Lake Region Arts Council (LRAC) is pleased to present Evansville Arts Coalition as one of the participating arts organizations in our Survive to Thrive Program. Coalition President Karen Howell shares about the many arts activities and experiences that are provided to Evansville, Minnesota and the surrounding area… Karen: “Welcome to the Evansville Art Center. The Evansville Arts Coalition is a non-profit organization, with a vision to provide arts experiences for people of all ages. Our mission is to plan and coordinate arts events and activities that entertain, stimulate, and engage the people of Evansville and the surrounding area. We have a free lending library and local artists may sell their work from the gallery. Exhibits change monthly in the gallery and have included paintings, photography, jewelry, textiles, metalwork and woodcarving from area artists as well as an annual exhibit from local school students. We host a First Friday concert every month, featuring artists who play throughout the state, and some even nationally. We also host Third Thursday Open Mike Night each month for area musicians. We have hosted book readings, painting classes, writing classes, and STEAM activities for preschool children. Since 1996, we have hosted Poetry Night in April during National Poetry Month. Photo Club has gone into our local school, teaching composition and providing cameras for students to use. To learn about the Evansville Arts Coalition and upcoming activities, please see our website and please like and follow our Evansville Arts Center Facebook page.” To learn more about Evansville Arts Coalition and activities at the Evansville Art Center, please “like” and follow their Facebook Page at: https://www.facebook.com/EACEvansville/ This video was created for Lake Region Arts Council as part of their Survive to Thrive program. Lake Region Arts Council (LRAC) serves artists and arts organizations throughout the nine counties of West Central Minnesota. To learn more, visit our website: https://lrac4.org/ For updates on art opportunities, workshops and events, please “like” and follow LRAC on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/LakeRegionArtsCouncil/ This video was created and produced for LRAC by AMS Digital. They design websites and create videos for business and nonprofit organizations. Check out their website to learn more: https://amsdigitalproductions.com/ Please “like” and follow AMS Digital on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/AMSDigitalProductions/

Lake Region Arts Council (LRAC) is pleased to present New York Mills Regional Cultural Center as one of the participating arts organizations in our Survive to Thrive Program. Executive Director Betsy Roder shares the many ways they have been cultivating the arts since 1990. Betsy: "The New York Mills Regional Cultural Center is a multi-disciplinary arts center located in New York Mills, Minnesota. We've been cultivating the arts since 1990. Our mission is to be a rural hub for creativity, community vitality and life-long learning in the arts. We serve a radius of about 50 miles around New York Mills and that regional connection is really important to the work that we do. We're located in a historic brick building on Main Avenue and it's a beautiful space for the visual arts gallery as well as our performing arts series. It's a wonderful, intimate place to see concerts and dance troupes and all kinds of performing arts and we also have a gift shop which features the work of over 100 local and regional artists, one of a kind, hand-made goods that you can't find anywhere else, locally made foods and Scandinavian goods as well. So it's a wonderful place to shop and support artists at the same time. We have an artist residency program and those artists go into the schools to work with our kids. They offer workshops here at the Cultural Center and they really immerse themselves in the community which is a wonderful experience for both them and for the people of our community. We also have education classes in the schools. We have workshops and classes here at the cultural center and we also have a sculpture park which is located on the edge of town. The sculpture park features the work of many artists from all over the country, many of whom have been in residence here in New York Mills and that really is a neat public art space as well. We produce a number of signature events throughout the summer months, the first of which is The Great American Think-Off which is a philosophical competition. It's really a celebration of civil discourse and we're proud that that happens in small-town rural Minnesota. We also have an event in July called The Fish House Festival and that event brings together decoy carvers and painters and we celebrate that as a really true, local art form that celebrates our fishing culture. And then in August we have our Kalevala Puppet Pageant which is a large-scale community theater project where adults and children participate in two weeks of workshops. So it's really a great combination project where people are celebrating our Finnish culture as