The Learning Lab provides grant funding and ongoing curated technical assistance through monthly project check-ins, workshops and gatherings, and allocated staff time to support the development of systems for the project’s operations, activations, and stewardship.

Since the launch of the Learning Lab in 2023 with five activation projects, every $1 of Activate Rural funding leveraged an average of $4.30 from other public and private funding sources.

The second Learning Lab Cohort launched in May 2026, building off learnings from the first cohort experience while expanding the program geographically and financially thanks to continued support from the Mellon Foundation. The 2026-2028 Cohort is made up of ten building activation projects in rural communities with a population under 20,000 residents in Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and the Native nations that share that geography.

Creative Healing Space is activating a downtown storefront as a “cultural living room” designed to function as a welcoming, arts-centered third place where shared tables and accessible creative materials invite informal gathering, conversation, and creative play, as well as regular creative programs such as open studios, drop-in art nights, open mics, storytelling circles, performances, and rotating exhibitions. 

Cultivate Cut Bank is activating a 1940s commercial building and surrounding public space to  connect their community through experiences that inspire belonging and shared understanding, while also celebrating local identity, culture, history, and traditions.

Ground Control is activating a 6,000-square foot industrial building as an indoor skatepark, performance venue, and multimedia studio functioning as a vibrant community hub for local youth, skaters, and community members of the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Folk Forum is activating the 114-year-old Oak Center General Store, continuing its legacy as a rural gathering place and performance hall while building new programming that expands outreach and develops a cultural archive of its rich history and stakeholder stories.

The Kingsley History Project is activating the Broadus CornerStore, an operating gas station/convenience store with an adjacent courtyard and a metal building, to reimagine their space as a cultural commons – Páeo'hé'e Commons – a place where you can still grab coffee and fuel, but also encounter public art, hear local music, join a story circle, or attend a small workshop.

Mainspring is activating a historic church building to intentionally and organically grow their rural community centering artists in the essential work of rural future-building, radical healing, and intentional justice-oriented work.

Mni Wichoni Health Circle is activating Tribal college spaces to carry out its mission as a cultural care community that provides wellness programming rooted in ancestral practices of kinship, traditional craft, food sovereignty, storytelling, and community gathering.

Nis’to, Inc is a part of a community collaborative of art organizations and Christophersons Corner that are activating a spacious historic downtown building to provide a variety of art studios, cultural arts workshops,  gallery exhibitions, and pop-up art shows as well as health wellness activities and food sovereignty initiatives.

Project49 is activating the historic Teslow grain elevator and renovating it to become a permanent creative gathering place complete with artist studios, a community makerspace, and flexible spaces for youth programming, workshops, and events.

Roots & Grass Theater Co is activating agricultural spaces throughout its prairie ranching community, creating opportunities for neighbors to reconnect to food heritage, oral narratives, and shared human experience through summer stock-style theater productions, pay-what-you-can meals at the Sheep Shed Cafe and community garden, and a variety of local arts programming for visiting and local writers, musicians, and land-based artists.