Pictured: Kerkhoven Arts Council's Summer Youth Musical Theatre, which they received a SMAC Art Project grant for.

The following two artists were awarded SMAC Quick Support for Individual Artist grants. These grants provide artists with up to $1,000 for activities such as purchasing supplies, attending classes, and small artist-led community projects.

Pictured from left to right: John Sterner accepting the Prairie Star check from SMAC Executive Director, Nicole DeBoer and SMAC Lyon County Board Representative Michele Knife Sterner.

The Prairie Star Award is given out every other year and it recognizes an individual artist whose body of work has made a significant contribution to the arts over an extended period of time, who has been recognized by their artistic peers, and who has best exemplified the highest quality of work in the SMAC region. In recognizing these individuals publicly, the awards will raise the profile of the arts in their communities and throughout the SMAC region. The public is invited to join SMAC in publicly honoring John Sterner at our Annual Celebration of the arts and artists in our southwest Minnesota region. This Fall the celebration will be held in Swift County on Saturday, September 24th. Please watch the SMAC Website, SMAC Facebook and SMAC Instagram, for more details!

This was a competitive year with many worthy applications submitted for SMAC's Prairie Star Award. After all the nominations were evaluated and scored by the SMAC Board of Directors, it was determined that John Sterner had the highest score. SMAC Executive Director, Nicole DeBoer, then planned a surprise presentation, with the help of John's sister Michele Knife Sterner and the Lakeview Principal, Scott Hanson. John is the art teach for Lakeview Schools. On April 28th, John was surprised to receive the award with an audience of students and staff during the lunch hour at Lakeview.

 John Sterner was was nominated by SMAC's Redwood County Board representative, David KelseyBassett. David said, “John has been making personal and public art for decades and works in a variety of mediums. He sculpts in bronze, iron and fabricated steel with many of these pieces featured in private homes, high school, colleges, universities, hospitals and public parks. His recent interest has been in Plein Air painting and he has participated in numerous Plein Air art festivals. John has exhibited his Plein Air paintings and sculptures in galleries of the SMAC region including SMAC, Marshall Area Fine Arts Council, Jackson Center for the Arts, Hutchinson Center for the Arts and Ridgewater College. In addition, John is a licensed K-12 art teacher at Lakview Public Schools and teaches art at Southwest Minnesota State University. In 2020, he was featured in Pioneer TV's Postcards program, which discussed his creative process and passion for creating art.

One of his largest accomplishments is having a piece go on permanent collection at the Minnesota Arboretum in Chanhassen Minnesota. John's ability to share art with the community speaks for itself, by the amount of public art pieces he has on display. Not only does he regularly create, but he loves to share and teach how to make art with others. He could easily focus his time working on his own projects, but he chooses to host classes for children and adults teaching them about different mediums through community education classes.”

John received many letters of recommendations from community members along with the main nomination by David. One letter was from his sister and SMAC Lyon County Board Representative, Michele Knife Sterner. Michele said, “When he was young our Unchee (Grandmother) told him that he would be an artist and she supplied him with art supplies to drive his passion.” Michele said John’s life revolves around art and teaching art. “He loves connecting and collaborating with people around art. There have been occasions when people will say that they are not artistic or creative and he assures them that they are, while reminding them it takes practice. John loves being a part of the art community. He loves to sit and talk about art and explore ideas with other artists.” Michele added that John not only promotes art through education, but he consistently creates and is willing to take risks and create pieces outside of his comfort zone, “It has been wonderful to watch his art evolve as he explores other mediums.”