well as learning about the arts and physical skills like stilt walking. We're all about celebrating our local culture and heritage. To go along with our tractor logo our slogan is 'Cultivating the Arts.' For more information visit our website: kulcher.org. We hope to see you soon at the Cultural Center." To learn more about the New York Mills Regional Cultural Center, please see their website at: https://www.kulcher.org/ Please “like” and follow NYMRCC on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/NYMCC/ This video was created for Lake Region Arts Council as part of their Survive to Thrive program. Lake Region Arts Council (LRAC) serves artists and arts organizations throughout the nine counties of West Central Minnesota. To learn more, visit our website: https://lrac4.org/ For updates on art opportunities, workshops and events, please “like” and follow LRAC on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/LakeRegionArtsCouncil/ This video was created and produced for LRAC by AMS Digital. They design websites and create videos for business and nonprofit organizations. Check out their website to learn more: https://amsdigitalproductions.com/ Please “like” and follow AMS Digital on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/AMSDigitalProductions/

Located in Battle Lake, Minnesota, Art of the Lakes is a great place to see, display, and create art. This video features show Director Debbie Ness, who discusses the various programs and opportunities that Art of the Lakes provides to members of the community. DEBBIE NESS: “Art of the Lakes started in 1965 with 11 members meeting in various locations and its transition to this beautiful gallery in Downtown Battle Lake. We have close to 135 members about 75 of them displaying in our gallery. The gallery is full of art that ranges from glass to ceramics painting to woodwork and jewelry. There's something for every interest.” “We offer several programs one of them is our workshops they start in June and they run through the summer you can make jewelry create pieces with alcohol ink you can learn a new painting technique. One of our main missions with Art of the Lakes is to engage our community members of all ages you might just discover the artist in you.” “We have two annual events one in July that is our Studio Tour where the community is able to visit various locations viewing art from members. The second is called the Art and Craft Affair in August located at Railroad Park in Downtown Battle Lake. We would like to invite you to visit our website or stop by the gallery for more information” [KEYWORDS: art, artist, community, art of the lakes, battle lake, Minnesota, community, craft, organization, gallery] To learn more about Art of the Lakes and the various opportunities they offer for the arts, please visit their website at: https://www.artofthelakes.org/ And don’t forget to give them a ‘like’ on their Facebook page, at: https://www.facebook.com/ArtoftheLakes/ ___________________________________ This video was produced by AMS Digital Productions. We create websites and produce videos for business and nonprofit organizations. Check out our website for more information: https://amsdigitalproductions.com/ Or follow us on: - Facebook: https://amsdigitalproductions.com/ - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ams_digitalproductions/ - Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ams-digital-productions/

In this video, Executive Director Ann Hermes and Artistic Director David Christman discuss some of the ways that Andria Theatre has adjusted to accommodate COVID safety precautions. They also thank and encourage others to continue supporting the theatre and local arts around the community by ‘Living Wide Open’. ANN HERMES: “The Andria Theatre has had some challenges as have many arts organizations, starting in March of 2020, but we're at a point now where we can say, "Oh my goodness, we are so excited." And the reason that we're excited is when Governor Walz opened up theaters and so forth, to 25% building capacity, this allowed us to start creating a new season and making plans for opening up the doors to about 80 people a performance. The season that we needed to create is a smaller season, smaller casts, so we can accommodate social distancing on stage and playing to smaller audiences. The one thing that we're disappointed about is that we won't be able to include a youth show in this new season.” DAVID CHRISTMAN: “It's important to have this theater here for the youth of our community because it's an outlet that is year round. The STP program has exploded over the last 10 years and it allows the youth of our community four or five productions a year. They're not just learning how to be an actor but they're learning how to run a theater. That's what I love about our program here is it's educational, it's a lot of fun, and the family atmosphere and the safety of our students is paramount. Hopefully in 2021, we'll be able to open that back up and we'll be able to come back without any issues. It'll be exciting to welcome everyone back to the building. Although