Hillis Gallery Closing Sale

Haikus for Healing

Haikus for Healing

Want to lighten someone’s day?

If you write a haiku in chalk on a sidewalk (where permitted) or post a haiku in your yard, take a picture and post it on the ACCC Facebook and Instagram pages along with #ACCCHaikus4Healing.

A haiku is three lines of poetry with 5, 7, 5 syllables on the first, second, and third lines respectively.

Wouldn’t it be fun to make someone smile reading poetry!

ACCC Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Artsincarvercounty/
ACCC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artsofcarvercounty/

Send your questions to Susan Coultrap McQuin, literary@artsofcarvercounty.org.

Haikus for Healing

 

 

 

Needle Felting 2D Class

Needle Felting 2D Class

This class has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Needle Felting: Create Your Own 2D Picture

Learn needle felting techniques to create a custom 2D 8×10 picture! Create a present for someone or something for yourself!  Use your imagination or recreate a non-copyrighted image. Create images of animals, nature scenes, a family portrait, or even take inspiration from the art at the Arts Consortium! Additional images will be provided for inspiration. The teacher will provide personalized suggestions to make your piece come alive…or just enjoy the afternoon with fellow makers!

Date Tuesday, June 23, 2020
Time 6-8pm
Skill Level:  All Skill Levels
Ages: Youth (Ages 8-15) and Adult (Age 16+), mixed class

Minimum # of Students: 2
Maximum # of Students: 10

Registration Deadline:  June 21, 2020
Class Location: ACCC Arts Center, 7924 Victoria Drive, Studio Level Victoria MN 55386 952-443-3200

ACCC NONMEMBER Class Registration Fee: $35
ACCC MEMBER Class Registration Fee:  $31.50*

Material Details:  A $25 participants’ materials fee paid to instructor at class will cover a kit that includes a felting pad, needle, natural 8×10 pre-felt base, 8×10 stretched canvas board for mounting, needle felting cheat sheet, and access to a large selection of eco-friendly dyed wool, natural wool, and wool yarn. (Replacement needles will be provided if needed.)

Enjoy family discounts at the Advocate ($100) Membership Level! Includes 10% off each registration for everyone in the family.

Stephanie FriantInstructor:
Stephanie Friant
815-592-3207
stephaniehfriant@gmail.com

Stephanie Friant processes and reflects the world through her art and writing. Her art celebrates nature by embracing natural, eco-friendly, recycled, and vintage materials. As a writer, Stephanie uses words to draw out the nuances and details of the world around her. Stephanie leads classes, workshops, and retreats to provide opportunity for personal growth, and as much fun as possible!

Needle Felting 2D Class

Needle Felting 2D Class

Simple Saami Bracelet Class

Simple Saami Bracelet Class

This class has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Traditional Saami technique using imported reindeer leather and antler button with pewter thread to craft a unique bracelet.

Saturday, July 18, 2020
9am to 3pm

Skill Level: Beginner and Advanced
Ages: 16+

Minimum Students Required: 3
Maximum Students Allowed: 10

Registration Deadline: July 10, 2020

Location: ACCC Arts Center
7924 Victoria Drive, Studio Level
Victoria MN 55386

Nonmembers: $55
ACCC Members: $49.50
Membership Info

Materials Detail: Additional Material fee of $50 includes imported reindeer leather and antler button, pewter wire thread, leather loop, leather sinew, and invisible thread. Payable to the instructor at class.

Patrice GeyenInstructor:
Patrice Geyen
952-270-4978
piecesbypatrice@gmail.com

My strong Scandinavian heritage influences my jewelry designs of Saami Bracelets, Bunad Beaded Bracelets, Viking Knit, Nordic Runes and the Yggdrasil Tree of Life.  Originally from western Minnesota, I live near Waconia and am an artist in the Carver County Art Wander and the Upper Minnesota River Art Crawl – the “Meander”.

 

Viking Knit Bracelet Class

This class has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Learn how to weave wire with this ancient Viking technique to make a stunning bracelet.

Saturday, June 20, 2020
10am to 3pm

Skill Level: Beginner
Ages: 16+

Minimum Students Required: 3
Maximum Students Allowed: 10

Registration Deadline: June 12, 2020

Location: ACCC Arts Center
7924 Victoria Drive, Studio Level
Victoria MN 55386

Nonmembers: $55
ACCC Members: $49.50
Membership Info

Materials Detail: Additional $50 Material Fee which includes Viking Knit tools, sterling silver wire, pewter or gemstone beads, and clasp. Payable to the instructor at class.

