Our four key (and often intertwining) program areas seek to connect rural municipalities and artists; activate rural community assets; support rural arts and cultural workers; and nurture the rural arts and culture field. We support rural communities through artist-led, creative, cross-disciplinary, and cross-sector initiatives that celebrate and build on existing efforts while inspiring new ideas, approaches, and ways of thinking.
Our work sits at the intersection of arts and rural economic and community development; we are a nonprofit organization that seeks grant funding, but we’re also distributing funds directly to artists and communities. Through piloting and building programs and networks with bird’s-eye-view fieldwork, we operate as connectors and pollinators, encouraging creativity and ideas to grow.
As arts and cultural workers, we listen to the stories that rural people and places tell about themselves and the stories that are told about them. We critically examine and adjust our role in shifting damaging narratives of scarcity, isolation, and decline to those of abundance, connection, and hope.
DoPT is a multi-centered organization that works on projects and programs in and with Southwest Minnesota; statewide throughout Greater Minnesota; regionally in the Upper Midwest; and nationally across the United States. Below is a selection of the work we do.
River Valley Ripple Artist Residency
Department of Public Transformation and The YES! House announce the launch of River Valley Ripple (RVR), a Southwest Minnesota Artist Residency program focused on uplifting and supporting emerging and established rural artists with time, space, and resources to further develop and/or expand their artistic practice. Southwest Minnesota artists may apply for a 1-4 week onsite residency between the months of December 2023–May 2024.
Activate Rural
The Department of Public Transformation (DoPT) believes in working with artists, cultural workers, and connectors to strengthen rural places by supporting the role of community assets—social, cultural, and built—as a lens to help communities investigate and celebrate their collective story: past, present, and future. From creative taprooms and gathering places to multi-use community hubs and knowledge centers, Activate Rural supports creative building activation projects that inspire, motivate, and open up possibilities for rural communities across Minnesota.
IGNITE RURAL Artist RESIDENCY
Ignite Rural is a 6-month “at-home” artist residency program for rural arts and cultural workers in the Upper Midwest. This hybrid in-person and online residency program prioritizes the leadership and artistic growth of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) and Native artists and culture bearers.
THE YES! HOUSE
The YES! House is an in-progress creative community gathering space in Granite Falls, MN. The programming and design of the space was determined through an Artist-Led Design Build (ALDB) process facilitated by local and national artists and architects including Homeboat, MO/EN Design Practice, and the Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership.
Please note: In the past, we have referred to this building as being "vacant" prior to our acceptance. We are in the process of updating this language, as the word "vacant" further perpetuates negative narratives of deficit and decline in rural areas. We’ve learned a lot and we are continuing to learn. This is a work in progress, and we invite you to follow along on the journey. Read more here.
BEYOND THE CLOCK!
Beyond the Clock is a series of virtual learning exchanges & happy hours for rural connectors and cultural workers hosted by the Department of Public Transformation and Voices for Rural Resilience, in partnership with the Rural Assembly.
Selected Past Projects
The Rural Reveal: Stories From Everyday Changemakers
The Rural Reveal was a year-long, artist-led effort between Department of Public Transformation, Voices for Rural Resilience, and Region Five Development Commission to help deepen the understanding of what local residents are doing on a daily basis to advance equity and anti-racism work in their communities, and to learn what is needed to sustain the emotionally taxing work of being from, working within, and living the change you wish to see in your community.
Granite Falls City Artist-In-Residence
In October 2020, the City of Granite Falls and the Department of Public Transformation launched the Granite Falls City Artist-in-Residence (CAIR) program fostering cultural work that sits at the intersection of civic, social, and place-based practice in a rural setting. Although City Artist-in-Residence programs are becoming more popular in urban areas, the year-long CAIR project piloted in Granite Falls is the first of its kind in a town of its size in the country.
Photo by Graceful Willows Photography
Dakota Community Artist-in-Residence
In 2020, Dakota Wicohan, and Racing Magpie, and Department of Public Transformation collaborated to co-design the Dakota Community Artist-in-Residence project. Three artists from the Pezihutazizi Oyate (Upper Sioux Community) and Cansa’yapi (Lower Sioux Indian Community) were supported in sharing their work in digital forums and social distance formats to utilize their artistic practice to design and implement a creative project in an “at-home” residency addressing the impacts of COVID-19 on their community.