it's on a small basis, we can get these doors and the lights back on, and we're excited for that. And for the future, it looks like things are positive and what a great support from our community. And they've allowed us to stay alive.” ANN HERMES: “By being able to open up again, we're able to welcome our very supportive patrons and donors back to the theater. It has been very gratifying to see how the community of Alexandria has rallied around Andria Theatre to help us out economically. We are so very humbly grateful. It is indicative of how people in this area believe in the importance of the arts in their lives. That importance, the economic impact of it, has been tracked by an organization called "Creative MN". Creative MN has striking statistics on the impact of the arts in the entire state of Minnesota and also locally in our area. It is time now to live wide open in West Central Minnesota and we hope that includes the Andria Theatre. Come here, come experience excellent entertainment miles from New York, right on Broadway.” To learn more about Andria Theatre, visit their website at: https://andriatheatre.org/ Follow them on their social media accounts as well - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/andriatheatre/ - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andriatheatre/ For more information about Live Wide Open (LWO), visit their website at: https://livewideopen.com/ Or follow them on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/livewideopenmn/ --- This video was produced by AMS Digital Productions. Visit our website at https://amsdigitalproductions.com/ Or follow us on: - Facebook: https://amsdigitalproductions.com/ - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ams_digitalproductions/ - Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ams-digital-productions/

Lake Region Arts Council (LRAC) is pleased to present Landmark Center in Henning as one of the participating arts organizations in our Survive to Thrive Program. Director Dan Broten speaks of the many ways they have been celebrating Arts and History in Henning since 2009. Dan: " Henning Landmark Center opened in 2009 as a nonprofit community art center. The building that is now the Henning Landmark Center was originally built in 1914 by A.J. Lewis. It was the doctor's residence and clinic in Henning. Eventually in 2009, the Landmark Center was developed and opened to the community as a nonprofit art center. We host many art activities, workshops. We get grant funding for some of the artists to come and because of that are able to share some experiences with our school. We often have two week residencies where we'll have an artist come and work with the students at school. Also hold an adult class at Landmark or at the school. We are able to offer many opportunities that local folks would not otherwise get in our communities. We've just developed a workshop in our garage space so we can do some additional ceramic work, woodworking, blacksmithing, glassblowing. We get all sorts of different opportunities that are typically not found in this community. Beyond visual arts, we have a writers group that meets regularly. We have a reading group that meets every month and we get books through the Bookmobile that shows up at our door every couple of weeks. We've converted our five bedrooms upstairs into a retreat center. We have bed space for ten overnighters and are licensed for that. Which is perfect for a quilting group or family gatherings where extra space is needed for overnight guests. We are available to groups. And we have a history museum in our downstairs area. We have many local artifacts. We are also in the process of getting the Landmark Center, itself, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. For more information about the activities coming up at Landmark Center, look us up on Facebook or on our website: henninglandmark.org." To learn more about Henning Landmark Center, see their website at: http://www.henninglandmark.org/ Be sure to “like” and follow Landmark Center on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/HenningLandmark.org/ This video was created for Lake Region Arts Council as part of their Survive to Thrive program. Lake Region Arts Council (LRAC) serves artists and arts organizations throughout the nine counties of West Central Minnesota. To learn more, visit our website: https://lrac4.org/ For updates on art opportunities, workshops and events, please “like” and follow LRAC on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/LakeRegionArtsCouncil/ This video was created and produced for LRAC by AMS Digital. We design websites and create videos for business and nonprofit organizations. Check out our website to learn more: https://amsdigitalproductions.com/ Please “like” and follow AMS Digital on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/AMSDigitalProductions/ TAGS Henning Landmark Center, Landmark Center, LRAC, Lake Region Arts Council, Survive to Thrive, retreat center, quilting group, ceramics, history museum, Henning Minnesota, art activities, AMS Digital Productions, AMS Digital