Building community through art

The performance of “Cyclops,” the puppet show, was created by Steve Ackermann as the artist in residence at the New London Little Theatre in 2021. Contributed / New London Little Auditorium

Building community, bringing people together through art

BY SHELBY LINDRUD | West Central Tribune

Art is valuable, though that value can sometimes be hard to quantify. While it definitely has monetary worth, it can also be used to bring a community together or help reinvigorate it. Many communities in southwestern Minnesota have started to believe in this value of art and have engaged in art projects and programs to create community togetherness and civic engagement.

“I know how hard it is to measure the impact of public art. It is insanely hard to measure connectivity, but that is what we are doing,” said Bethany Lacktorin, artistic director of the New London Little Theatre. “We are trying to connect people.”

For a month in late summer, New London played host to an artist in residence through the Small Stage Artist in Residency program. A puppet artist, Steve Ackerman of Heart of the Beast in Minneapolis, brought a puppet show to town.

But it wasn’t just Ackerman who made the show a success. From the very beginning the community was involved. They helped choose the artist, they helped prepare the theater, they hosted Ackerman in their homes and they helped create the pieces for the show.

“It brings people together that normally wouldn’t be together solving problems,” Lacktorin said.

Dani Prados, the first Granite Falls community artist in residence, said the community quickly took ownership and pride in the crosswalk creations now decorating the streets.

Contributed / Dani Prados

Granite Falls also opened itself to an artist in residence. But, instead of an artist coming in for a short period of time for a single project, a year-long program was created to look at how art could be used as a way to engage the community.

“This program was designed as an experiment,” said Dani Prados, the first Granite Falls community artist in residence, “to explore the value of using arts and creative processes to increase civic engagement and community inclusivity.”

For the past year Prados has been working with the residents of Granite Falls to create and produce projects and events.

One such project was the Creative Crosswalks, which brought art directly into the streets.

“It was amazing how much people started to identify with those, meeting each other at those spaces and were proud of those spaces,” Prados said. “It was a massive, community-wide project; we did this thing together.”

In mid-September, the first-ever Squid Fest art festival was held. It was one of the largest of the artist-in-residency projects Prados helped create.

“It has become what we imagined it could be. It has become a huge community project,” Prados said.

A new mural in Willmar, funded by Blue Cross Blue Shield, is an illustration of the city’s Welcoming Resolution. It is an example of how the city continues to make public art a central part to downtown Willmar’s revitalization.

Shelby Lindrud / West Central Tribune

The festival, and the residency program in general, wasn’t just about traditional art, like a mural on a wall or a show at a theater. Prados wanted to show the community that anything can be considered art and anyone could be an artist.

“Art is not some big scary or intimidating painting on a gallery wall, but anything you put time and passion into is art,” Prados said. “We are all artists in different ways. Whether that is raising children, growing tomatoes or quilting or painting or community volunteerism.”

Willmar participated in the Artists on Main Street program, which brought in funding and expertise to help the city use art to help reimagine its downtown area.

“It was a unique strategy to allow us to experiment on what tapping into our creative people power meant,” said Sarah Swedburg, former Willmar Main Street coordinator. “It was a great opportunity for us to do something that was really visible.”

A tree along Fourth Street Southwest in downtown Willmar was decorated with a covering made from knitted yarn as a part of the public art project, Rainbow Trees of Willmar. The project was funded by Artists on Main Street.

Erica Dischino / West Central Tribune

Over three years, Willmar and its community members created various public art projects, including photography exhibitions, yarn bombing, painting activities and even a sewing group.

“It is a great reminder and a great experiment, that small-scale things can have such a big impact for those who participate,” Swedberg said.

Even with the Artists on Main Street program coming to a close, Willmar continues to work on ways to keep art an important part of any reinvention of downtown Willmar. Other organizations have already come forward with funds for public art projects, such as Blue Cross Blue Shield, which provided the money for the Welcoming Resolution mural and sculpture in downtown.

“There is so much potential,” Swedburg said.

The organizers and communities that created and participated in these art projects hope the impacts are felt for years to come.

“We get to exercise that creative collaboration,” Lacktorin said. “With the way the world is, I think we need more exercises like that, so we can get better at it. Bringing people together to make public art is the safest, easiest, most fun way I can think of doing that.”

Art can be a shared experience between all people, no matter their backgrounds, politics or cultures.

“Art is one of those ways we can meet each other and discover each other as human beings before falling into these notions of us versus them,” Prados said.

Art can also help bridge the gap between rural and urban areas. Lacktorin said those who came to New London for the residency program left with a new way of thinking about greater Minnesota. They learned art can be done in this area and it can be successful.

“Doing that kind of exchange helps break down those assumptions,” Lacktorin said.

Even if the art created isn’t permanent, its creation brought people together and its completion made memories. At its most simple, that is what the impact of public art can be.

“It comes down to making memories, it is that simple,” Lacktorin said. “That is the point of public art, to create those landmarks in time.”

You may contact the author at slindrud@wctrib.com.