Lanesboro Arts’s vision for the power of the arts in a rural community was recognized by the Bush Foundation with the 2014 Bush Prize for Community Innovation. To learn more about our work, please check out this video and the case study on the Pollen Midwest website.
EXCERPT FROM LANESBORO ARTS CASE STUDY
Not long ago, Lanesboro, like many small towns, was facing an aging population, lack of jobs and a vacant downtown. With assets of agriculture and natural beauty in tow, Lanesboro Arts, along with the town’s creative community, started a renaissance with the Lanesboro Arts Campus.
ART EVERYWHERE
Through a creative placemaking initiative called the Lanesboro Arts Campus, the organization set out to reimagine the entire town as an arts center. The project puts creativity at the center of the community’s plan for economic and cultural sustainability. The initiative engages citizens as more than just art supporters, but as creators, too.
A SHARED VISION
Instead of forcing a grand vision of the arts onto the town, Lanesboro Arts built its vision over time around the people who lived there. To use art as a creative solution in addressing or responding to local needs, Lanesboro Arts staff had to first learn who the community was and what it wanted to be.