Creating Through COVID
Written by: Board Member at Large, Mary Williamson, Multi-media Artist
As the Board has been adjusting and keeping up with all of the changes we are experiencing due to change in physical location as well as COVID, we have been working towards a couple new interactive platforms.
Online education has swept across the world as students and businesses have needed to accommodate their employees in training or students in schools. As a non-profit, we are no different, we want to continue to add value to your experience with the ACCC.
As an art instructor I have realigned my own teaching to online. It has allowed me to stay in touch with students and continue their lessons as well as reach so many more than I ever could have by myself in my studio. If you’d like help coordinating an online class to teach, please reach out to us at classes@artsofcarvercounty.org with your ideas. We can help bring your craft, skills, technique or instrument to our audience. You can also learn more on our How to Submit A Class page.
The ACCC has provided some amazing classes in the past, but as COVID happened we were forced to stop all in person classes and events. I can tell you now that we are not going leave you all without classes again. Check out our website for one of the lessons I taught last spring (it was a little rough around the edges), but it was so much fun connecting and of course teaching and creating!
I want to encourage you to check out the lesson I have provided, try it out if you haven’t had a chance to follow along with an online lesson before. It is free, fun, and easy!
I also want to encourage all our member artists to consider creating video lessons to provide to other members as well as anyone interested in the arts that visits our ACCC website or follows us on social media. If you have ever considered teaching your craft, skill, technique, or instrument to another, this is an amazing time in our lives where you can serve so many others doing what you love!
Our long sun filled days of summer are over for now, Art Fairs and events were canceled, leaving so many of us feeling a bit off as we didn’t have a chance to walk around tents filled with amazing original creations, sell our amazing creations, and more to the point, we were unable to participate in our favorite classes at the ACCC Arts Center.
Realize the gift you have as an artist and realize how easy it is to share and serve others. Consider creating one or several online lessons. The lessons will be made available for a fee and can be streamed to the user’s device. The fees collected will be to pay the artist as well as a percent goes towards continuing the efforts of the ACCC.
Using your smartphone and a tripod, you can turn your studio space into a classroom! We are encouraging our artist members to contact us for more details and direction on how to create a video lesson to provide an amazing service to those interested in the arts.
The Songwriters and Musicians of Carver County Vol.VI is now available for download on Bandcamp along with the other 5 volumes. 
A second barn quilt book has been released, Barn Quilts and Carver County, MN. It documents the expansion of the Barn Quilt Trail in Carver County. Now, 21 more Barn Quilts, all commissioned art, have been added to this “free, open-air art gallery.”
Anne Krocak: As an artist and teacher, Anne has won numerous awards and conducted public art residencies through VSA Minnesota, The Kennedy Center in DC, COMPAS, Public Arts St. Paul, ArtSage, Children’s Hospital Minneapolis/St. Paul Campus, Minnesota Creative Artists and Aging Network (MnCAAN). In 2009 she received the Jahney-Arts Access Award from VSA Minnesota, recognizing her as an outstanding artist educator of the Year. In 2011 received a National Fellowship from VSA National and the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. Anne is a Lifetime Arts teaching artist. She frequently teaches and prepares others to work with people who have special needs and older adults. She has led workshops and designed and taught classes around the U.S. and in over 60 senior living communities, museums, schools, homeless shelters, libraries, and hospitals. Anne looks forward to bringing her skills and knowledge to the ACCC community as a board member. View Anne’s Artist Profile on the 
Linda McNulty: Linda has been a volunteer all of her life. Transplanted from California then again from Arizona, Linda retired from the City of Victoria and State Farm and has become an advocate for the arts, both in Wickenburg, AZ and now in Carver County. Previous volunteer activities included Community Education Advisory Council for Eastern Carver County School District and campaign worker for two referendums, chair of the Victoria for a Lifetime Committee for eleven years. A founding member of the WeCAB transportation program since its inception in 2014, Linda continues to play an active role as dispatcher for the organization. She was a member of the Victoria Volksfest committee for three years and chair for two years. She also wrote a monthly column for the Chanhassen Villager for nine years, was a member of the City of Victoria Centennial Committee, and worked with the Sheriff’s Office, bringing law enforcement and seniors together.
We want to thank Susan Coultrap-McQuin for her unmeasurable contributions to the ACCC while serving on the board. Her term as board member included roles as Secretary, serving as the Literary Liaison and being on the Operations Committee. While this may seem like a lot, it does not even come close to accounting for her dogged determination to ensure the highest standards were always met in everything she did, her unflagging energy at moving the ACCC forward and upward and her wise counsel in guiding the arts in Carver County. Susan, from the bottom of our hearts, we thank you.
Hello, I’m Mary Williamson, a new ACCC Board Member. As we are navigating the new ways of doing things in the ACCC, one area remains the same. Membership and who that is made of? As I was accepted onto the Board a few months ago, I was simultaneously working on an Art Membership for my own Studio, with a strong focus on young adults. A passion of mine is teaching, especially youth. In the ACCC the focus on new members, art enthusiasts and artists alike, are geared more towards adults. The young adults have not had a seat at the table, yet.
