Art Project Grant
ACHF Arts Access ACHF Arts Education ACHF Cultural Heritage
Magic Smelt is building on past success to further establish the Smelt Parade as a proud local tradition. We wish to coordinate a fanciful procession including hundreds of local citizens, to accompany our giant Smelt Queen puppet on the Lakewalk. This will be a visual and musical spectacle, celebrating the extraordinary phenomenon of the smelt run. We will offer free workshops prior to the event, both in a downtown location and in area schools. We wish for the workshops and parade to be creative parties, both lighthearted and humorous. The key to our success will be to engage students, families, and a diverse community of volunteer participants. We intend to recruit perhaps 100 costumed and masked performers and puppeteers. Additionally, we expect to attract another couple of hundred spectators. Our parade is intrinsically a community event. People will come if they enjoy themselves. We make it easy for people to participate at their own level. We have worked with girl scouts making crowns and rod puppets, dads on stilts, and grandmas sewing costumes. We will continue to recruit citizens of all ages.
This was our 6th annual Smelt Run Parade. We presented our parade workshops at the Duluth Art Institute Lincoln Center in Lincoln Park, beginning April 29. The first workshop session was offered as part of a Duluth Art Institute Family Day event. This was a strong start for the next two weeks of parade preparations (see attached flyer). We recruited approximately 40 performers at the workshops. These included masqueraders, stilt walkers, and puppeteers. In addition, anyone and everyone is invited to dress up in silver clothing and accessories. Increasingly, year after year, more and more individuals and families are creating costumes at home. It is a thrill to see so many smelt party lovers dressed for the occasion. We also have a connection at Laura MacArthur elementary school, in West Duluth, where students prepared silver smelt puppets. Parade day, May 14, was very windy. Nonetheless, approximately 300 joined our procession on the Lakewalk. Despite the adverse conditions, the Brass Messengers, all of our stilt walkers and our featured puppet, the 15' long Smelt Queen, managed to lead the parade. Certainly, the challenge of persevering in difficult weather strengthens a sense of camaraderie. There are several partners and sponsors whose support helped make this year's event a success. These include the Park Point Community Club, the Army Corps of Engineers, Duluth Parks and Recreation, Zeitgeist Arts Café, the Duluth Grill and OMC Smokehouse, Bent Paddle, Whole Foods Co-op, the Red Herring, Global Village, Endion Station and Third Street Bakery. As intended, our final event was a visual and musical spectacle, celebrating the extraordinary phenomenon of the annual smelt run. The key to our success was to attract and engage students, families, and a diverse community of volunteer participants. As of this writing, there is at least one video clip posted on youtube, which may be found by searching the key words "2017 Smelt Parade Duluth Minnesota." There are also photos on our Facebook page.
Other, local or private