- Funding for Off 90 is provided in part by The Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

- Cruising your way now, Off 90, an Austin music festival, a renowned shoe company in Red Wing, a world class metal craftsman in Dodge Center and an arts organization in Austin.

It's all just ahead.

Off 90.

Hi, I'm Barbara Keith.

Thanks for joining me on this trip, Off 90.

After 88 years, an annual musical event in Austin is still in tune.

Austin is host to the Big 9 Music Festival.

It features over 2,000 students from schools in Southeast Minnesota's Big 9 Conference.

Let's listen in.

- Today, we're here to talk about the Big 9 Music Festival, which was held here in Austin on April 29th.

I'm Christoff Dundas, and this is the new Austin high school band room.

The Big 9 Music Festival started in 1933, when the directors from Austin and Albert Lea wanted an opportunity to showcase their music programs and showcase their top students as well.

Today the Big 9 Music Festival is a big day of music, where the top band, choir and orchestra from 12 different schools comes together on one day to perform for each other.

The evening ends with a combined concert featuring the top 375 students from all three schools.

This was the 88th annual Big 9 Music Festival.

The math doesn't quite add up, there have been three cancellations in history, the last two years because of COVID.

And then it was canceled in 1944 because of the World War II effort.

Back then all the schools came by train and there were no trains available because of the war.

I absolutely think this year was a massive success for us as both as Austin High School, and as a Big 9, after having very little blueprint for the festival this year, we looked at it as both a return to something that's been a tradition for many many decades, but also a chance to try some new things and adjust some things with the festival and both the overall festival itself, in the way that it ran was a big success.

But the new things that we tried were subtle, but were widely accepted by audience members and students and our fellow directors as well.

The music for the festival for the day programs, is chosen by each of the schools, what they want to perform.

The music for the evening festival is chosen collaboratively between the host schools, directors and the guest clinicians that come in for the day.

We chose the three guest clinicians that were here for the day giving recorded feedback to all of the ensembles.

They were also the conductors for the evening concert.

On the band side, we chose Dr. Peter Haberman from Concordia college in Moorhead.

Orchestras actually chose their conductor based on the fact that they were commissioning a new piece of music.

Joshua Reznicow from Iowa composed a new piece for the festival and came to work with the students.

And then the choirs chose G. Phillip Shoultz, who is the director of VocalEssence up in the Twin Cities.

The new music commission for orchestra was the first time in 88 years that we've commissioned a new piece for the Big 9 Music Festival.

I know it was an idea that Gene Scott, an orchestra teacher had been working on for many months, perhaps even over a year leading up to it once he had the idea and for him to do that was a first time for him as well.

I've been part of a couple commission projects and was able to help him with things, But a lot of that was his own idea, his own legwork, his own planning and really was a highlight of the festival.

None of the kids who were here this year for the Big 9 Music Festival had ever been part of one before.

In any typical year, during the day you'll have students that played the year before as juniors or sophomores that come back and perform again and even in the evening program you'll have maybe a quarter of the students that performed in the select groups in previous years but this year with, with the two year hiatus, none of the students had performed as part of this festival during the day.

And none of the students in the select group had any experience with it.

There are two big takeaways I have from hosting the Big 9 Music Festival.

First, is the tradition itself of this festival.

It's incredible that something that is the longest running high school music festival in the United States is still running today both with the tradition, but also with the relevance in today's world, that it's still an event that's relevant for our students, relevant for our communities and our audiences and something that matters still today.

My second takeaway is just how exciting it is to host this event at Austin High School with our updated facilities, both our historic high school building, as it is now, with some of the updating that's taken place, our modern performing venues, and most importantly our new music classrooms, where we could host this entire festival on one site without having to rent additional spaces, without having to bus students across town for any performances or rehearsals.

It can all take place right here at Austin High School because of the facilities that we have here that have been provided by the community of Austin and the Hormel Foundation.

- Founded in 1905, Red Wing Shoe Company makes footwear that has become iconic.

Their boots, for example, are popular with hikers, workers and even rock bands.

- So, Charles Beckman, he's selling footwear to the local farmers and local merchants and he's really not finding the good fit and quality that he thinks that his consumers need.

And he said, "I can make a better shoe."

So, he closes down his footwear retail business and him along with 14 other investing partners begin the Red Wing Shoe Company.

My name is Claire Pavelka.

I am the corporate historian and archivist here at the Red Wing Shoe Company.

Charles Beckman quickly identifies different footwear needs for different occupations.

Purpose-built footwear.

And that's something that we've stayed true to, throughout our entire history.

So today we're here in Red Wing, Minnesota.

It is the home of Red Wing Shoe Company, which started in 1905, just a block down the street.

We have a factory here in town.

We have roughly a thousand employees here in Red Wing and globally, we have just over 2,000 employees worldwide.

We also have our flagship store and we have our corporate offices.

The first 25 years we introduced purpose-built footwear.

