ArtMatters Newsletter February 2021  Volume 11, Issue 2

Save the Date – Arts Consortium of Carver County Annual Meeting – Open to All

You are invited to attend the Arts Consortium of Carver County Annual Meeting on Tuesday, March 16th at 6:30pm to celebrate all we have accomplished! As our 11th year comes to a close, we are thankful to have had such diligent board members, volunteers, class instructors, donors, sponsors, members, business and organization advocates.

We serve the communities of Carver County and beyond and we continue to make a difference by bringing the arts to the people and people to the arts. We look forward to telling you about our year and welcome you to be a part of our event. Due to CoVid restrictions, the ACCC will host our meeting virtually, via Zoom. More details to come…

Community Art Kit Project

The Arts Consortium of Carver County and the Chaska Parks and Rec Department have teamed up together to co-sponsor Kandinsky Circles and Squares Art and Bake Kit. joint promotion we are doing together with more projects like this to come! Art kits include 4 canvas wraps, acrylic paint, paint brushes, artist bio and art instructions, recipes and produce to create your Circles and Square meal. Everything your family will need to create a one-of-a-kind masterpiece!

Wassily Kandinsky was a Russian painter and art theorist who lived in the 1800’s. Kandinsky is generally credited as the pioneer of abstract art. You’ll learn more about him in your kit.

Kits are $30 each. Limited quantities available, so order your kit today!

Kit Pick-up date: February 18th, Register on the Chaska Parks and Rec website.

Locations: 9:30-11am at Carver City Hall or 4:30-6pm at the Chaska Community Center main lobby. If you come to the CCC, be sure to stop in to see us at the Arts Center!

More info on our website: Kandinsky Circle and Squares Art and Bake Kit.

Literary News

We are excited to present a limited-run virtual course in February. Register for a 5 day exploration of The Opalescent World of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, presented by Walter Cannon. Registration information and specific class dates/times can be found on the ACCC website under Classes. Deadline for registration is Feb 7, course starts Feb 9th.

Next on deck is the April Poetry Contest, with the announced theme as “Change” — an open-ended theme given the last year or so, certainly! The deadline for poetry submissions is March 1, 2021. See the Poetry Contest details on our website and watch for reminders via Facebook. If you have any questions or ideas for events, please contact the Literary Committee at literary@artsofcarvercounty.org.

Music News

We are pleased to announce the musical lineup for July 10th and 11th, 2021 ArtStock Art, Wine and Music Festival. Tara B, Matt and Holly, Traveled Ground, Ted Hajnasiewicz, Lehto and Wright and the Blue Skies Band are performing during the event. We are also having a Fundraiser for the ACCC at Parley Lake Winery featuring an evening performance (7-10pm) on July 10th by Monroe Crossing, an internationally known bluegrass band. Mark your calendars now!

Music opportunity

Looking for Songwriters and Musicians to be a part of an original music CD compilation. Please contact Steve for more info. 952-465-2384. music@artsofcarvercounty.org

Education

Exciting New Class offering by Walter W. Cannon Professor of English Emeritus at Central College in Pella, Iowa where he taught early modern literature including Shakespeare and his contemporaries and a variety of writing courses. His reviews and essays have appeared in The Upstart Crow, Theater History Studies, Cahiers Elisabethains, and Inside Shakespeare: Essays on the Blackfriar’s Stage. He is co-editor with Laury Magnus of Who Hears in Shakespeare?: Auditory Worlds on Stage and Screen, (Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2012) and Shakespeare’s Auditory Worlds: Hearing and Staging Practices, Then and Now (Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2020).  Please sign up for this exciting opportunity! See Classes on our website for details.