Patrice GeyenInstructor:
Patrice Geyen
952-270-4978
piecesbypatrice@gmail.com

My strong Scandinavian heritage influences my jewelry designs of Saami Bracelets, Bunad Beaded Bracelets, Viking Knit, Nordic Runes and the Yggdrasil Tree of Life.  Originally from western Minnesota, I live near Waconia and am an artist in the Carver County Art Wander and the Upper Minnesota River Art Crawl – the “Meander”.

 

Mobile Phone Photography I Class

This class has been cancelled due to the MN “Stay At Home” order during the COVID-19 outbreak.

This class will cover the basics of using your mobile phone’s camera and how to edit the images in the phone’s existing software. We will also go over basic photography skills to help you capture better images.

During the class, we will be taking photos, editing photos and discussing the photos. Weather permitting, we will have the option to go outside to take some pictures so be sure to dress appropriately and comfortably. We will also be taking some photos indoors.

“I can’t believe my phone took this!”

Saturday, May 2, 2020
9am to 12pm

Skill Levels
Ages: 8+

Minimum Students Required: 3
Maximum Students Allowed: 8

Registration Deadline: April 30, 2020

Location: ACCC Arts Center
7924 Victoria Drive, Studio Level
Victoria MN 55386

Nonmembers: $30
ACCC Members: $27
Enjoy family discounts at the Advocate ($100) Membership Level! Includes 10% off each registration for everyone in the family. Membership Info

Materials Detail: Students should bring their mobile phones. If students would like to bring some images they have taken with their phones that they are not happy with (or that they are happy with but want to repeat that more often!), they can bring those in as well and we can discuss how to improve them.

Instructor:
Kristin LebbenKristin Lebben
952-221-8689
kristin@kristinlebben.com

Kristin is a professional photographer who shoots both portraiture and commercial photography. Additionally, she is a sculptor and is very active in the arts community. Her work has been published and won awards. As an artist, she loves to have fun with art and strives to bring that into her classes as well.

Kristin holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Studio Art from Lawrence University in Appleton, WI and an AAS degree in Commercial Photography from Hennepin Technical College in Eden Prairie, MN where she was a member of Phi Theta Kappa, a national academic honor society.

 

WorkinProgress Workshop

Work In Process Workshop

This class has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Something just not working with a piece?
Stuck with how to resolve something in the work?
Want some feedback on your work or ideas?
Need inspiration?
Want to bounce something off other artists?
Just want to talk art?

This workshop is for visual artists of any skill level. Bring in up to 3 pieces you are working on, have completed or are contemplating starting to have the group discuss and critique. This discussion tends to include a deep dive into techniques, processes, design & composition, resources, community, selling art, social media, etc. You do not even have to bring art in; maybe you just want to talk to the other artists and get inspired. You will come away with new ideas and inspiration, new avenues to pursue with your art and a great art community. This is a lot of fun!

Saturday, May 16, 2020
9-11am

Skill Levels: All
Ages: 16+

Minimum Students Required: 5
Maximum Students Allowed: 15

Registration Deadline: May 14, 2020

Location: ACCC Arts Center
7924 Victoria Drive, Studio Level
Victoria MN 55386

Nonmembers: $10
ACCC Members: $9
Membership Info

Materials Detail: Bring your own artwork. It can be a work-in-progress or a finished piece that you would just like some feedback or have a discussion regarding. Each artist can bring up to 3 pieces.

Instructor:
Kristin LebbenKristin Lebben
952-221-8689
kristin@kristinlebben.com

Kristin is a professional photographer who shoots both portraiture and commercial photography. Additionally, she is a sculptor and is very active in the arts community. Her work has been published and won awards. As an artist, she loves to have fun with art and strives to bring that into her classes as well.

Kristin holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Studio Art from Lawrence University in Appleton, WI and an AAS degree in Commercial Photography from Hennepin Technical College in Eden Prairie, MN where she was a member of Phi Theta Kappa, a national academic honor society.

ACCC Poetry Contest

Celebrate Poetry Postponed

At this time, we are postponing the Poetry Celebration scheduled for April 28 in the Arts Center and Ruby’s Roost.  We do not yet have an alternative date but hope to do something in May at which all those who entered will be invited to read, and ribbons will be awarded to winners.  Joyce Sutphen, Minnesota Poet Laureate and other judges will also read.

