Going bigger and building better

In 2022, with support from the City and various community organizations and individuals, the community of Granite Falls chose to host their first community-rooted Artist in Residence program through the local arts council, GAAC (Granite Area Arts Council). With very little notice, Granite rallied generously and raised $28,390, offered up volunteers and part-volunteer staff, and in-kind donations of venues, labor, services, along with widespread community participation (over 4000 hours of in-kind labor were donated to the program… and that’s just the ones we counted!) The residency was designed as a 12-week program focused around the theme of the Minnesota River.

An international artist call went out, and in August 2022 Leah Cook, a multimedia artist from northern Maine, was selected as the new artist in residence. She joined us for 14 weeks - a two-week extension of her original 12-week contract, and completed all 5 of her proposed projects, including:

  • •Living Tapestry: Over Meander Weekend, Leah and community members of all ages gathered natural objects and built a living “tapestry” of the river in the new storefront of Falls SPaw.

  • •River Memory Cafe: collaborating with the Block Nursing Program, Leah led a river-focused memory cafe experience, swapping stories and sharing memories of the Minnesota River.

  • •River Sing: with help from the local churches, Leah facilitated a
    River-sing-along” on a Sunday afternoon for local community members to join an informal social gathering (and a beautifully played piano!) to sing river songs together at the American Legion overlooking the downtown riverbed.

  • •Voices and Views: working with the YME videography class over two months, Leah led the students in creating (and learning how to create) a 20-min documentary collecting and sharing local perspectives and stories about our river. The final film was screened at the CAIR Farewell 2022 event, and will be available online in perpetuity.

  • •Wonder Boxes: After long periods of listening, research, and intensive design, Leah collaborated with YME teachers, Public Works, the YME agricultural welding class, and various locals from different parts of the Granite and Upper Sioux community to design and build five “Wonder Boxes,” a series of weather-proof, movable informational sculptures sharing different stories and data about the river.

She also participated in a number of community events, and offered up family-friendly interactive activities including real fish printing, Wonder-Box building, local foraging for art materials, and more informal singalongs.

This “Sudden Summer Residency” was an experiment, gauging the potential function and value to the community of Granite Falls. Also the simple viability of a community-rooted program, especially one begun so quickly and developed so rapidly. We learned a lot about what works - and what doesn’t - in a shorter, scrappy, 12-week (extended to 14-week) residency. Now, with renewed support from the City and a generous grant from the Blandin Foundation, it’s time to grow!

CURRENT GOALS for CAIR in 2023:

Staging a successful 2023 artist residency - for the community and the visiting artist.

Increasing local engagement and continuing to build local pride and connective community tissue, and expanding ways for art to add value to daily life.

Offering a comprehensive, formal, documented program design - along with internal systems, tracking, program metrics, and suggestions for design evolution beyond 2023.

Developing a publishable resource guide that is both useful and engaging offering up a fully transparent view of the program design, tools, and resources to share openly.

Developing a supportive network of like-minded communities interested in local growth and resource sharing.

Using this iteration of the residency as a test balloon for

  • •Rooting a foundational program structure to support and sustain the program moving into the future to support community wants (which includes listening and learning what those might be, as they grow and change)

  • •New and different forms of community engagement, and expanding the program’s reach

  • •New ways of measuring the effect of art as a tool of community-building and bringing increased value to an area

  • •Creating and sharing an open-source program structure in a clean, enticing, publishable form

  • •Developing a sustainable program leading into 2024 and beyond

With the intent to:

  • •Nurture an artist to create a flora/fauna/fungi/local-environment- themed project we couldn’t even imagine

  • •Lift up Granite Falls as a destination and hub for arts, local pride, & tourism and a model of a healthy and growing complex community

  • •Celebrate existing community resources and increase awareness locally and regionally

  • •Seed Granite as the epicenter of a national network of communities interested in openly sharing information and resources relating to artist residency programs

  • •Increase local and regional participation and connection in shared opportunities

  • •Continue to build an active community Advisory Board and Program Staff who can shepherd the project into the future

  • •Experiment with various forms of community outreach and evaluation to see what works