Arts Alive | May/June 2024 | South Dakota Magazine

5 TIPS ON ENJOYING THE ARTS IN SUMMER ’24

USE THE ARTS to guide your travels through South Dakota this summer. Music, theater, dancing, food, visual arts and architecture all serve as bridges to understanding a place and the people who live there. That’s why we two-step at Carey’s Bar in Vermillion, why we are in awe of Jennifer White’s landscape paintings, and why we seek out pow wows and sample local Indian tacos, chislic and rhubarb desserts. Here are five ways to enjoy travel through artists’ eyes.

Attendees of the Festival of Cultures in Sioux Falls enjoy live entertainment, the parade of flags and food trucks that represent cuisines of the world. This year’s festival is planned for June 8.

1. OUTDOOR SCULPTURES

You know about Sioux Falls’ Sculpture Walk, but have you strolled the Trail of Governors in Pierre and the City of Presidents in downtown Rapid City? Smaller communities are also developing outdoor art. New roundabouts on Highway 10 in Sisseton contain metal sculptures depicting tribal traditions.

2. CULTURAL FESTIVALS

South Dakota is blessed with a variety of cultures, rural and urban. Enjoy a pow wow, take in the Festival of Cultures in Sioux Falls, and dine on Swedish meatballs at Clay County’s Dalesburg Midsommar Festival in late June.

FROM ARTS SOUTH DAKOTA AND THE SOUTH DAKOTA ARTS COUNCIL

3. MUSIC IN OUR NEIGHBORHOODS

Our towns and cities have rich traditions of summer concerts in a park or town square. Parkston and Sioux Falls have new amphitheaters, while Lennox’s Municipal Band has been performing for 139 years.

Also, visit the newly renovated National Music Museum, in Vermillion, which is hosting an exhibit this summer called “High Strung: Five Centuries of Stringed Keyboard Instruments.” This special exhibition explores the form and function of keyboards from early harpsichords to the modern piano and features many instruments never before exhibited.

4. FOOD IS ART

Speaking of meatballs, always remember that food is art. South Dakota’s culinary traditions range from Germans-from-Russia chislic and kuchen to Norwegian lutefisk, Czech kolaches, and Native American bison delicacies — not to mention pheasant, walleye, Dakota-raised beef, honey and cheeses.

5. ARCHITECTURE

South Dakota’s towns and roadways feature architecture unique to the world — old and new. No other state has concrete tipis at its interstate rest stops. Nowhere else has the 19th century storefronts that are being restored in Deadwood, Hot Springs, Yankton, Aberdeen and other towns. Some amazing new architectural creations are on Indian reservations, such as the octagon drum building on the Sisseton Wahpeton College campus and the new Tokata Youth Center at Fort Thompson.

For more information on these and other summer arts opportunities, visit the Travel Planner at southdakotamagazine.com and travelsouthdakota.com. ArtsSouthDakota.org/calendar

STATE ARTS CONFERENCE

June 7–8, 2024

Sioux Falls

The 2024 Arts Conference will have something for everyone, whether you’re an artist, arts organization, educator, policymaker or lover of the arts. For information on grants or scholarships for the conference please visit ArtsSouthDakota.org

Members and donors of Arts South Dakota receive reduced pricing to our events and never pay outside processing fees. Join today and enjoy the benefits!

BECOME A MEMBER!

Support the arts by becoming a member of Arts South Dakota! Visit ArtsSouthDakota.org to learn more and give today!

Arts South Dakota, a non-partisan and non-profit service organization, advances the arts for South Dakotans and our visitors by connecting, advocating, and educating.

The South Dakota Arts Council is a state agency serving South Dakotans and their communities through the arts.

Arts Alive is presented in partnership with South Dakota Magazine.

Serge van Neck