R2AC Awards Spring Arts and Cultural Heritage Grants

Region 2 Arts Council (R2AC) recently awarded $51,875 through the Arts and Cultural Heritage Grant Program to arts organizations and non-profits in Beltrami, Hubbard, and Lake of the Woods counties. The funds will be used to create opportunities for access to arts performances and events, arts education, and arts and cultural heritage activities that can build bridges between Minnesotans. These funds are made available through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund passed by Minnesota voters on November 4, 2008.

The grant recipients included:

Bemidji Community Theater was awarded $5,775 to produce the children's musical Enchanted Sleeping Beauty this spring.

Bemidji MusiCamp was awarded $6,000 to offer a positive and accessible summer learning experience for young musicians in our region and in the state.

Bemidji Participatory Arts Collective was awarded $4,574 to partner with Integrow 360, muralist Mary Therese, and other local entities and community members in the creation of a public living wall at Harmony Food Co-op in Bemidji.

The BSU Department of Music was awarded $6,000 to offset tuition costs for gifted young Region 2 musicians to attend Bravo North, a 2-week music festival held on the BSU campus this summer.

Bemidji Symphony Orchestra was awarded $6,000 to perform a concert including classical music by Holst and Rossini, plus a new composition written for electronic music and orchestra performed with the local electronic music ensemble, the MIDIots.

The Headwaters School of Music & the Arts has been awarded $2,980 to host a one-week fiddle camp featuring Swedish fiddle music and the traditional Swedish musical instrument, the nyckelharpa.

The Depot Preservation Alliance has been awarded $5,192 to present the 2nd Annual Bluegrass Festival at the Depot in Baudette this August.

Lake of the Woods Art Guild has been awarded $4,574 to offset student tuition for a Traditional Oil Painting Seminar instructed by James Robinson in Baudette, this August.

The Nemeth Art Center has been awarded $6,000 to host Take a Walk on the Wild Side, a wild rice festival in Park Rapids, showcasing regional artwork, musical performers and the promotion of natural wild rice in October, 2016.

Park Rapids Lakes Area Arts Council has been awarded $4,780 to sponsor Art Leap 2016, a driving tour of artists' studios and other cultural destinations in September, 2016.