The Back Track to Art

College students, by any chance do you sometimes wonder what our fair state of Minnesota has to offer in the way of arts activities and experiences for young, arts curious people like you?

Well, wonder no more!

The Northfield Arts Guild has helped create a new state-wide program designed for the arts curious college student (i.e., you!). It’s called LINK.

link-flyer.pdf

Through Link, you can tap into a whole world of art in Minnesota. All you have to do is get a discounted student membership at any arts organization in Minnesota participating in LINK, and you’ll get member benefits at any other LINK organization.

To learn more, just stop by Northfield’s community art center–the Northfield Arts Guild–located at 301 Division Street in downtown Northfield. Or call us at (507) 645-8877, or email us at office(at)northfieldartsguild(dot)org.

The State Arts Board is seeking an Office Manager.

According to the announcement: “This position, and the two program associate positions that we posted earlier, are part of an internal restructuring that is underway.  In an effort to give more attention to programs and services, some routine administrative functions will be outsourced and more staff time will be dedicated to grant programs and program support. The goal of this reorganization is to improve the service we are able to provide to constituents.“ 

Office Coordinator

The Arts Board is seeking qualified candidates for the position of office coordinator. This person will serve as executive assistant to executive director, and will oversee the administrative support functions of the agency. The position requires a person who is highly organized, and skilled in time and workflow management.

More information is available on the employment page of the State Arts Board’s website:  http://www.arts.state.mn.us/about/employment.htm

I highly recommend to any and all artists and arts-minded people in Northfield and its environs that you try to attend the upcoming Springboard for the Arts Health Fair for Artists. Not only is it FREE(!), but it looks to provide some very crucial information for any artist grappling with our nation’s tangled health care system.

Date/Time:   Saturday, Nov 3 10:00 am - 2:00 pm

Location:    Carleton Lofts, 2285 University Ave, Saint Paul, MN

Once again, this event is completely FREE. The only requirement is that you need to RSVP and register in advance here.

Here’s a little bit more info (from Springboard’s website):

This year’s BIGGER and BETTER Health Fair for Artists is for ALL artists, arts administrators, and their families. There will be health-related workshops, low-cost screenings, a flu shot clinic, and representatives of affordable health insurance, nutrition, fitness, low-cost clinics, and alternative care. As in past years, there will be hourly seminars on topics of special interest. And we are adding financial planners to the roster- they can help you design a plan for a healthy future, without the high pressure. Residents of the Carleton Artist Lofts will open up their spaces to Health Fair attendees, so you can check out the work of local artists while getting connected to health resources.

David Kjerland, age 65 of Northfield, stained glass artist and owner of the Kjerland Studio, passed away Monday, October 15, 2007 at his home. The staff at the Arts Guild will miss his quiet, artistic spirit and his positive demeanor; he was often seen at Guild events, where he was known for his encouraging smile.

His family invites friends and neighbors to join in mourning his death and celebrating his life on Saturday, October 20 at First United Church of Christ (Congregational), 300 Union Street, Northfield, Minnesota. To read more of his obituary, go to Northfield.org.

Bonita Parker was a longtime supporters of the Northfield Arts Guild, proprietor of Three Acres Antiques in Northfield, and staff member at St. Olaf College. She served for many years as a devoted theater committee volunteer and box office attendant. Her late-husband, Donovan, was known for his tireless contributions to the theater as a musical and comedic performer, a set worker and stage hand, and an enthusiastic conversationalist.

The Northfield Arts Guild, its staff and members, extends its condolences and best wishes at this time to Bonita’s family and loved ones.

From northfield.org:

Bonita passed away Friday evening, October 12, 2007 at United Hospital in St. Paul at the age of 73.

Services will be 2:00 P.M. Wednesday, October 17, 2007 at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Northfield with Revs. Steve Swanson & John Qaum officiating. Music will be provided by the trio of Myrna Johnson, Ruth Legvold and Leslie Lykens. Organist will be Donna Paulsen. Honorary casket bearers will be Bruce Moe, Wil Brosz, Noel Stratmoen, Lois Stratmoen, Don Sahling, Jim Enestvedt, Hal Gargrave and Nathan Knutson. Visitation will be at the church one hour prior to the service.

Interment will be next to Donovan, his parents and grandparents, in the Parker family plot at Westbrook Cemetery in Westbrook, Minnesota.

Memorials are suggested to Waldorf, St. John’s, St. Olaf, Mount of Olives Lutheran Church in Phoenix or Northfield Arts Guild.

Arrangements are with the Benson & Langehough Funeral Home.

