Earlybird registration for the 2015 Rural Arts and Culture (RAC) Summit is open. The RAC Summit will take place Tuesday, June 2, through Thursday, June 4, at the University of Minnesota, Morris. This year’s theme, “From the Ground Up: Cultivating Creative People and Places,” will highlight the important role of art and culture in shaping the rural narrative. The RAC Summit is a joint project between the University of Minnesota, Morris Center for Small Towns and Springboard for the Arts.
The Summit will explore models that support individual artists and their careers as well as communities that incorporate arts and culture into their development strategies. The summit will also emphasize cross-sector partnerships that help communities tap into their cultural assets as they address major challenges or opportunities.
The keynote speaker of the Summit is Theresa Secord, a traditional Penobscot basketweaver who founded the Maine Indian Basketweaver’s Association (MIBA) in 1993. In 2003 Secord was the first United States citizen to win the Women’s World Summit Foundation prize for Creativity in Rural Life, awarded at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. Secord’s work focuses on preserving the tradition of her tribe’s basketweaving, an artform that was nearly extinct. Through her efforts, she has led partnerships between her tribe, state and federal forest services, and the University of Maine to preserve the ash forests in their region. At the same time she has been spearheading intergenerational programs to pass basketweaving skills down to the next generation, and developing economic strategies to help artists sell and promote their work.
“We are thrilled to bring Theresa Secord to Minnesota,” says Michele Anderson, co-chair of the RAC Summit, and rural program director of Springboard for the Arts. “At the Summit, we believe that artists are often the best people to bring to the table when a small community is facing a major challenge, but in encouraging those strategies, we also need to explore hard questions, like how does a community cultivate and sustain their local creative talent?”
"Theresa's story is a great example of how investing time and effort into arts and culture can build identity and community vitality,” says Kelly Asche, co-chair of the RAC Summit and program director at CST, “and that identity is key in developing successful community development initiatives."
Registration for the Summit is now open, with special earlybird discounts available until April 22. A full schedule of breakout sessions will be announced later this month. To register and find more information, including cost and sponsorship opportunities, visit ruralartsandculturesummit.com.
The Rural Arts and Culture Summit was founded in 2011 by Rebecca Peterson at A Center for the Arts in Fergus Falls. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund. The Summit is also sponsored by the McKnight Foundation and the Bush Foundation.