Jessica Stölen
Editor
jstolen-jacobson@cherryroad.com
On Monday evening, a group of Montevideo area artists, authors, musicians and those with an interest in the arts gathered in the Montevideo Public Library to hold a discussion on an idea to form a committee that will work to bring a more organized network for the arts and culture to Montevideo.
The group organized through local artists Margaret Fuller and Audrey Arner who arranged the meeting and invited those who may be interested in such a venture. Monday evening’s meeting was held to discuss the possibility of forming a committee, writing a grant to obtain non-profit status, and to discuss potential visions for the future of Montevideo’s arts and culture scene.
Fuller, a Montevideo artist and author who moved to town four and a half years ago, said she was moved to begin the work of formally organizing a committee because she was craving art community. “I have, throughout my life, been a community organizer which is in tandem with rabble rousing. I enlisted Miss Audrey Arner who has been here nearly forever and knows everybody. She’s the resource well. I want people to come together in the community for all the things they’ll do for the town,” Fuller said.
Each of the attendees introduced themselves, taking a moment to talk about why they chose to attend the meeting, and what they think the arts do for the community. Teresa Patton said, “We’ve all seen what the arts have done in other communities to increase foot traffic and keep it going.”
Arner, who comes from a family of musicians, and is an artist herself, says she gravitated towards the project after thinking about the past. “When I came here, there was a very active Arts Council that sponsored a pretty big art fair in the park during Fiesta Days and was a coordination place if you want to know what is going on in the arts. Right now it feels to me like there’s various things going on but there’s not one site. There needs to be a better way to let people know what’s going on in Montevideo. The Arts Council was here. We also had a group called Women in Art and we sponsored dinner theaters and had lots of sponsorships and investment. We are just so in need of a coalescing,” she said.
Rachel Kepler, who is fairly new to the community, and is a pottery artist, said she has noted what the arts has done for the region and tourism with the annual Meander Arts Crawl. “I agree with the arts growing the community and helping bring people together,” she said.
Larissa Schwenk says she moved to Granite Falls a couple of years ago and had previously not noticed the difference in the two communities until she lived there and saw what the arts have done for the community, and for local businesses. “I want to see that here, too,” she said.
Fuller, addressing the task at hand, noted that in order to begin the work, there would need to be a commitment from those in attendance to join various sub-committees within the committee in order to take on the many tasks involved with organizing. “In order to make this happen we have to have a group of people who are willing to commit sometime in the next year. The first goal is to apply for nonprofit status and in order to do that we need to write grants,” Fuller said. “We need people who are willing to volunteer to see the process through. I don’t believe that it should fall on one or two people’s shoulders to address that. I feel like it should be a group effort.”
The group, also discussing a vision, came to the conclusion that the initial goal would be to open a center, hopefully downtown, that would house a gallery and meeting space for a non-profit arts and culture organization to function. “This space will serve as a hub for artists and art enthusiasts of all ages, to provide access to local and regional artwork and books, stage small performances and offer cultural and arts education,” Fuller said.
Longer term visions included the potential for a makers space that would house tools and a place for artists in need of use of tools such as a kiln or framing supplies, etc to be able to accomplish their work.
With twelve in attendance at the meeting, the sub-committees were formed, and attendees were encouraged to reach out to those in the community that may be interested in helping to organize the effort further. The grant writing sub-committee agreed to get to work before the next meeting to be held at the end of August in order to begin the work of writing a grant to obtain non-profit status.
For those who may be interested in joining the effort, they can reach out to Margaret Fuller via email at mefuller.arts@gmail.com to be added to an email list for future meeting dates and times. The next meeting will be held Monday, August 26th at 6 p.m. at the Montevideo Public Library.
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