Activate Rural Storytelling Project: Spring Grove Cinema
The Spring Grove Cinema is located on the western end of the downtown Main Street. The Cinema sits adjacent to the Giants of the Earth Heritage Center and directly across from the public library, just one block east of the K-12 Spring Grove School.
Building built date: 2009
2023–2025 Total Project Investment: $165,000
Activation Phase: Transitional when applied, now Operational
Community Engagement Approach: Community-Shaped
Core Team members: Heidi Eger, Gina Morken, Courtney Bergey Swanson, Jacqui VanMinsel, Lucas Hall
The Community
Spring Grove is a community both deeply-rooted in its history and constantly working towards its future. Spring Grove is located on the ancestral land of the Ho-Chunk people in Houston County, the southeasternmost County in Minnesota. Spring Grove is considered a gateway to the Driftless Region, with the Mississippi River just 20 miles to the east and the Iowa border five miles to the south. The community is about an hour’s drive from both La Crosse, WI, and Rochester, MN, the two nearest metropolitan areas. The town is surrounded by hilly agricultural land, and farming remains a major piece of the community’s identity.
The Context
In 2008, after much discussion and research, a group of citizens went to their local telecommunications cooperative, Spring Grove Communications (SGC), with the idea of building a new movie theater downtown. The SGC board decided to move forward as the financial steward of this community project and Spring Grove Cinema was built as a cooperatively-owned, state-of-the-art theater in 2009. The town had not had a movie theater since the 1980s, so building a brand new, one-screen theater was a remarkable feat for a small town and it held a lot of promise as a quality-of-life amenity that would attract new residents and families. The Cinema was built with stadium seating for 200, full digital technology with 3D capabilities, and a small stage for other community presentations. A small lobby and concession area welcome guests from Main Street, and the second floor holds the projector room along with a large room for gatherings and events.
Take a tour of the Spring Grove Cinema as it was during the Activate Rural site visit in 2023:
The Opportunity
The Spring Grove Cinema team applied for the ARLL to test ideas for new types of programs and uses of the movie theater. While the building and its technology were in excellent condition, the movie industry had changed substantially since it was built just 15 years prior; expensive licensing fees, strict limitations from media companies, and declining attendance had made the Cinema financially unviable and the SGC board was considering closing the theater.
Despite these challenges, a group of community leaders–including educators, economic developers, and artists–had a vision for new ways to activate the Cinema. What if the concession stand became a student-run coffee shop during the day, teaching students real employment skills while fulfilling a need in the community? What if local high schoolers, artists, and entrepreneurs teamed up to host video gaming tournaments or a TikTok film festival? What if the vacant room upstairs was used for community art classes and social gatherings? What if instead of just playing new films in the evenings they invited stay-at-home parents and their toddlers for morning cartoons and breakfast?
