Building community by providing learning experiences that celebrate the wilderness, heritage, art, history, culture, and craft of the people of northern Minnesota.
The power of community gatherings, and especially the joy and magic that comes from the gatherings that focus on music and dance, have been covered fairly extensively in our other blog posts. As participants in our community dances may know, it’s easy to be swept up in the movement and partnership of the dance and forget that there’s a delicate art (and a rich history) to the unsung conductor of such ceremonies: the caller. The caller, armed with nothing more than a head mic
Since last Friday, Lucy and I have found ourselves humming a Swedish Children’s song about a frog on a relatively regular basis. Why? It’s because we were working on learning it to lead people in singing it at last Friday’s Kraftskiva Potluck! Kraftskivas, translated to “crayfish party” originated in Sweden and celebrates crayfish hunting season. According to VisitSweden.com, “A highlight on the Swedish calendar, the ‘kräftskiva’ (crayfish party) – an annual seafood fest wit
Back in late April, I was in a meeting over coffee with fellow arts and culture organization employees. Our conversation, as it so often does, turned to new projects, new ideas, and new ways to make downtown Ely an engaging and vibrant place to be. That’s where I first learned about Nancy Scheibe’s project with the Listening Point Foundation to honor the legacy of Sigurd Olson by installing a mural of the Ely environmentalist as a welcoming landmark at the Western entry to t