The Minnesota State Arts Board has asked for help finding qualified candidates for another new position they are creating:

We [the State Arts Board] are seeking an arts program associate whose principal responsibilities will be to direct the planning, implementation, and evaluation of the Arts Board programs that involve collaborations with other state agencies, specifically the Percent for Art in Public Places program and the Art of Recovery program.

This is a full-time position, open immediately.

Interested individuals are encouraged to apply online through the Minnesota Department of Employee Relations.

We’ve posted a link to the full position description and to the online application site in the Employment section of our Web site: http://www.arts.state.mn.us/about/employment.htm

Make no bones about it, the Northfield Arts Guild needs your support. Without the generous support of members, donors, business supporters, institutions, and other funders, we simply cannot continue offering all that we offer to Northfield in the way of arts activities, events, classes, and entertainment.

Before you decide once and for all how much you’re willing to support the arts in Northfield, please consider the following six key reasons that supporting the Northfield Arts Guild is a good thing:

1. History: The Northfield Arts Guild has long been an important part of Northfield’s culture. We’ve been here, in fact, for nearly fifty years–though not always in our current prominent location on Division Street downtown. The Guild was founded in 1959 and presented its first event that year, a successful stage production of Eugene O’Neill’s “Ah Wilderness.” In the early 1960s, the Guild was able to buy its first building, a church on West 3rd Street (where it still houses the Guild Theater), and in the early 1980s, the Guild was offered the opportunity to purchase its present building, which had formerly been used as a library, as City Hall, and as a YMCA. The Guild has been the place were thousands upon thousands of Northfielders, current and former, got their first taste of art. For instance, a list of Guild members from the mid-1960s included many prominent community members of the time, such as the Schjeldahl family, whose son, Peter Schjeldahl, grew up and moved to New York to become perhaps the most prominent art critic of our time. In 1967, the Minnesota State Arts Council (the precursor to the State Arts Board), in a survey of regional arts centers, held up the Northfield Arts Guild as a model for providing diverse activities to the community on a minimal budget (which, in my opinion, we still do). You can’t think of the culture of Northfield without also thinking of the role the Arts Guild has played and continues to play here. Supporting the Northfield Arts Guild helps us continue this history.

2. Artistry: The Northfield Arts Guild has always been all about providing a quality arts experience for the community. This dedication to excellence begins with early-childhood arts classes–in visual art, theater, dance, and so on–and continues into its many programs for artistic adolescents and adult artists. The Northfield Arts Guild theater offers the opportunity for local performers of all ages to get up on stage in high-quality productions of every sort–from comedy to drama, from musicals to kid’s theater. The dance program presents age-appropriate, non-competitive (but highly artistic) classes in dance for both kids and adults. The Cannon Valley Regional Orchestra presents four or five yearly concerts each year, giving regional musicians an opportunity to play together for their communities. And the gallery and shop at the Guild’s Center for the Arts on Division Street offers local and regional artists numerous opportunities each year to display and sell their work. Supporting the Northfield Arts Guild means you are supporting great arts and artists.

3. Stability and consistency: The Arts Guild has been a centerpiece of arts activity this town for an amazingly long stretch of time, and it will continue to be so for many years to come. This consistency is indeed our strength. While we may not offer the most novel or trendy types of arts activities, you can always know we’ll be here doing what we do year after year after year. We will present six or more regular theater productions each year, as well as a number of smaller, more lively, and more locally created theater events. We will teach hundreds of kids each year the joys of theater, dance, music, and art. We will exhibit more than twenty unique art shows each year in our gallery spaces. We will sell beautiful art objects in our shop and support working artists. We will support the work of a regional community symphony in producing 4-5 concerts each year, and we will have a hand in helping to organize local arts festivals and events that the entire community can enjoy. In our constantly changing, ever mutating world, isn’t it nice to know there’s someone you can always count on? Supporting the Northfield Arts Guild helps us continue providing consistently great arts programs in Northfield.

4. Community: The arts are important to communities—not only for the effect they have on life-quality, but also because they provide economic benefits. A 2006 report, The Arts: A Driving Force in Minnesota’s Economy, provides strong evidence that the nonprofit arts and culture industry are a significant economic incubator across the state. Further, due to the nonprofit and community focus of these organizations, the vast majority of this economic activity filters directly back into the communities—providing pay for working artists, purchasing ads in community publications, buying materials and supplies from community businesses, paying local workers for services, and so on. Supporting nonprofit art organizations epitomizes the economic idea that a “rising tide lifts all boats.” When we support the arts we not only enhance our community’s quality of life, we invest in our own and our neighbors’ overall economic well being. The Northfield Arts Guild is a downtown anchor, providing programs and services, and developing support and appreciation of the arts, and spreading arts-related economic activity throughout the community. For these reasons, the Northfield Arts Guild is a key contributor to the quality of life and economic vitality of the community of Northfield. For nearly fifty years, the Northfield Arts Guild has been a place where community members committed to and interested in the arts come together. Supporting the Northfield Arts Guild means supporting the community of Northfield.