Fresh Art – A community based Art Opportunity for ACCC Members

We are looking for Carver County artists willing to share their new and old work and artist story.  Each month we are inviting an artist in Carver County to share their current work and how they became an artist.  Offer a chance for a dialogue based on this work and get to know one another. Please let us know if you are interested in this opportunity and what month you would like to present. We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Visual Art News

We invite the public to attend our Family Connections Exhibit, Artists’ Reception to meet and talk with artists about their work. The Artists’ Reception is Thursday, Feb 11, 2021, 6:30 – 8:30 PM at the ACCC Arts Center Gallery in the Chaska Community Center.

The Family Connections Exhibit started January 27 and runs through February 27, 2021 in the ACCC Arts Center Gallery, come see! We are CoVid prepared, state mandates at the time will apply to all guests.

ArtStock is Now Open for Applications

We just published the applications for ArtStock Art, Wine and Music Festival 2021, to be held on Saturday July 10th and Sunday July 11th. Find detailed information on how to apply on the ACCC website. We are seeking talented artists representing diverse mediums such as photography, sculpture, wearable arts, glass, fibers, painting, and more. ArtStock is an outdoor event featuring regional and local art, curated wine, and live music throughout both days of the Festival. In it’s 10th year, our Anniversary celebration will be big! ACCC Members get a 10% discount. See our website for details.

If you’d like to be on our Festivals Committee, please let us know! Contact Barb Hone, Festivals Committee Chairperson, festivals@artsofcarvercounty.org

Art Tourism News

The Art Tourism Committee of the Arts Consortium of Carver County is extending its deadline to February 28th to receive Ag Art images. The call is for agriculturalists/farmers to photograph their works of art and submit to arttourism@artsofcarvercounty.org. This is not a contest – just sharing! The photographs are displayed on our website as they arrive and for viewing throughout March. Visit our website for detailed information. You may view the images already posted.

Barn Quilts of Carver County Catches Geocachers’ Interest

The Barn Quilts of Carver County, MN, a public art project, started in 2011, in conjunction with the Arts Consortium of Carver County, has recently caught the attention of a group of geocachers.

Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure-hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location. Many people use their smart phones to find geocaches. Others use a GPS to find them. There are more than 3 million active geocaches worldwide. Geocaches are hidden in 191 different countries on all seven continents (even Antarctica)! More than 642 million “Found it” and “Event Attended” logs have been recorded since the game started in 2000.There are many different types of geocaches. There is also a Minnesota Geocaching Association (MnGCA).

Last Fall, a Barn Quilt Geocaching “Adventure Lab” was started by Mary Purdham and her husband David of Eden Prairie. A Geocaching Adventure Lab is a new app and platform from the team at Geocaching HQ that allows an individual to create, play and share location-based experiences and games. The Geocaching Adventure Lab app guides players through the process of finding clues, solving puzzles, and completing Adventures one location at a time. This type of geocaching exploded in 2020 as a great past-time during the pandemic. Not everyone in the geocaching community can “create” an Adventure Lab (“AL”).  You must be awarded the opportunity to create one.

The Purdham’s were looking for something fun that was different from historical tours across the various metro cities that were becoming widely popular. They created the Barn Quilts of Carver County Adventure Lab and showcased five different barn quilts. Approximately 40 groups have visited the Carver County barn quilts since the Adventure Lab was created last September 2020.

Participants found their “cache”, took pictures, shared them with families, reminisced about farming and quilting and enjoyed visits with the farmers. They learned about the history of the farm, the barn quilts and readily enjoyed the outdoor gallery of art. To learn more about the Barn Quilts of Carver County Geocaching Adventure Lab, please visit https://labs.geocaching.com/goto/barn_quilts

The Barn Quilts of Carver County, MN continues to promote tourism bringing state-wide individuals to the County to enjoy and see what all is offered. Watch for the Barn Quilt Tours this summer, where Community, Countryside and Culture meet! https://barnquiltsofcarvercountymn.com

For more information regarding the Barn Quilts of Carver County, MN, please contact Janet Fahey, Tour Director at 612-382-4512 or Barb Hone, Author, at 612-799-8208.

Board of Directors Application