Representatives from Minnesota Citizens for the Arts, the Minnesota State Arts Board and the McKnight Foundation visited with members of the Park Rapids area arts community Tuesday, Jan. 9 at the Armory Arts & Events Center.
To start, Joan Tweedale, president of the Armory board, led the visitors through a review of the Armory’s history as a cultural center for the area, including its growing role as a large event venue. She also showed pre-design drawings of proposed renovations that will depend on significant funding.
Guests included Sue Gens, executive director of the Minnesota State Arts Board; Mahnomen native Tom Hanson with Winthrop & Weinstine P.A., a lobbyist for Minnesota Citizens for the Arts (MCA); MCA executive director Sarah Fossen; and Caroline Taiwo, program director with the McKnight Foundation.
Hanson said they were on a four-day tour with stops in St. Cloud, Brainerd, Bemidji, Fosston, Moorhead, Fergus Falls, Glenwood and Avon. A similar tour next week will take them to Duluth, Grand Marais, Madison and Granite Falls.
“This is really a listening tour for us to meet people who are working in the arts, find out what they’re doing, find out how state funding is helping them serve their communities and connect people,” said Gens, “and find out all the great things that they’re doing with state funding.”
Hanson said it helps for legislators to hear the stories of how the funding is used in communities. “Sometimes, the best way to do that is to come out and listen to people,” he said.
Fossen explained that MCA is a nonprofit advocacy organization that lobbies at the State Capitol on behalf of the arts in Minnesota. “We help protect and defend Legacy Fund and General Fund dollars for the arts.”
She said this money goes from the Capitol to the State Arts Board and, from there, to regional arts councils. Meanwhile, the McKnight Foundation funds individual artist grants through the regional arts councils.
Waiwo said she was curious about “what makes Park Rapids a place for artists; what brings artists here; what helps artists stay here; who are the actors and centerpieces of the arts community here. That really helps me bring information back to the team, so we can make better funding decisions and be better partners.”
Derek Ricke, president of the Park Rapids Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce, recalled the chamber’s recent partnership with Northern Light Opera Company (NLOC) in a two-actor version of “A Christmas Carol,” staged at the Armory alongside the community Christmas tree lighting.
“Great turnout,” said Ricke. “It’s going to be a consistent part of programming now, going forward.”
He also discussed the photography contest for the chamber’s Discovery Guide. “A huge part of our local economy is tourism, and (we’re) finding ways to partner with local artists in the art community,” he said.
“I think that this community is exploding,” said Lynette Guida, owner of Jasper’s Theater. “I think they’re moving here because of COVID. They’re able to work remotely, and they’re coming up here and they’re saying, ‘Where can we play? What can we do?’”
“I think what’s interesting about the area is you have a broad mix of arts organizations,” said musician Deane Johnson. “It’s quite an interesting mix, and it attracts a mix of people. The one thing we need is (to have) more venues available.”
Laura Johnson with the Hubbard County Developmental Achievement Center (DAC) said their arts classes for the developmentally disabled have led to clients getting welding jobs and “emerging artists” having their work shown in a local gallery.
“The grants have been instrumental in helping us reach more people,” she said.
Laura Grisamore, co-owner of Studio 176, said the visibility of the arts in Park Rapids contributes to the vibrancy of the community. “It has engaged our community more,” she said.
Grisamore said the area’s arts organizations rely on each other, forming close partnerships. “I see a lot of people wear a lot of different hats,” she said.
“I do think that when you come into this community, you can see the commitment to the arts,” Fossen agreed. “In your public art and in the community, you can really feel the pride in the arts. I think that it’s a great lesson to so many other cities and towns, that you’ve put out there that ‘this is important to us.’”
Grisamore also emphasized how much arts access Park Rapids provides for a rural community, taking the Nemeth Art Center for example. “They’re bringing in people internationally. They’re bringing in people from the Cities. To have that type of access and exposure to the arts is profound.”