We hope you will join us to celebrate Poetry Month and the winners in this year’s ACCC Poetry Contest on April 28, 2020.  The event will be hosted jointly by the ACCC Arts Center and Ruby’s Roost.  We will share social time with poets, family, and friends from 6:30-7:00 in the Arts Center.  We will have a poetry reading beginning at 7 pm  in Ruby’s Roost by the contest winners, others who submitted poems, and the judges.  Our reading will also feature Joyce Sutphen, Minnesota Poet Laureate, who was our awards judge.  At the conclusion of the reading, we will proceed downstairs to the Arts Center for special treats and an opportunity for photographs.  We are looking forward to the celebration and hope all will join us.

Please watch our website for further details and to see if the current health crisis necessitates we cancel or postpone.

LOCATION
ACCC Arts Center and Ruby’s Roost
7924 Victoria Drive, Victoria

MAX NUMBER OF ATTENDEES
60

DATE
April 28, 2020

TIME
The event begins at 6:30pm

FEE
Free; donations accepted.

CONTACT
Susan Coultrap-McQuin
literary@artsofcarvercounty.org
952-443-3200

ArtStock Art, Wine & Music Festival

Call for Artists – ArtStock Art, Wine & Music Festival 2020

It breaks our hearts to say that we have cancelled the ArtStock Art, Wine & Music Festival for 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are brainstorming and working creatively to come up with additional ways to fulfill our mission of bringing the arts to Carver County. If you’d like to help us reinvent how we spread the love for art, please consider becoming a Volunteer! Fill out the form on our Volunteer page. Thank you and be safe!

Call for Artists

2020 ARTSTOCK ART, WINE & MUSIC FESTIVAL – 10TH ANNUAL!ArtStock Art, Wine & Music Festival

ArtStock Art, Wine & Music Festival is a 2-day art & music festival. In addition to the artist booths and the picturesque, vineyard/orchard setting, live music fills the air both days enhancing this wonderful, summertime experience.
LOCATION
Parley Lake Winery, 8280 Parley Lake Rd, Waconia, MN 55387
DATE/TIME
Saturday, July 11 from 10am to 5pm
Sunday, July 12 from 11am to 5pm

The musical performers line up…

Saturday, July 11th
10-12 Tara B
12-2 Holly and Matt
2-5 Traveled Ground

Sunday, July 12th
11-1 Carol Z
1-3 Lehto & Wright
3-5 Blue Skies Band


ATTENTION ARTISTS

Thank you for considering our 2020 ArtStock Art, Wine & Music Festival as part of your 2020 show schedule. It is our goal to make this an easy, fun, and rewarding show for all involved! We are eager to have you join us and will do everything to make ArtStock a huge success!

Parley Lake Winery is our festival location and offers a great, natural, outdoor setting and features a vineyard and orchard on the grounds. Parley Lake Winery is located between Victoria and Waconia Minnesota off of Highway 5. Directions

This event is sponsored and hosted by the Arts Consortium of Carver County. We are a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating and sustaining the vibrant arts scene in Carver County… creating community through the arts and supporting the arts through community!

APPLICATION
Artist Application Form is on zapplication.org.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE
On or before midnight on July 2, 2020

FEES
Booth Fee $150*, +$25 Application Fee (goes to application processor)

*MEMBERS SAVE $25!

If you are an ACCC Member: Please submit your request to be in the show on Zapplication. We will confirm your Membership is current, approve your application, then send you a coupon for $25. Apply the coupon when you checkout on the Zapplication page. This process will ensure that all Members receive the coupon before they checkout.

If you are not a Member, we’d love to have you join us before you apply so you can save too! Membership Information.

SET UP/TAKE DOWN
Early setup is available Friday, July 10 from 5:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Saturday setup is 7:30 am – 9:30 am
Take down is Sunday, 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Artists must provide current ST19 to be handed in at the start of the show.

CONTACT
Barbara J Hone
bjhone@gmail.com
952-443-2066


VOLUNTEERS WANTED

If you, or someone you know, would like to Volunteer at ArtStock, Art, Wine & Music Festival, please complete the Volunteer Form at the bottom of the ArtStock page. We are looking for Volunteers to assist with set up and take down as well as in the ACCC Booth. Thank you for considering!

Arts Consortium of Carver County

 

 

ACCC 2020 Flash Fiction Contest Awards Celebration

Holly Brown was awarded first place in the 2020 ACCC Flash Fiction Contest at an awards celebration held Mar. 5 at the Arts Center in Victoria. Her story The Astrophysicists Wife, links one drop of water and the laws of physics to a tragic outcome.

Walter Treat won second place for First To Go, an imagining of the beginning of the end of the world.

