About Us
Our Mission is to build community by providing learning experiences that celebrate the wilderness heritage, art, history, culture, and craft of the people of northern Minnesota.
We work with instructors whose passion and skills align with our mission. It is our honor to provide the facilities and infrastructure to help teachers share their knowledge, thus building our community. We offer both on-site and virtual classes, with topics ranging from snowshoe weaving to homemade Slovenian Potica.
Meet Our Team
Our team is made up for a small group of dedicated individuals who are committed to enhancing the Ely Folk School mission and vision. We live and work in the community and each bring something unique to the table.
Lucy Soderstrom
Executive Director
Lucy is a recent transplant to Ely, and was initially drawn to the Ely Folk School because of its encouragement of the curious mind. She serves as Director at EFS, organizing and helping execute classes. If you have any questions about upcoming classes or want to see a class that isn’t currently on the curriculum, she’ll help you out! She loves the opportunity to work with folks of diverse creative backgrounds.
From the Blog
Folk School Origins
The Ely Folk School was founded in 2015, but the folk school movement dates back to the mid-1800s. At the heart of this growing movement is a desire to increase connection — mutually beneficial connection between people, between people and their places, between people and the materials necessary for craft.
The movement continues today with over 600 folk schools in Scandinavia and Europe, though the thrust is now low-tech, high-touch learning rather than educational reform. More than 200 folk schools exist in the United States, where each has an identity linked to its geography. For example, North Dakota’s Crooked Lake Farm Folk School focuses on the prairie and rural roots, while North House Folk School in Grand Marais, MN, features the northwoods and Lake Superior. Ely’s rich Balkan and Finnish cultural heritage and its internationally renowned wilderness offer a rich trove around which EFS is creating its identity.
Folk schools are havens for interaction and renewal. Their mission is to inspire, not compel. They are also inter- generational and non-competitive with no grades and no credits. They encourage learning for life instead of for exams.
Nikcolai Frederick Severin (NFS) Grundtvig is credited with envisioning the folk school model. He sought to close the gap between life and learning inherent in the classical studies of Greek and Latin that were popular in his time. His vision of “schools for life” was aimed toward instilling pride for place-based culture and a love for lifelong learning.
The Ely Folk School is proud to be a part of the folk school movement, and honored to carry forth the folk school model to place relationships, culture, and personal & community empowerment at the center of learning and life.
