Newsletter January 2023

In This Issue

Center for Creativity Begins to Take Shape
Workshops to Help Fight the Winter Blahs
AOTL Members in the News
The Party's Over: Pick Up Your Stuff!
​We Need You: How to Volunteer

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Center for Creativity
​Begins to Take Shape

Contribute

By now you've likely heard that AOTL received a $100,000 Blandin Grant to help develop a creative center in Battle Lake, in the former First Lutheran Church / LACC building.

The planned facility now has an official name: the Art of the Lakes Center for Creativity. With both a maker space and a performing arts space, the Center for Creativity promises to be a truly exciting addition to the Battle Lake community.

This project is currently in the early stages. The AOTL Board has begun to form an action task force; has met with the building's owner to explore remodeling ideas and timing; and has interviewed a number of consultants who might help bring this vision to life.

The space is still leased by another tenant, so now is a time of organizing and preparation. Next steps include the selection of planning and visioning partners, finalizing the action task force, and preparing for significant fundraising efforts.

​The Center for Creativity will expand AOTL's footprint beyond the visual arts to include all art forms. However, this doesn't mean that the organization's existing commitment to visual artists will change. Our member benefits, gallery, events and education activities will still be supported!

The ideas and efforts of existing members will be vital parts of our planning process, along with input and participation from the broader community. Together, we hope to transform the Battle Lake area with creative opportunities, community involvement and economic development. 

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Workshops to Help
​Fight the Winter Blahs

Register

Winter in AOTL country can be exciting, educational and FUN! A full complement of workshops are on tap to get you out of the house and into some creative pursuits:

• Let's Hang Out and Knit (knitting with Heidi Hull)
• Bead-Making 101 (glass bead-making with Jodi Peterson)
• Create Wearable Mandalas with Snow (snow-dyeing with Kristi Kuder)
• Felt a Bowl or Purse (felting with Mary Jo Wentz)

There are classes for kids, teens and preteens, and adults. Learn more and register.

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Members in the News

Please support and congratulate your fellow artist members!

Kristi Kuder will showcase her cyanotype prints, eco-prints and wire work in a solo exhibit titled, Delicious Ambiguity. The exhibit runs from January 9 to February 28, 2023 in the Waage Gallery at MState (Fergus Falls).

​An artist reception and talk will be held January 26 from 1-3 pm in Legacy Hall at MState.

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An original oil painting by Marcella Rose, Tatanka, Spirit of Thunder was auctioned off at the NDSU Bidder's Bowl in December for a whopping $15,500.

Marcella is also building a new studio/gallery on Prairie Lake and plans a grand opening in June.

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John Shaw is honored to have had his work The Carnival’s Down By The River selected for inclusion in the International Ceramics Arts Network’s Form and Function – 2023 Calendar.

Ceramic Arts Network is owned and managed by The American Ceramic Society, a non-profit professional organization that publishes the periodical Ceramics Monthly, generally recognized as this country’s premiere ceramics arts magazine

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The Party's Over:
​Pick Up Your Stuff!

Artists! To help us prepare the gallery for winter workshops, please pick up your holiday art and decor before the end of the day, Thursday, January 12.

​Also, please delete these items from your Shopkeep inventory (or, leave a list with barcode tags of the items you want removed from your inventory.)

​Thanks!

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We Need You:
How to Volunteer

Volunteer Form

Art of the Lakes is a very active and vital organization with many moving parts. Your volunteer help makes all this possible. Please complete our new volunteer form to help us identify how we can benefit from your skills and interests.

Thank you for your assistance!