Keeping traditions alive

A group of women work on their Hardanger embroidery projects at the Sunburg Community Center. The workshop was held by the Sunburg Heritage Arts Initiative, funded by a grant from the Southwest Minnesota Arts Council. Contributed / Darlene Schroeder

Sunburg’s traditional arts heritage protected by arts initiative

BY SHELBY LINDRUD | WEST CENTRAL TRIBUNE

SUNBURG — Famous for its annual Syttende Mai celebration, Sunburg holds its Norwegian heritage close to its heart. The community also has a love of gathering together and singing a few songs.

“There was a real tradition here, about that community gathering around music,” said Darlene Schroeder.

To keep that tradition alive, Schroeder helped establish the Sunburg Heritage Arts Initiative back in spring 2021. With the help of a grant from the Southwest Minnesota Arts Council, the initiative focuses on growing interest in two types of Norwegian craft arts and teaching the next generation of fiddle players.

“Let’s keep this going, lets keep this cool community stuff going,” Schroeder said. “It is all about success and fun.”

ROSEMALING AND HARDANGER

Two of the most popular traditional Norwegian arts are Rosemaling painting and Hardanger embroidery. Both have histories dating back hundreds of years in Norway.

Rosemaling started getting a foothold in Norway around the early 1700s, and since then it has embellished an untold number of houses, furniture, wood trim, clocks, trunks and other home decor items. Finished pieces are usually covered in flowers, such as roses, along with other stylized plant life, such as leaves and vines. The art form came over to the United States with the wave of Norwegian immigrants from the 1800s, and is still practiced today in places with Norwegian ancestry, such as Minnesota.

Hardanger, named for a district in Norway where the embroidery style was created, is based off even older systems from Italy and the Middle East. It started to become popular in Norway during the 1700s, and is now found trimming traditional Norwegian costumes and other textiles such as tablecloths.

“There are still people around who are really into it,” Schroeder said.

In fall 2021, the Initiative purchased supplies, books and templates for both Rosemaling and Hardanger crafts, and held workshops. It also started hosting weekly gatherings at the Sunburg Community Center for people to work on their projects.

Schroeder said the plan is to restart those Sunday meetups this fall.

“We’ve got the supplies, so you don’t have to buy anything,” Schroeder said. People just have to bring the piece they plan to paint if they want to do Rosemaling. “It really is a community, teach each other as you go along.”

While Hardanger can be a challenge, Schroeder said being perfect isn’t the point.

“You don’t have to be great at this, just enjoy it,” Schroeder said.

FUTURE FIDDLERS OF SUNBURG

Schroeder has been a fiddle player for a long time and has been giving lessons.

However, over the last several years, she and others started to notice a drop in the number of fiddlers. It isn’t like the late 1800s or early 1900s, when children would learn at the knee of relatives over the long winter nights. Today, people have to really make an effort to pass along those skills.

“You have to be intentional to keep it going,” Schroeder said.

Dempsey Schroeder of Minneapolis teaches younger fiddle players in a workshop at Hope Lutheran Church in Sunburg on Sunday, April 3.

Macy Moore / West Central Tribune

With the grant money from SMAC, Schroeder was able to hold a series of fiddle workshops, taught by skilled teachers, to help revitalize fiddling in Sunburg and the surrounding region.

Students of all ages participated. The workshops concluded with this year’s Syttende Mai celebration, where the fiddlers performed several times across town. Those shows were so successful the groups have received several other opportunities to play.

“We’ve had five invitations to play since then,” Schroeder said.

So far there are approximately 18 people involved in the fiddle lessons, a number Schroeder hopes will continue to grow.

“Many of them are newbies,” Schroeder said.

She also enjoys making fiddle lessons a family affair. It is not uncommon that the parents bringing their kids to lessons will soon find themselves with a violin in their hands. Schroeder has a few family groups among the students she helps teach.

“If you want your kids to learn, I want you to learn with them,” Schroeder said.

One of the programs started with the SMAC grant was Fiddle and Fun, held on Sundays.

“We get together and fiddle and then we dance and then we fiddle,” Schroeder said. “This has really brought together the community. People are surprised by it. It is so much fun to play together.”

GROWING THE INITIATIVE

The SMAC grant that help fund the Sunburg Heritage Arts Initiative was for $6,700 and ran through June. The supplies, teachers and programming it funded helped give the Initiative a good start.

“The grant let us launch this, to try some stuff, and see where we want to go next,” Schroeder said.

What is next might be applying for a second grant, to help fund the purchase of additional instruments and continue growing the music side of the Initiative.

Schroeder said the Rosemaling and Hardanger will continue as well, but additional resources are needed for the fiddle program. It could mean bringing in piano and guitars, or holding additional workshops.

The grant funds, and the Initiative itself, have a mission to make the arts available to all, no matter their backgrounds or their economic status.

“What we are seeing is it is catching on. There should not be barriers to accessing and participating in the arts,” Schroeder said.

No matter what direction the Initiative decides to go, community togetherness around the arts will continue to be the driving force of all it does.

“It is really not about perfecting an art form but coming together around arts and being supportive of each other,” Schroeder said.