If you had a magic wand in Spring Grove, Minnesota
By: Sarina Otaibi, Activate Rural Program Director
In September, DoPT staff Sarina and Benjamin traveled to Spring Grove, MN (pop. 1,202) to facilitate an in-person Activate Rural Workshop. It was an inspiring full day with artists, community leaders, and business owners from 14 Southeast Minnesota communities connecting and exchanging ideas, resources, and stories.
We invited guest speakers to share their knowledge and experience during a panel discussion around funding opportunities and challenges. If you had a magic wand… what do you wish existed in terms of funding and support for creative gathering places?
“I would love to see a fund that could have different subpools of funding for all the different ways money can come into these projects,” shared Benya Kraus, President & CEO, Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation (SMIF) and DoPT Board member, when describing the need for a blended capital approach that serves multiple phases of building projects.
“I really believe in the power of leadership and capacity,” said Courtney Bergey Swanson, Chief Mission Officer, Community and Economic Development Associates (CEDA). “If I could wave my magic wand, I’d want every community to have a full time position or even a team of people whose only job it is to go out and help make things happen.”
“I would love to reimagine the limiting gatekeeping aspects of funding and relationship to communities,” shared Sharon Mansur, Outreach & Accessibility Manager, Southern Minnesota Arts Council (SEMAC), “I’d love to see more localized decision making and agency.”
The Spring Grove Cinema team shared how they activated the Cinema space over the past two years with events and a partnership with their local high school. Thank you to the team for sharing their story and hosting DoPT and workshop participants in their community.
This workshop is a part of the Activate Rural Public Workshop Series, workshops and sessions designed to offer support, peer learning, and resources to creative entrepreneurs, artists, organizations and small business owners with creative physical places of connection based in rural Minnesota communities and the Native nations that share this geography, with a population of 20,000 or less. This program is supported, in part, by the State of Minnesota through a grant from The Office of Small Business Development, Department of Employment and Economic Development.