The Iron Range Cool and Creative Get Together

The Iron Range Cool and Creative Get Together is coming Thursday, March 29 at the Minnesota Discovery Center from 9 am to 4 pm. 

The event is sponsored by Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation, the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, the Lyric Center for the Arts, the Blandin Foundation, and the Bush Foundation. The Get Together is a time for artists, arts organization leaders, economic developers, and civic leaders to get together to work on building arts across the Iron Range.

All of us believe that art is crucial to community vitality and helping keep our communities welcoming and strong.

What is the Cool and Creative Get Together? An interactive day of connecting artists with each other and with community leaders. The goals of the day are:

• We want more creative people to feel connected and inspired to work with each other

• We want to give those people more tools by helping them to develop networks, providing leadership tools

• We want others to have a better understanding of the power of the arts to improve the quality of life in the region: culturally, socially, and economically

Laura Zabel, the executive director of Springboard for the Arts, will be the keynote speaker. She’s an expert on inspiring artists and helping artists work with their communities. Springboard has created dozens of classes to help artists grow their businesses and brought hundreds of thousands of dollars into Greater Minnesota for partnerships between communities and their artists.

Sheila Smith, the executive director of Minnesota Citizens for the Arts, will also be speaking on the recent Creative Minnesota studies that show the tens of millions of dollars of economic impact that artists and arts organizations have on Northeastern Minnesota.  

We also have $15,000 available for small grants (up to $5,000) to carry out the mission of the day. You’ll find out details of the grants at the event and only groups that send a representative to the Cool and Creative Get Together will be eligible, so make sure to check in at arrival.

This will be a great event if you love the arts and think they can help your community. Or if you are an artist or work with an arts organization and want to learn more about building your own portfolio. There will be many chances to sit down with people who have money for grants for artists and arts organizations. 

There will also be sessions designed to help civic leaders better understand the impact of the arts and the best ways to interact with artists.

We welcome everyone from the Arrowhead region. Feel free to pass this invite on to anyone that you feel would be interested. 

To register or get more information, please email Sara Ferkul at Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation: sara.ferkul@state.mn.us or call 218-735-3020. 

Please register no later than March 14, 2018.