L A N E S B O R O A R T S C A M P U S Building a New Vision For the Arts

Revitalizing & Sustaining Small Rural Communities

John Davis, Lanesboro Minnesota

Rural Development Conference

June 20 & 21 Kelowna

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Found My Dream Job

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Selling Shoes at Buster Brown

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Started House Painting Business

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Found Dream Home

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Barriers to Overcome

• Unfinished farmhouse

• No money

• No income

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Mission: To provide innovative access to the arts

Logo: A tractor to symbolize Cultivating the Arts

Goal: To become a national model for rural arts and economic development

New York Mills Arts Retreat

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Philosophy

The audience is everyone.

Access to the arts builds community.

Programs should be designed to both integrate the arts and gain important community buy-in.

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New York Mills Arts Retreat Renovated Farmhouse for Artist in Residence

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New York Mills Regional Cultural Center

Future home: abandoned 1885 building on Main Street

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Capital Campaign

• Negotiation strategy: Convinced owner to PAY our organization $12,000 to donate building

• City of New York Mills contributed $35,000

The fiscal equivalent of a city like Calgary giving over $12 million to a project (1991 dollars)

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Inspection Day

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Minor Repairs

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Community Involvement

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Regional Cultural Center

• Budget for project was $125,000

(The city economic developer noted that standard historic renovation costs put that number at over $250,000)

• I served as general contractor for project to save money and hire all local contractors

• Project was completed under budget in June of 1992

• Over 2,000 volunteer hours contributed

• Economic & job data collected for 5 years

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New York Mills Regional Cultural Center

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Gallery

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New York Mills Regional Cultural Center

Grand opening & ribbon cutting ceremony with Mayor of New York Mills

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Access to the arts builds community

• Fish decoy exhibition

• Featured over 50 regional fish decoy carvers

John Jensen

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Arts Integration

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New York Mills Sculpture Park

Involve community in public iron pour to create cast iron corn cobs Features 900 foot long sculpture fence with cast iron corn cobs Local, regional and national sculptors featured

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New York Mills Sculpture Park

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The Great American Think-Off

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Leveraging Media to Advance Community

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Philosophy

To weave the arts into the fabric of the community

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The creative placemaking work in New York Mills was cited by the NEA in its 2010 initial funding request to congress as one of the inspirations and models behind the “Our Town” initiative.

National Endowment for the Arts

Our Town Initiative

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The How

Six key ingredients for success

• Vision - the big picture

• Philosophy - principles behind the work

• Creativity - creative problem solving

• Strategy - planning

• Will – determination- also patience

• Presentation – the story and the pitch

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New York Mills to

Lanesboro

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754

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Lanesboro, Minnesota

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All arts activities = One building

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Vision for the arts

Existing Vision New Vision

• Move all cultural assets to

one multi-purpose facility

• Traditional

• Limited access

• No promotion of walkability

• Entire town becomes the arts center, or an

“arts campus” • New model

• Promotes access • Promotes walkability and

interconnectedness of arts components

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Lanesboro Arts Campus = Town as Arts Center

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1. Cultivate partnerships

2. Develop shared vision and goals

3. Weave the arts into the fabric of the community.

4. Reimagine.

Move Forward Creatively

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Reimagine

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Karl Unnasch

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Create a Chamber of Commerce

2001 Lanesboro Area Chamber of Commerce founded Formerly called A.C.T. Strengthen community through strategic promotion, partnerships, and economic development

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Shared Vision: Lanesboro Arts Campus Partners

Lanesboro Area Chamber of Commerce

• Support creative businesses

• Strategically branded as a premiere national arts destination town

• Lanesboro has received national publicity from:

» USA Today

» New York Times

» National Public Radio

» “A Prairie Home Companion” broadcast live from Lanesboro

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Shared Vision: Lanesboro Arts Campus Partners

City of Lanesboro

• Built a culture of appreciation for the arts

• Secured public components of arts campus

• Provides in-kind support for arts programming

• How can the Arts help solve community challenges?

