Art Project Grant
Art Project Grant
Run Smelt Run Puppet Parade, a non-motorized, site-specific, outdoor parade performance on May 13, 2018, in celebration of the annual smelt run on Lake Superior.
Adam Guggemos: graphic designer, art events promoter; Michelle Ronning: jewelry designer and maker; Tara Makinen: Executive Director of Itasca Orchestra and Strings, musician; Moira Villiard: visual artist, Cultural Programming Coordinator at American Indian Community Housing Organization; Jeanne Doty: Retired Associate Professor UMD Music, pianist; Amber Burns: choreographer, dancer, actor, middle school art teacher; Margaret Holmes: visual artist, poet, and former Children's Theatre employee; Tammy Mattonen: visual artists, co-founder of Crescendo Youth Orchestra; Kayla Schubert: Native American craft artist, writer, employee at MacRostie Art Center.
Adam Guggemos: graphic designer, art events promoter; Michelle Ronning: jewelry designer and maker; Tara Makinen: Executive Director of Itasca Orchestra and Strings, musician; Moira Villiard: visual artist, Cultural Programming Coordinator at American Indian Community Housing Organization; Jeanne Doty: Retired Associate Professor UMD Music, pianist; Amber Burns: choreographer, dancer, actor, middle school art teacher; Margaret Holmes: visual artist, poet, and former Children's Theatre employee; Tammy Mattonen: visual artists, co-founder of Crescendo Youth Orchestra; Kayla Schubert: Native American craft artist, writer, employee at MacRostie Art Center.
ACHF Arts Access ACHF Arts Education ACHF Cultural Heritage
Magic Smelt is building on past success to carry on 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 visible public 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 7th annual Smelt Run Parade. We presented parade workshops at the Aquarium and the West Duluth Library, before getting started at our primary location at the Duluth Art Institute Lincoln Center in Lincoln Park on April 28. We recruited approximately 60 masqueraders and puppeteers at the workshops. Some were repeat participants, and many were newcomers. In addition, anyone and everyone is invited to dress up in silver. Year after year, more and more individuals and families are creating costumes at home. The Duluth News Tribune (front page. May 14. see attachments) included an an interview with a Duluth mom who explained that her family has a bin in the basement for smelt costumes, right next to their Christmas bin! Parade day, May 13, presented lovely weather and approximately 350 people joined our procession on the Lakewalk. 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, Hoops Brewing, Bent Paddle, Whole Foods Co-op, the Red Herring, Global Village, Endion Station and Third St. Bakery. We are pleased to report that we picked up one new sponsor this year, the Greater Downtown Council. I'd like to also mention that Smelt Parade was cited at the GDC's annual meeting in January as a unique and vibrant cultural event. 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.
Other,local or private