Another letter came from Clayton Hubert, an Art Teacher and Coach from Lamberton, MN. Clayton said of john: “He is an incredibly talented sculptor and painter. His hard work has afforded him excellent opportunities in the form of multiple sculptures that are an integral part of the Marshall and Southwest Minnesota State University (SMSU) landscape…over the years the town of Marshall has benefited from his talent, displaying sculptures such as the SMSU Mustang sculpture welcoming visitors to town, the Mrs. Whitney stature near the center of town, multiple sculptures at SMSU, and a magnificent bronze tiger in the commons of the Marshall High School. John’s influence is not only that of public sculpture; he is an enthusiastic educator, teaching not only his high school students at Lakeview Public School but the next generation of art teachers at SMSU. He has left a positive impression on his students and is an advocate for art in their lives.”

Minnesota artist and writer Dan Wahl wrote in his recommendation letter: “Rather than focus on the quality of John’s artwork (high) or his technical expertise in drawing, painting, and sculpture (vast), I’d like to draw attention to how he strengthens the artwork of others. He does this by resolutely studying his Lakota heritage, developing the study via daily creative practice, and sharing his results with communities. Because of his daily study and practice, John’s artwork almost always shows his Lakota heritage, directly and subtly. The effect is positive for artists within and outside of Lakota/Dakota communities…John’s artwork does not just include or feature his heritage, it is his heritage, still living, running in a direct line through his heart and hands into the body of artwork which supports and strengthens other artists. Lakota and Dakota communities and non-indigenous communities, artistic and otherwise, benefit as a result.”

We thank all the nominators and individuals who wrote letters of support, including for the nominees that were not able to be awarded this year; we had many exceptional and deserving candidates. We encourage nominators to try again in future rounds-the Prairie Star award will be awarded again in 2024 as it is given out every other year. Learn more about SMAC's Prairie Star Award. John will be publicly awarded and celebrated at Southwest Minnesota Arts Council’s Annual Celebration in the fall. Keep your eyes open for details from us on this event!

Pictured: Nicole DeBoer, SMAC Executive Director (second from left) presenting the news to Melanie Loy (second from right). Photo provided by nominator, Anne Foley.

The Southwest Minnesota Arts Council is pleased to announce Melanie Loy of Worthington (Nobles County) as the recipient of the 2022 Prairie Disciple Award

The Prairie Disciple Award provides awareness and recognition of one individual per year from southwest Minnesota, whose activities and involvement have substantially contributed to the arts over an extended period of time. The accomplishments of arts advocates working in the region are often not widely known or appreciated. In recognizing these individuals publicly, SMAC believes these awards raise the profile of the arts in their community and throughout the 18-county SMAC region. This year the award was dedicated to be given to an educator/teacher only. The public is invited to join SMAC in publicly honoring Melanie Loy at our Annual Celebration of the arts and artists in our southwest Minnesota region. This Fall the celebration will be held in Swift County on Saturday, September 24th. Please watch the SMAC Website, SMAC Facebook and SMAC Instagram, for more details!

After the nominations were evaluated and scored by the SMAC Board of Directors it was determined that Melanie Loy had the highest score for the Prairie Disciple Award. Melanie's nominators planned a surprise presentation of the award with SMAC Executive Director, Nicole DeBoer, on Friday, May 20th at the Worthington High School during a high school orchestra concert.

Melanie's nominator was Anne Foley of Winsted. Anne said, "Melanie is the rare teacher that youth and adults are drawn to as an inspirational person of merit. After 16 years of knowing Melanie as a teacher, I have yet to meet a student that has anything negative to say about her or her class/activities." Anne also explained that when Melanie arrived in the Worthington District 518 Schools in 2006, there were 94 students throughout the district for her program; her tenacity and leadership has grown the program to well over 350 orchestra students, requiring adding two additional full-time instructors at the middle school level to maintain the growth and energy! Students from her program that go onto college and playing or majoring in music have received the highest dollar amounts awarded in scholarships in the school district. Anne also posed, "Can I ask how many teachers you know are willing to have over 100 students in their class? That is how many 4th grade students Melanie starts each year with as students." They have weekly lessons and perform at least 2 times during the year.

