Art Project
Art Project
Community Fiddling 2023
Cheryl Avenel-Navara: education, Worthington Public Arts Commission chair, SW MN Opportunity council; Judy Beckman: vocal music, Big Stone Arts Council, Big Stone County Historical Society, Big Stone Lake Area Chamber of Commerce CEO; Jessica Welu: writing, music, SW Regional Development Commission; Anna Johannsen: fiber artist, art teacher, Remick Gallery board, president of Windom Women's Investment group, treasurer of Cottonwood County Animal Rescue, officer of Cotton Quilters; David KelseyBassett: visual artist, musician, Hinterland Art Crawl board; Shawn Kinsinger: theater director, actor, musician, Palace Theatre executive director, Green Earth Players vice president, Luverne Street Music board member, Luverne High School Theater artistic director; Darlene Kotelnicki: theater, city council, library board. Cheryl Avenel Navara: education, Worthington Public Arts Commission chair, SW MN Opportunity Council volunteer; Kylie Rieke: ceramics, murals, music, theater, T-Bird Community Arts Board; Kristine Shelstad: visual arts, Madison Mercantile art gallery, Madison Arts Council, Lac qui Parle Players; VFW; Gillian Singler, MN West Community and Technical College chair of Humanities and English instructor, Creative Healing Space volunteer, writer, theater director; Erica Volkir: performing arts, Pipestone Performing Arts Center board, Pipestone Area Chamber of Commerce and CVB director; Mark Wilmes: Lake Benton Opera House board president, actor/director, musician, reporter;
Cheri Buzzeo, theater; Beth Habicht, music; Anna Johannsen, visual art, education, SMAC board; Brett Lehman, music; Melanie Loy, music; Michael Van Keulen, theater.
ACHF Arts Access ACHF Arts Education
We need to continue the tradition of playing music, as well as passing along tunes by ear and encouraging the creation of new tunes. We want fiddling to once again be embedded as a shared community experience. At this point, we need to provide the intentional support to entice and train new fiddlers. Special workshops will give them new skills and will also heighten their identity as musicians. We will also develop the capacity for guitar accompaniment by recruiting two new guitarists and provide resources on chording accompaniment to those who play keyboard by sight. Our goal is to have people in the area see fiddling as "what we do" and expand participation by 1/3, increasing from the existing 30 people playing fiddle to 40, over the coming year. We will record the number of fiddlers, guitar players, and piano players taking lessons and participating in workshops, performances, and "Fiddle and Fun". We will track the new tunes and techniques learned. We will also record requests for fiddlers to play at events, along with audience numbers.
We have expanded our outreach to and impact on the community at large. Our Fiddle 'n Christmas program was attended by 275 people (the population of Sunburg is less than 100). We have had additional invitations to play at community events. Small groups ar