Third place in the adult category went to Letha Woods. Her story, Milestones, is about a woman triumphantly beating the odds after suffering a horrific accident.

Izzy Sanders won first place honors in the contest’s inaugural Young Adult category. Her story, Invisible Scars, is about a girl struggling to survive a drug overdose.

Second place went to Linnea Barto for Before the Fall: Eve’s Story, a re-imagining of the Garden of Eden story.

Twelve writers entered the contest this year, and all were invited to join the winners in reading their stories at the celebration. The ACCC thanks everyone who entered the contest. Our judge this year is a language arts teacher and himself a writer who sent a note with his selections saying he “enjoyed the level of quality in the pieces and it was a hard choice selecting finalists.”

Holly and Letha requested that their stories not be published online at this time. Here, then, are the other winning tales.

FIRST TO GO
By Walter Treat

A plane glided over the frozen ocean like a vulture searching for carrion. With glossy-black camouflage, a soaring altitude of 50,000 feet, and a velocity of six hundred miles per hour, any observers below would have had difficulty spotting it—not that many would have been looking, there on the thin winter ice. Even if some sky gazing polar explorer had the luck to spot the bomber, what would they do? Murmansk lay only a few minutes south, and after the plane reached the city, any efforts to stop it would be fruitless, no matter how many fighters Moscow scrambled into the sky.

The crew, meanwhile, moved like automatons. Following memorized procedures, they groped at the instruments. Shadowy careerist bureaucrats had shielded them from knowing the intricacies of the geopolitical quarrel choking the world; all they knew was that they’d been given the nuclear scythe and told to reap the 300,000 souls of the far-north Russian port.

They emerged over the snow-covered mainland, by a sparkling river still clear of ice. The crewmen saw the bright red and sky-blue roofs of the city below, and one of them pressed a button. The bomb bay doors slid open, and the sudden loss of aerodynamism shook the plane. The crewman, then, pressed the button to release the bombs, and they began to plummet. The pilot sighed. Now, his plane bereft of fuel, he would have to decide where to crash-land.

The bombs, meanwhile, spiraled down through the atmosphere. Some clever engineers at a secretive government laboratory once fitted together the explosive lenses and electrical detonators and arming controls, now so brilliantly activated—and yet never seen to its victims as more than a piece of falling machinery.

The bombs went off about five thousand feet above the ground; they burst at altitude to maximize the affected area. A flash of light leapt outwards, blinding onlookers and igniting fires on every dark surface. A fireball roared through the streets, vaporizing entire buildings. A great mass of air, heated to impossible temperatures, shot upwards, forming a mushroom cloud and flinging cancer-riddled fallout into the stratosphere. From this cloud came the shock wave, which at close distances crushed concrete buildings like pop cans under a freight train. Further away, it shattered windows into shards of glass that sliced open those investigating the flash of light.

The fallout would continue to descend and poison the residents in the days to come, but, otherwise, the weapon had finished its work. The city of Murmansk lay crushed in a bed of rubble, burning, with 60,000 of its inhabitants dead and another 90,000 injured. Those who escaped the atomic reaper had the most horrific wounds—melted skin, roasted eyeballs, and teeth and nails worming their way out of the body.
The survivors huddled together and tried to evacuate south as the fiery maelstroms ignited by the bomb turned the city into a funeral pyre. Most traveled by foot, and they all prayed that assistance would be sent to them—many were too weak to walk much further—but no help ever came. Murmansk, being the remotest of the Russian cities worth attacking, was the first to fall. But all the other Russian metropolises also fell under the same atomic fist. And likewise, too, the great cities of America and China and the whole world died, in an inferno whose instigator would go unknown forever. Thus, the death of Murmansk became not just an ending of one city, but the first act in the beginning of the end of the whole world.

INVISIBLE SCARS
By Izzy Sanders

He yelled at me with sharp words. His screaming rang through the house as it did my own ears.

Scars. A permanent mark of pain.

“You’re so stupid! How could I live with such an idiot!”

Invisible. The description of something general society can’t seem to find.

“You’re just a waste of space! My life would be better if you died!”

I pulled my knees closer to my tight chest which held my now barely beating heart and lungs that I wished would cease to work. I couldn’t cry, but I had the tears to. My room was dark and the weight of the air seemed so heavy, too heavy.

“You should be ashamed of yourself! You haven’t accomplished anything except for ruining my life!” I tear away from his burning words and sprint down the hall. I know that teardrops are flowing down my face like runny paint on a canvas. I keep going. I grab the orange bottle labeled ‘My Pills’ from my bathroom counter before I slam and lock, the only thing between him and I.