We have the Billy Boots with the pocket knife.

We have a museum in our flagship store.

That's where some of our best artifacts are, but the majority of the artifacts that we have in our collection, are housed in corporate archives.

Almost all of our artifacts have been donated by employees or individual consumers.

And I've brought some out today.

Some of my favorites, we will see my favorite pair of boots later on, but let's start with our safety footwear.

This particular pair of boots is from the early 1970s, but it represents the start of safety footwear that we started back in the 1920s.

So in addition to having a safety toe cap it also has an external met guard.

This met guard provides an additional layer of protection.

So the next pair I'd like to show you is the Gloria from 1926.

So a beautiful detail on the Gloria here is you can see the pocket.

And then there is a wing logo here.

It has the mock toe, it has the triple stitching and it's got these speed hooks all the way up.

A woman that would've worn the Gloria would've been a modern, progressive woman of her era.

She would be maybe ditching her long skirts and she would be wearing maybe a riding habit.

She would be doing activities outside of the home and she would really be an independent and progressive woman.

This is my favorite.

This is my favorite boot.

So this is a boot that would've been produced during World War II, the Skytrooper boot.

There's this beautiful toe cap on it.

It's got an reinforced arch.

And then on the bottom, it was specially designed so that it would withstand the impact of of course jumping out an airplane.

And another beautiful detail that I like about the Skytrooper, is that it's got an angled heel right here, and that is to help prevent entanglement from the paracords, when they jumped out of the airplanes.

The Irish Setter brand started in 1950.

It started as a line of upland hunting boots.

This is a different type of sole on here.

This is a cushion crepe outsole.

The Irish Setter line was developed for hunting specifically.

That was the purpose built.

The Irish Setter line has grown to be not only hunting footwear, but also footwear for job sites.

What we call our Irish Setter Work footwear as well.

- We have a tannery just down the road, so we have easy access to our leather.

It goes through about five different departments here in Red Wing Shoe.

It takes about five to 10 days for a total process to get from, start to finish depending on the style.

- One of the unique qualities for Red Wing Shoe Company is we have vertical integration.

So we can control the operation from the tanning of the leather, having it brought to the factory to be cut and to making the footwear, all the way to the end consumer.

So we are part of that entire cut to box hide to consumer, vertical integration and that makes Red Wing Shoe Company unique.

Behind me we have the wall of honor.

This is the newest edition to the museum.

This is where we honor men and women who work in the trades, telling their stories of what they've accomplished in their long careers.

We amplify their story on our website and we also hang their boots here on the wall of honor.

- Sebastien Richer is a world class metal craftsman from France.

He's been trained by some of the finest experts in the world, and he lives in Dodge Center, Minnesota.

He lets us into his workshop to learn his philosophy of metal work.

- Hi, my name is Sebastien Richer.

I am a metal craftsman.

I was born in France, Northeast of Paris, the Champagne region.

So bubbles, wine, it's quite known to us because all the new born get the drop of champagne when we are born.

The restoration of the Statue of Liberty brought me to the U.S.

So I came to finish the restoration of the Statue of Liberty.

The fundraising for the Statue of Liberty was so well done, we had too much money, so we made a second flame.

My shop is in Dodge Center, Minnesota.

I've been doing this work for 45 years.

The challenge I have is I never do twice the same thing.

And I'm going to go from a piece get to be two tons, to a piece, usually to be two pound.

So it is very challenging.

I can work with every metal we have.

You learn to work with steel, at the beginning it's kind of basic.

And after you start to work with the copper family and all the different type of bronze that can exist, depending on the work you do, you are going to face stainless steel, titanium.

You have to learn all the methodology of each material to be able to work perfectly with them.

I love bronze.

Bronze is a beautiful finish.

It's a very soft material.

Welding wise, I prefer aluminum.

It's a very soft, smooth welding versus stainless steel is kind of dry, right?

It's just intuition of feeling of the material.

When I have a client who comes to see me with a project, first, I have to understand the client.

Where does he come from and where he got his idea?

The first step is very crucial because what the clients want is, "oh, I want to stare."

And "it has to be modern."

Okay, so you have to understand what is modern for the person.

The first thing I ask a client to draw it, well of course nobody knew how to draw.

It is amazing in two or three lines what the client can tell me and the interpretation I can take out of those couple lines and you have a little discussion.

And so you learn about them and you are able to sketch a couple of ideas.

It helps me to get the proportion, the advantage of me drawing it, I can design the piece to fit through the front way, to fit the site.

And I understand exactly how I'm going to install it, way before everything is done.

I have to you don't create something out of nowhere.

It's just an evolution of things you experience, things you see, and that's what you have to offer.

Welding is part of a process.

It's not the main idea.

Often people think welding is fast and sometimes it creates more problems.

As much as I design on paper, I design on my computer too.

I have a program, CAD program and which allows me to design the whole piece.

