Rural Arts and Culture Summit
Rural Arts and Culture Summit
2017 Rural Arts and Culture Summit
John White: writer, photographer, retired journalist; Georgette Jones: literature teacher, theatre actor/director/teacher; Marilee Strom: musician, former art teacher, business owner; Kathy Fransen: musician, theatre, Rhythm of the River coordinator; Janet Olney: visual artist, Willmar Area Arts Council coordinator; Joyce Meyer: photographer, retired art teacher, Canby Arts Council; Pam Blake: retired art teacher, visual arts, Tyler Arts Council, Southwest Minnesota Weaver's Guild; Michele Knife Sterner: theatre actor, Southwestern Minnesota State University Associate Director for Access Opportunity Success program; Tom Wirt: artist, owner of Clay Coyote Gallery, Hutchinson Center for the Arts, past member of Hutchinson Public Arts Commission; Joyce Aakre: visual arts, writing, Discover Dassel committee, Board member for Litchfield Community Education, Exhibit committee for Dassel Area Historical Society; Kelly Muldoon: graphic artist, Prairie Music Association, Prairie Oasis Players; Dan Wahl: writer, visual artist, director, adjunct English instructor at Southwest Minnesota State University; Anne O'Keefe-Jackson: human resources director, bead and quill work; Cindy Reverts: visual artist, Rock County Fine Arts Association treasurer, Council for Arts in Humanities in Rock County; Brett Lehman: Worthington International Festival, Worthington City Band, Worthington Concert Association; Reggie Gorter: vocalist, theatre, voice and dance teacher; Dana Johnson: producer/filmmaker; Claire Swanson: visual arts, arts teacher, Meander Art Crawl Committee.
Janet Olney: Southwest Minnesota Arts Council Board, visual artist, Willmar Area Arts Council coordinator; Joyce Meyer: Southwest Minnesota Arts Council Board, photographer, retired art teacher, Canby Arts Council; Great Murray: Southwest Minnesota Arts Council Executive Director.
ACHF Arts Access
Artists and arts organizations build relationships with members of, or organizations that serve, groups that have traditionally been underserved by the arts or by the applicant organization. Anecdotal responses, contacts made, relationships built, ideas generated.
During this experience I spoke with poets, performers, fashionistas, musicians, and one thing I took away from all of them was that community matters, art matters, cultural experiences matter even in small towns and rural backdrops. I gained a poet-teacher for our fall writing workshops who was from Dawson, MN and now I'm creating a workshop around frame-building for artists with the help of a frame builder from Red Wing, MN. I traded contact info with artists all the way from Kentucky and Louisiana in hopes of facilitating their next Minnesota trip in conjunction with other area arts and culture organizations. I had begun building relationships with many area arts and culture folks; this experience gave me the time and focus to continue building those relationships, especially those within my own county and region. I've come away with many ideas for possible programming, one of which was the youth technology project presented in one of the breakout sessions. I think this is an amazing concept (to let the youth research, learn, discover, and analyze) and I can't imagine why I haven't seen this before.