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Pete Wasberg offered our invocation and we were led in song by Mike Wollan. John MacFarlane introduced Lt. Anthony Nordan from the Salvation Army as his guest and then Randy Kempfer reported he had sent out statements to members and Jamie Larson reminded us to turn in our peach money. Dave Johnson bragged about what was then the upcoming Dalton thrashing show while Lori Larson appreciated the past weekend in Rollag where her son Logan tried blacksmithing. Both John MacFarlane and Keith Olson contributed scooter bucks, with Keith eagerly anticipating his and Kim's upcoming trip to Spain and Portugal. Mark Bring introduced Michele Anderson who is the Rural Program Director for Springboard for the Arts. Michelle grew up in rural Minnesota and told us her grandparents were the owners of the gas station in Rothsay was forced to close when Interstate 94 was constructed. She was living in Portland, Oregon, about 6½ years ago when she started longing for her Minnesota roots and happened to come across an employment opportunity with her current employer. She and her cat Glen moved to Fergus Falls, where in fact her parents had taken up living after retiring about 10 years ago. Springboard was initially named Resources & Counseling for Artists, having been organized a little over 25 years ago. Initially it was based in St. Paul but Maxinne Adams from the Lake Region Arts Council wanted to find ways to invest in our local artists and suggested a field office be located in Fergus Falls. The office has now been here for six years and currently has three full-time employees, including Michele. The organization supports both artist development and community development and Michele described the different ways it does so, including offering business skill workshops to artists. Michele said they define art as a weaving of meaning-making activity with any or all parts of our lives. She used as an example a local artist that has benefitted from Springboard's efforts, Blayze Buseth, who is a ceramic artist and has opened a business in town that makes legacy urns. Springboard is involved in Creative Placemaking, which she described as people coming together to change undervalued and overlooked spaces into welcoming places. A recent study concluded the top three reasons that people live where they do is because of 1) the social offerings that are available; 2) the openness; and 3) the aesthetics. A community's economic health is also tied to how attached its inhabitants feel to the area. Springboard recently received a $50,000 grant from the Super Bowl Foundation to create a sculpture for the Central Lakes Trail head. It has also been involved in the Kirkbride residency program, which has brought 15 artists from different states to reside here for a short time period as they work on a special project. In the six years that Springboard has had a local presence, it has brought $1.3 million dollars into Fergus Falls. |