Melanie is a teacher in one of the most culturally diverse schools in Minnesota with over 3,200 students and she strives to meet each student where they are at. Melanie’s core belief is to encourage her students to express themselves through their music at every level of their life. She has inspired students to become music teachers, play in college orchestras, join community orchestra groups, and beyond. Melanie's nominator, Anne said, "All students, whether they have her in the classroom or not, know that she genuinely cares about their well-being, positive experiences, believes in them, and supports their experiences. In living in one of the most multicultural communities in Minnesota, music is a language in which we all can communicate with and to each other. Melanie lives by this mantra.” Pictured: Melanie and the Worthington High School Orchestra.

Melanie Loy received many letters of recommendation for this award from her community members; Continue reading about Melanie Loy

We thank all the nominators and individuals who wrote letters of support, including for the nominees that were not able to be awarded this year; we had many exceptional and deserving candidates. We encourage nominators to try again in future rounds-the Prairie Disciple award will be awarded again in 2023 as it is awarded every year! Learn more about SMAC's Prairie Disciple Award. Melanie will be publicly awarded and celebrated at Southwest Minnesota Arts Council’s Annual Celebration this fall, being held in Swift County. Keep your eyes open for details from us on this event!

YOU are invited to network with artists and arts supporters in the McLeod County area! Our SMAC Arty Party for McLeod County will take place in Hutchinson at Hutchinson Center for the Arts and be a free event open to all!

This will be our tenth program in our 18-county series of networking events for every county in our region. Like the other Arty Party's, we'll have arts entertainment, some tasty treats, and opportunities for networking with artists and arts supporters. SMAC staff will be available to connect with attendees and get the word out about who SMAC is, what we do, and what services and assistance we can offer for our communities. Keep up to date about this event through our social media on Facebook and Instagram, or you can always email us for details: info@swmnarts.org.

Looking forward: We're taking a break in July, but be ready for more Arty Party's in August--we'll be in Meeker County!

In the Gallery: Wičáŋȟpi Iyótaŋ Wiŋ Autumn Cavender

Wičáŋȟpi Iyótaŋ Wiŋ (Autumn Cavender) of Granite Falls is exhibiting "Wowicakekage" in the Southwest Minnesota Arts Council gallery through June 17th, 2022.

Keep up to date about these events through our social media on Facebook and Instagram, or you can always email us for details: info@swmnarts.org.

Wowicakekage is a travelling exhibit of Wicanhpi Iyotan Win (Autumn Cavender)’s exploration and experimental applications of digital and generative art practices within a Dakota context. This exhibit highlights just one of the generative processes that Autumn has explored and developed.

Using this quillworking philosophy, Autumn explores innovative ways to generate Dakota geometrics and designs, encoding data into design. This exhibit highlights her process of “generative quillwork” as both a digital and ancestral technology.

At its most basic, generative quillwork is a culturally specific way of visualizing sound. From the perspective and principles of Dakota aesthetics, it is a way of depicting how the sounds of songs and stories reverberate through space and a Dakota sense of direction and design. And as a quillworking methodology, it is a way of encoding words, songs, and stories into color schemes, patterns, and designs.

Artwork pictured: “Ohutkan: Genesis”. In the SMAC Gallery, it is projected onto the hide provided by Autumn.

Wicanhpi Iyotan Win (Autumn Cavender) is Wahpetunwan Dakota and a midwife from Pezihutazizi K’api Makoca (Upper Sioux Community). A natural-born book nerd with no sense of design or aesthetics or much interest in art, her older cousins considered her a hopeless case when it came to teaching her beadwork.

Knowing the importance of the cultural items surrounding new babies, it was during the pregnancy of her first child that Autumn south out her cousins and teachers in her community to prepare these items, among them Marisa Anywaush, Joyce LaBatte, Erin Griffin, Randilynn Boucher, and her quillworker mentors David and Merna Lewis.

Through her apprenticeships, and ongoing study and training, Autumn is finding new ways to see, visualize and encode designs using traditional Dakota aesthetic and design processes. Her current practice explores quillwork Dakota methodology and its applications through ancestral, digital, and generative technologies.