LuAnn Hurd-Lof with Heartland Arts recalled that when the mural was being painted across the street from Revel Brewing, they placed a comment board in the pub with sticky notes for people to write down their thoughts during the process.
“We got the most creative responses!” she said. “People wrote haiku poetry and drew little pictures. It was so much fun! But it was a wonderful, easy way to engage the community.”
“It’s hard to say enough about a small community that has so much to offer,” said artist Bicky Bender, whose three grown children love coming to town to participate in theater activities. “You can be a part of anything you wish, and we feel accepted,” she said.
Robin Fish / Park Rapids Enterprise
Arts funding making an impact
Armory board member Mike Bruhn suggested the marketing slogan, “Park Rapids: We wear our art on our sleeve.” Fossen countered with the suggestion, “Small town with a big, beautiful voice.”
Bruhn, who also works with the Park Rapids Downtown Business Association and 2nd Street Stage, said the Amory’s Open Mic Night brings people together. “We’re becoming a regional draw for artists and musicians,” he said. “It’s an exciting time for us.”
Bruhn added that 2nd Street Stage epitomizes collaboration, remembering when it got along by the skin of its teeth and hoping to see the Armory blossom in a similar way.
Local sculptor Aaron Spangler tied the booming local economy in part to Legacy arts funding, likening it to a shot in the arm.
Recalling how 2nd Street Stage started as an idea to bring people downtown to shop local businesses, Spangler noted how Legacy funding has made it an opportunity for musicians to get a good-paying gig, and with similar events starting in other towns, “it’s created this whole infrastructure of funding for people to get paid decent money. And it’s, like, a percentage of sales tax that nobody notices. I think it’s amazing.”
Artist Bruce Engebretson recalled Spangler saying the art gets more bang for the buck in rural areas. “I think it’s really needed here,” he said. “We’ve got these myths we go by, like how rural people are more healthy and happy.”
Engebretson said reality doesn’t bear that out. “One depth of despair affects a bunch of people. But then, too, one person selling art from the DAC affects a bunch of people. It affects the family and the friends and all those people, in the same way some friends of mine are being affected by the creator space in Pine Point.
“That affects me a bit, because if my friends are a bit happier, I’m a bit happier. Same goes for the theater companies, the children in the summer. … It goes out in concentric rings, and it’s very important to us.”
The MCA tour group also heard remarks on arts opportunities from representatives of 100 Women of the Heartland Who Care, Jackpine Writers’ Bloc, Nemeth Art Center, Hubbard County Historical Society, Headwaters Center for Lifelong Learning, Park Rapids Community Education, New York Mills Regional Cultural Center … and the city of Park Rapids,as well as sometime local delegates to the Park Rapids Arts and Culture Advisory Commission, Region 2 Arts Council and Northwest Minnesota Foundation.
After hearing everyone’s remarks, Hanson said it’s clear the arts have impacted the area’s economic development and the emotional and mental wellbeing of the community.
Fossen said she was impressed with participants’ pride in their community and refreshed “to see how much you really live that. … It’s like you’re a test case for every town in the city, and towns across the country. The way that you’ve managed to put art at the center of everything your community does is just amazing.”
“We have so much to take back with us,” Fossen said. “The stories we pick up along the way, we end up continuing to use.”
Gens said it was exciting to see city officials and the chamber of commerce working with people in the arts community to make their town a better place to live.
“For us, public funding is really about building community,” Gens said, “and about helping you all give your neighbors and visitors inspiring, exciting things to do. In many ways, this could be a case study for how to use the arts as a way to make the community a place that people want to live, to continue to live and to visit.”
Gens said the State Arts Board will announce their fiscal 2025 arts grants soon.
Fossen noted that the Legacy Amendment expires in 2034, meaning there will be a statewide vote on whether to extend the 3/8-percent state sales tax that is divided between four funds – clean water, outdoor heritage, arts and cultural heritage and parks and trails.
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