Activate Rural Virtual Workshop: Cultivating Multi-use Creative Places of Connection
Location: Virtual - Zoom
Date + Time: Tuesday, June 25, 2024, 12PM - 1:30PM CST
Join Department of Public Transformation (DoPT) for Activate Rural: Cultivating Multi-use Creative Places of Connection to hear from three rural activators in the process of building creative spaces for their communities. Participants will learn how each project is navigating community engagement, funding resources, and structures for stewardship and operations. Be inspired by the activation building projects during a panel discussion moderated by Sarina Otaibi, Activate Rural Program Director, DoPT, with the following panelist speakers:
Heidi Danos is the Board Co-Chair of Firefly Center for Art and Wellbeing in Fosston, MN (pop. 1,400). The Firefly Center is where creativity and health come together in an unbiased, creative environment that fosters community, inclusion, and equality.
Kristine Shelstad is the Chief Energizing Officer of the Madison Art and Innovation Center, known as Madison Mercantile, in Madison, MN (pop. 1,500). The Madison Mercantile is a welcoming, accessible and multi-functional space responsive to community needs.
Luwaina Al-Otaibi is the Program Coordinator at The YES! House in Granite Falls, MN (pop. 2,700). The YES! House is an in-progress creative community gathering space where staff and volunteers host locals, artists, and visitors in conversations, collaborations, and creativity.
Registration is required, but the workshop is free to attend. For workshop and registration questions, please contact Benjamin Domask-Ruh, Activate Rural Program Coordinator, at benjamin@publictransformation.org.
This workshop is a part of the Activate Rural Public Workshop Series, workshops and sessions designed to offer support, peer learning, and resources to creative entrepreneurs, artists, organizations and small business owners with creative physical places of connection based in rural Minnesota communities and the Native nations that share this geography, with a population of 20,000 or less. This program is supported, in part, by the State of Minnesota through a grant from The Office of Small Business Development, Department of Employment and Economic Development.