Harsh remarks repeated in my mind. They hurt me. I didn’t want to live with him, with that reality. I had such agony and no one even saw it. No one fought for me so why should I have fought for myself?

“You can’t hide your ugly face in there forever! There’s a better place for you. A garbage pile ‘cause that’s where all broken and useless things go! Maybe you’ll find some of your friends. Wait, you don’t have any!” I wish my door was thicker so I would be spared the disgusting things he has to say about me. I open the top of the container and pour the glossy pills onto my palm. Without hesitation, my hand moves to my mouth and my head tilts back. I swallow hard.

I could feel sweat coat my skin as I felt my breath slip from my body along with my strength. I grabbed a hold of my shelf and pulled myself up. I couldn’t die on the floor. But, the moment I got to my feet, my legs gave out and I fell on my back. That’s when I realized it. I didn’t want to live. But I didn’t want to die.

Gulp. I take another handful of the shiny tablets that will soon end my life. And then I repeat. I finally empty the bottle and lean my back against the wall. I look around my room. Purple light looms through the entire room and compliments the glowing stars stuck to my ceiling. I remember being so excited when I was younger after I hung them. I just wanted to go to bed right away so I could see them light up. Some things never change. Now, I can sleep and see the stars forever. I pull my knees closer to my tight chest which holds my now barely beating heart and lungs that I wish would cease to work.

I didn’t want to die. It was true that I didn’t want to live with it anymore but I was not ready to die. I started to panic and my breathing grew heavier. I could almost feel my body shutting down and all I wanted to do was live for once. But now I couldn’t. I dragged the garbage can over and stuck my fingers so far down my throat I feared they wouldn’t come up. The liquid from my stomach slid up and out of my mouth. I’m alive. I survived and- thud.

BEFORE THE FALL: EVE’S STORY
By Linnea Barto

The first thing I knew was Light. Light opened my eyes for the first time. Light surrounded me, enveloped me. Light formed me. This Light is not the sun. He is a being; living, fearsome and good. This was my beginning. I was formed by the Light of the World, created to be a human, a being made in His image.

When my feet were set on the ground of Eden, Light melted the sparkling mist to reveal another human. This human was like me, made in the image of the Light of the World, but we were not identical. The Light woke him from a deep sleep. In the dazzling brightness, Adam saw me for the first time. Joy quivered through him, and he laughed in delight, telling anyone willing to listen that he had finally found one made for him.

Then he gave me my name. He called me Woman because I was formed from his rib, taken out of Man. We became the first husband and wife.

Everything was perfect. No sin, no pain, no death. Until that day. The day to go down in history as the Fall. The day when death entered our perfect world. How I wish to return to those first days when all was good, true and right.

Adam was keeping the Garden, his job given to him by the Light. In those painless days, it was an easy job. I was gathering fruit when a serpent took notice and joined me.

He asked if the Light had told me that I may not eat any fruit in the Garden. I replied that He had told my husband that we might eat any fruit, except of the tree in the center of the Garden, lest we die. The serpent said that if I ate of that tree, I would not die, but I would become like the Light. He told me that I would know good and evil. I already knew good but had no notion of evil. I wish I were still so innocent.

I walked to the tree. Its leaves glistened; its perfect fruit sparkled. Only a moment did I pause. I would be disobeying the Light. But the fruit looked so delightful. How could something so beautiful, made by the Light, be bad?

I touched it. I ran my fingers over the silky skin. I ate.

It was as delicious as promised. I had to share. So I handed the fruit to Adam, compelling him to eat it. He knew what it was, but he ate.

Then came the realization. We saw that we were naked and had sinned. We knew evil. We were ashamed.

We hid from the Light, trying to cover our shame with leaves. But the leaves could hide nothing when the Light came to find us. He asked Adam where we were. All was known.

Man, woman and serpent were cursed, and through us, the world. Man was to toil in thorns. Woman, to have pain in childbirth. We both would die. The Light did not delight in cursing us; we brought it upon ourselves by dishonoring Him, for He is holy.

But though the Maker cursed us, He did not leave us hopeless. When He cursed the serpent, He promised that though the serpent would torment humanity, one of my offspring would crush the serpent, forever defeating evil.

This is my story, our story. You would have done no differently. But amidst all this evil and pain, hope still shines. The Light will keep His promise.

Flash Fiction Contest Coordinator
Jim Kane
jkanefabulousfiction@gmail.com
952-448-4526