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Discover Sculpture Explore Lanesboro

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Access to the arts builds community

“Steering” Exhibition, a profile of the Lanesboro Sales Barn Featured photography by local artists Sponsored by the MN Beef Council

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SHARED VISION

“Encourage the vitality of existing arts programming and seek to develop new artistic venues.”

“Implement improvements of infrastructure, and build upon Lanesboro’s walkability and friendly community spirit.”

- City of Lanesboro’s strategic plan Lanesboro 20/20

“…become the Premier Small Town Arts and Culture Destination in the Midwest.”

- Lanesboro Area Chamber of Commerce vision statement

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Shared Vision Arts Campus

• Cornucopia Art Center: Paid staff but owned No building and had No assets.

• Lanesboro Art Council: No Paid staff but owned the Theater, had over 100 volunteers.

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Shared Vision Arts Campus

• Merger talks began in 2008.

• Cornucopia Art Center and the Lanesboro Art Council officially merged in 2010, after a unanimous vote from members of both organizations to become

Lanesboro Arts.

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Shared Vision Next Step

Undertake a $1million dollar Capital Campaign on the heels of the Great Recession.

Building a New Vision for the Arts

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Partner & community workshops

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VISION PLAN

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Create Downtown Design Guidelines

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Downtown Historic Renovations

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ARTS CAMPUS COMPONENTS

Buildings that House the Arts Arts in Public Spaces Pedestrian Walkways

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Arts Campus Components

St. Mane Theatre & Artist Residency Center

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Arts Campus Components

Historic Gallery Building Renovation

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Community Challenge

City Parking Lot

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Poetry Parking Lot

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Community Challenge

1892 Historic Walking Bridge

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Lanesboro History Series

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Community-Engage young people

Create and promote opportunities to live, work and engage in community Lanesboro Arts integrates its staff and interns into community projects each year

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Community Challenge

1868 Historic Lanesboro Dam

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Smithsonian Partnership National

The Smithsonian’s Water/Ways exhibition dives into water--an essential component of life on our planet,

environmentally, culturally, and historically.

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Smithsonian Partnership Local

• Lanesboro Arts partnered with The Lanesboro History Museum and local artists who reimagined historic

photos of the community.

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Youth Access Technology Project

A Smithsonian initiative designed to connect students with local historical & cultural centers for community-based research and to provide them with hands-on technology experience.

Lanesboro Arts was one of six organizations in the nation to receive funding for this initiative for 2016.

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Youth Access Technology Project

Three students film makers made their very first films about the small community of Lanesboro. These short films can be viewed

on the Smithsonian Stories from Main Street web site.

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ARTS CAMPUS RECOGNITION • Rural Arts & Culture Summit (Morris, MN)

• Americans for the Arts National Convention (Pittsburgh, PA)

• Kentucky Arts Council’s Creative Placemaking Summit (Pikeville, KY)

• National Innovation Summit for Arts & Culture (Denver, CO)

• NEA Presentation (Brattleboro, VT)

• Smart Growth Community Planning Conference (Denver, CO)

• ArtPlace America 2014 National Conference (Los Angeles, CA)

• American Planning Association's 2014 National Conference (Atlanta, GA)

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National Recognition

• 2013 Lanesboro named one of the top 12 Small Town Artplaces in America.

• Received funding from The National Endowment for the Arts and ArtPlace America.

• 2014 received a $123,000 Bush Prize for Community Innovation.

• 2014 successfully completed a 1million dollar capital campaign for the Lanesboro Arts Campus

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130,000

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30,000

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300

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150

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In September of 2014, the City of Lanesboro Minnesota unanimously

passed a resolution proclaiming the entire town an arts campus, becoming the first small town in

America to do so.

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2015

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2.5

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2017

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The arts have the power to

bring people together while strengthening and sustaining

communities

L A N E S B O R O A R T S C A M P U S Building a New Vision For the Arts

THANK YOU

Copyright 2017 John Davis