-oriented nature of this approach, I’m thinking it’ll be no shorter than 12 pages.
• Printing – If possible, I’d like the look and feel to resemble a storybook. It doesn’t have to be a hard cover, but we’d want this to be weighty enough that it would stand out from the other concepts and proposals received by the Dollywood Foundation. Jim indicated that the Foundation team prefers hard copies and sometimes put things on Dolly’s desk that they think she’d like. This unique design approach could help draw their attention and give us a shot at getting this in front of Dolly herself.