5. Opportunity(s): With all of the Northfield Arts Guild’s history and its consistent production of quality arts programs, the organization has long had time and space to offer opportunities for artists to try new things, give a project or program a whirl, and get themselves involved in something creative. In recent years, the Guild has supported the production of new programs and projects like the Very Short Play Festival and the Under Construction workshops for playwrights. Guild artists are showing art work in a new venue, the local Allina clinic, and we are always bringing new artists and art into our shop. The Guild is your place to try out new things in the arts. Supporting the Northfield Arts Guild supports new arts projects in Northfield.

6. Fun and frivolity: While all of the above reasons make a lot of statistical sense, we can’t forget the idea that, even though there’s no way to quantify it, the arts are fun! In some respects, there’s no other reason to support the arts in Northfield. The arts make people happy, and who can’t use a little extra happiness in their lives? Plays are fun events to watch, symphony concerts are fun events to listen to. It’s fun to walk the town and stop by our gallery during an Art Crawl. It’s fun for children and adults of all ages to dance in our studio. Supporting the Northfield Arts Guild means you are a supporter of fun and happiness in your town!

Art Guild member and local visual artist Riki Kölbl Nelson would like to inform the NAG community of the current three-person show she is participating in at St. Olaf. (The following description was written by fellow exhibiting artist Doug Bratland):

As a Minnesotan of mostly Norwegian descent, I’m not
altogether comfortable with self-promotion. Which is
why it’s taken me until now to write a story about the
three-person art show that’s on exhibit at St. Olaf
until Saturday. [Note: We've just been informed this
show will be extended until Thanksgiving.]

My twin brother, Don, and I and our friend Riki Kölbl
Nelson all graduated as art majors from St. Olaf in
1987. Riki, the one actual “working artist” among us,
organized an exhibition to concur with the celebration
of our 20th reunion, which was last weekend.

Read on for an illustrated description of the show….

Riki Kölbl Nelson is a poet and painter who has
exhibited her work locally, nationally and
internationally during the decades she’s lived in
Northfield. Her works are the most diverse of the
three exhibitors, featuring pieces mainly inspired by
St. Olaf’s memorial chime tower and wind turbine. Riki
is an Austrian native who worked on her undergraduate
art degree while her son was in high school. She has
additional degrees in English literature and an MFA in
painting.

Don Bratland’s work is a series of 26 black & white
photographs—each representing one letter of the
alphabet—depicting scenes from the landscape of his
rural life. He lives on a hobby farm in Nerstrand with
his family, a bunch of horses, a few cats, a dog, and
lots of breathing space. Don is co-owner of Holmes
Design in downtown Northfield and the art director of
the St. Olaf Magazine, but this is the first exhibition
of his photography since 1987.

In my own works I utilized various materials to
explore a single theme: rocks. Varying from real to
realistic to surrealistic, my pieces mix photographs
with sculptures rendered in clay, papier mache, wool
and packing tape. This is also my first full art
exhibition since college, but I’ve been making visual
art off and on since moving to Northfield in 2002. My
normal gig is working on websites, both as a long-time
volunteer with Northfield.org and as a recent addition
to Carleton’s web services group.

If you decide to stop up on campus to check out the
show, don’t get discouraged when you have trouble
finding the exhibition space. It’s not in the art
building, but in the student center, Buntrock Commons.
Head for the back wall and look for a pair of closed
doors to the left, near the cash machines; the show
hangs in the hallway leading to the telecom office.
You can email me [Doug Bratland -- dbratland(at)gmail.(dot)com]
for more detailed directions or additional information.

A Northfield artist has alerted the Arts Guild of an important and useful upcoming workshop that is being organized by Springboard for the Arts.

If anyone is interested in attending a workshop introducing artists to NYFA Source–a database of helpful services to artists–on October 11, the artist is looking for someone to carpool with. To arrange this ride, please contact us at 507-645-8877 or email me at michael(at)northfieldartsguild(dot)org.

Springboard for the Arts has requested that we inform our artist membership of the upcoming Health Fair for Artists.

Please join us at Springboard for the Arts’ Health Fair for Artists, a day devoted to connecting all artists, arts administrators, and their families to healthcare resources.

The Health Fair is on Saturday, November 3rd from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm at the Carleton Artist Lofts in St. Paul (2285 University Ave).

The event is FREE; pre-register online at www.springboardforthearts.org or by phone at 651-292-4381. Please see below for event features, including free screenings and a list of Table Sponsors.