From Big Ideas to Shared Action: Kicking off the 2026 – 2028 Activate Rural Learning Lab
Sarina Otaibi, Activate Rural Program Director and Courtney Bergey Swanson, Activate Rural Program Associate Director
Kicking off the 2026-2028 Activate Rural Learning Lab Cohort
In early June, the Activate Rural Learning Lab cohort convened on the prairie of southwest Minnesota, bringing together a diverse group of artists, sheep farmers, teachers, elders, skaters, fashion designers, and activators from MN, SD, ND, and MT.
During our time together, the group shared their dreams and their challenges, their fears and their vulnerabilities, and all the things they want to do in the next few years learning together.
Throughout the group meals, building tours, collective activities, and work sessions, we heard many common threads between the projects emerge.
Here’s a taste of what we heard:
Embedding storytelling and cultural activation
Many of the teams are centering their culture and stories through the cultural activation of spaces. Whether it’s storytelling through theater, beading and music or skateboarding, public art, and videos, they connect people to their places.
Centering wellness
Caring for their communities’ bodies and minds was a common theme expressed by the ARLL teams.
Several projects include fitness programming in their buildings, and several more steward community gardens. They provide space for mental health practitioners and birthing circles, and create programming specifically to support youth. Teams provide knowledge of Native medicines and foodways, from harvesting buffalo to making tea with traditional herbs. We are excited to support the ways that these projects center wellness and healing in creative ways.
Infusing essential amenities with creativity
The members of the ARLL cohort care deeply about their community, and they want to help address the missing pieces of their towns.
A few teams brainstormed how to use their creativity and commitment to local ownership to solve these problems: what if we provided a laundromat for the community, and made it a joyful place to be? What if our local gas station was covered in public art? What if we developed a small business incubator so entrepreneurs could have access to space? What if we built out a community kitchen and cafe so that folks would have a place to eat and gather?
Climate resilience
Artist-led third spaces might not be the first thing you think of when you hear “climate resilience.” But it was amazing to hear all the ways that the ARLL cohort teams are supporting sustainability and natural resources in their communities. Using creative civic engagement to talk about poor water quality or the neighboring Superfund site is an often-overlooked approach for rural places.
“Eliminate the off season”
In the upper Midwest and Mountain West, winter weather is an ongoing challenge. This was not news to any of us, as most of us just put away our winter parkas a few weeks prior to the meeting.
However, it was interesting to hear how many communities are committed to updating their spaces and programming in a way that engages folks all year round. If your community garden or outdoor skatepark can only be used a few months of the year, how can you transition your programming to be more sustainable year round? What type of building projects and activations are needed to bring people out in the cold?
It was a beautiful gathering of artists and activators learning, inspiring and connecting with each other.
Next up, the Activate Rural Team will be on the road to visit each of the 10 projects and teams over the next few months. We will be sure to document our journey and share what we are learning and seeing in each of the Activate Rural Cohort communities.