Coming back to the welding is the type of project I do.

The finish is the key of the piece.

The forging aspect, forging hasn't changed in 2,000 years or 3,000 years.

Forging is forging.

The act of forging is moving the material where you need it that is really the definition of forging.

Everything I do is the best part.

The creation part, the relation with the client, the process of doing the project itself and to see it done in a way, you start from an idea and you're able to deliver something.

You can see around yourself in my shop is, I have a little bit of everything.

The idea to be able to come up with an idea, refine the idea and make it happen.

A lot of my work, I don't see the clients because I work for an architect.

I work with some very big, big clients with big names.

And so I don't meet them.

The most interesting part is you do a project, the client is coughing about the price, "it's expensive" and you finish the project, you install it, he's happy.

And before you go to through the door, you show "Oh, I have something else for you."

The best client for me, is someone who traveled, saw something somewhere else and would like to have more or less the same idea, back home.

And that's what I'm able to provide.

- Austin Area Arts is an independent arts organization in Austin.

It supports local artists and features arts and cultural activities, including a shop, classes, and a gallery.

Every summer it hosts the Austin ArtWorks Festival.

Let's find out more.

- Today we're at the Austin Artwork Center.

I'm Laura Helle.

I'm the executive director for Austin Area Arts.

We wanna make sure that we're reflecting the diversity of the community as much as possible.

So, we want all kinds of artists to get their art up on the wall.

And we're aware that there's been several hundred years of organized official art, that has been very white focused.

So we do what we can to shine the light on all the other folks who are making wonderful stuff.

We also do art classes for both adults and youth and those run the gamut from clay, to fused glass, watercolor, painting, just about anything you can think of.

We'll have classes for that.

And then the basement of the building is what we call the clay cavern.

So we have a full clay studio down there.

You can use the wheel, you can use the kiln and create clay pieces.

And then our main floor is our retail center.

So we have over a hundred artists who are selling original works of art in the space.

Art classes are taught by various instructors.

A lot of them are teachers either at the K-12 level or at the college level of art, but others are artists who they make a living producing art.

And the teaching is one of their revenue streams.

So they're from all over.

Kids' classes are usually taught by more local artists.

But yeah, and we keep our eye out for new folks and new ideas.

And then in the summer, in August, we have the Austin ArtWorks Festival, which is a celebration of the arts over two days.

It is held in the heart of downtown Austin.

So it's right out on Main Street and then the surrounding area.

So the festival tries to cover all the arts.

We have fine art exhibitors who are chosen by jury.

So they have booths where they're presenting their artwork for your purchase.

We have a live outdoor music stage, live music playing all day, both days.

We have an author stage, where authors are speaking about their books and some talk a little bit more about the writing process others about their subject matter.

And we then also have art demonstrations and hands on art making experiences.

So, demonstration might be clay on the wheel, or a glass blower, or someone showing you how to do printmaking.

And hands on gets into it.

We have paint the Beetle, our VW Beetle car.

And last year we were able to add Paint the Plow.

So the city of Austin brings in one of their snow plows and we paint the plow blade, which the kids love.

Everyone loves actually.

So those kinds of things in 2021 we brought in a hands on art activity called spray intake and it was aerosol art, so made with aerosol cans and stencils and so forth.

And so people were creating a piece of artwork with spray paint and then taking it home.

That was a partnership with an artist named Peyton Scott Russell.

And he's actually the one exhibiting in that room right now.

The centerpiece really of the two day festival is the Schindler celebration.

And so that's a live music show that's sponsored by Mayo Clinic in honor, and memory of Dr. Dick Schindler, who passed away in 2014.

Well, we're pretty excited 'cause we've been able to build some new partnerships with Austin High School and the art teachers there.

So we're doing a variety of activities.

One is that we've created some volunteer positions where students can volunteer to be an assistant at a kid's art class.

Others of them can volunteer at the Paramount Theater for concessions.

So that's been a good way for us to connect with those students.

The high school art program is also working on two things for the fall.

One is a gallery wall, where their students would be able to display artwork here at the artwork center and make a changing display.

And then secondly is a schedule of field trips.

We're in a great position that we're literally a two block walk from the high school.

So really all year long, their classes can come down and see what's up in the gallery.

And then it will be a changing show.

Like I said, it's six different times a year, there's something new for them to see and be inspired by.

So, we're working on that and it's a bit of a pipeline, long term pipeline project for us.

I mean, we know that those art students are our future donors and patrons and possibly employees.

And so we wanna connect with them and we also wanna support the schools funding for arts programming.

The school is always on the chopping block and for us to be able to add that piece and support the school.

And they're very happy to have us and motivated to have us because they know arts exposure boosts academics, it boosts test scores, it raises engagement.

Maybe even raises the graduation rates.

So it's a really good win-win partnership.

- We've reached the end of this tour.

Thanks for riding along.

See you next time, Off 90.

- Funding for Off 90 is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.