Her “generative quillwork” has been featured most recently in exhibits at Art Basel-Miami, Miami Art Week, and SXSW, and her work has featured internationally in exhibits on a range of topics including Indigenous motherhood, the art of gender and sexuality, and showcases of innovative digital and generative art.

Please let us know of any accommodations needed for you to enjoy any of our events, virtual or in-person: info@swmnarts.org. The gallery is generally open for viewing M-T 8 am to 12 pm & 1-4:30 pm, but it is best to call before arrival or set up an appointment to ensure we will be available. Please email info@swmarts.org if you would like to set up a private viewing in our gallery.

Application Deadline: 1st of the month August 2022 through May 2023 by 4:40 pm Request staff to review application before submission: One week before application deadline. Earliest project start date: 1st day of the following month (after submission).

Request staff to review application before submission: July 13, 2022

Earliest Project start date: September 1, 2022

Request staff to review application before submission: August 3, 2022

Earliest Project start date: October 1, 2022

Request staff to review application before submission: August 31, 2022

Earliest Project start date: November 1, 2022

SW MN Arts Council grants administrator Caroline Koska is available to meet with you by phone, web conference or in person at our office in Marshall to answer your questions on grant eligibility and using the application system or to review a draft of your application.  Schedule a time with Caroline Koska.

Call 800-622-5284 or email us info@swmnarts.org with your questions. Please let us know of any accommodations needed for you to attend any of our events, virtual or in-person.

The SMAC Board of Directors continually seeks panels of artists, arts administrators, arts volunteers, and arts appreciators representing multiple artistic disciplines from throughout the SMAC geographic region and from all our communities including BIPOC, people with disabilities, and LGBTQIA2S+ individuals. Being a grant panelist is a positive way to strengthen your grantwriting skills by understanding the process as a whole. It's also a great way to learn and support what exciting projects are happening in rural SW MN! Panelists are compensated $75 for a panel. More details on being a SMAC panelist

SMAC encourages Artists and Arts Organizations to apply for the Minnesota State Arts Board’s (MSAB) Creative Support grant for Individuals and Organizations. These grant programs are available statewide, but we encourage eligible applicants from our 18-county region to apply. 

We encourage Artists to apply by July 15 for the Minnesota State Arts Board Creative Support for Individuals and request up to $10,000. This program is flexible and meant to help Minnesota artists and culture bearers adapt to a changing and challenging environment in which to work. This grant program will help them maintain their visibility and financial sustainability. Grantees will be able to use funds to sustain their practice and stay relevant and connected to audiences, participants, students, or communities now and in the future. Grant size and range: $6,000-$10,000.

MSAB Creative Support for Individuals grant deadline is July 15, 2022. We encourage Artists from our region to apply for this grant. For more information contact (800) 866-2787 or CreativeSupport-Individuals@arts.state.mn.us. Visit the Creative Support for Individuals Program page for the online application link.

We encourage Arts Organizations to apply by September 9th for the Minnesota State Arts Board Creative Support for Organizations and request up to $30,000. This program provides support to help organizations deliver arts programming and meaningfully engage their communities in a time of transition. While the grants are designed to be flexible, applicants will be asked to align their activities with one of three program outcomes that address the intent of the legacy amendment and the Arts Board's goals. Grant range: $5,000-$30,000.

MSAB Creative Support Organization grant deadline is September 9, 2022. We encourage Organizations from our region to apply for this grant. For more information contact (800) 866-2787 or CreativeSupport-Organizations@arts.state.mn.us. Visit the Creative Support for Organizations Program page for the online application link.

For more opportunities and resources be sure to check out our latest news posts (updated DAILY!) on SMAC's website

We are continuing to post both in-person and virtual arts events in our region on our website calendar. If you have events to let us know about, please email the details to info@swmnarts.org!