(gentle music) - [Male Narrator] Funding for "Off 90" is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, and the citizens of Minnesota.

(loon calling) (rock music) - [Female Narrator] Cruising your way next, "Off 90."

A traditional music festival in Lanesboro, a woodworker in Oronoco, and an art center in Faribault.

It's all just ahead, "Off 90."

(guitar rock music) (dramatic music) Hi, I'm Barbara Keith.

Thanks for joining me on this trip "Off 90."

The Bluff Country Gathering is a music festival held in Lanesboro.

The Gathering brings players from around the country to a setting perfect for fiddles and banjos.

It features old time music, classes, and a square dance.

Let's tune in.

(old time square dance music) - I'm Bob Bovee.

I'm the artistic director of the Bluff Country Gathering, which has been going on here in Lanesboro, Minnesota since 1999.

We bring in master old time musicians from around the country.

And we do two days of workshops with them teaching the music and we do a concert on Friday night, open to the public.

And we do a big barn dance, square dancing on Saturday night.

Hey, so good to see you.

- You too.

- The Gathering takes place at the Sons of Norway Hall and the Community Center in Lanesboro.

(old time fiddle music) - We're in Lanesboro, Minnesota, which is a beautiful town, as you know, in the middle of the Driftless Area.

It's very special topography around here.

Gorgeous, gorgeous place.

- Lanesboro is this beautiful historic town on the the Root River, on the Root River Trail.

It used to be a little one horse town in Southeast Minnesota.

Now it's become kind of a tourist mecca.

Lots of B and B's, lots of nice restaurants, and events going on like ours.

- We're here because Bob Bovee, and his wife, now deceased, Gail Heil, wanted to have a national old time music convention, right here.

And have people who exclusively played old time music, which is the precursor to Bluegrass music.

(old time music) - Here in the Upper Midwest, when you say old time, people expect an accordion and a polka band.

So a lot of times I call this old time country.

It's string band music that predates Bluegrass.

- Old time is stuff that happened a long time ago and still happening, and still people find it viable.

- Let's just play the B part through a few times right now.

Okay, so we're just gonna do it at 12.

So ready, go.

(stringed instruments playing) - Well, this festival is more focused on the actual workshops, than the performances.

There's one concert, that's open to the public, and there's one dance that's open to the public.

- But you can think about a still upper lip, and a small opening here, and just see what that does.

And we'll do, (humming).

(group singing) - [Pop] All of the rest of the events are small workshops, with different focuses to them.

- I'm gonna take this right back down to the basics.

- [Pop] And they get to work with a master of old time music in their particular field of interest.

- You can concentrate on anything that you want to.

You can, for example, I did a singing workshop.

I play the mandolin.

So I did a couple of mandolin workshops and I did a fiddle workshop, because I wanna learn how to play the fiddle.

- It's kind of like a sewing machine.

I think, you know, you can straight stitch, or you can zig zag it, but it's.

- It's a real deal is when you can si down with a master and learn in person.

And it's pretty special when that can happen.

- So that's the way that's been going, but that's only like half of the whole thing, because people jam all the time.

You can find people to play with in a group.

We play by ear.

So if you don't know the tune, you just join in and try and play as best you can.

And eventually you will know the tune.

(cheery old time music) - And the beauty is that it's simple to play.

By the time you play it through three or four times, you've got it down.

If you've got a mandolin, and I've got a banjo, by the third of the fourth time through, we're playing along with each other, and this whole group just kind of soars.

(cheery old time music) I mean, the music is magic.

Once you're playing in a circle, you feel it.

That's why it's so addictive.

(cheery music ending) - Fun.

- And the left goes here with the right hand around, back to your partner with a left.

- [Bob] We're at the square dance.

It's a great way for people to get together.

It's a way to physically react to the music, more than sitting there and applauding at the end of a piece, you can actually be part of it.

(square dance music) This square dance band is often put together with people, maybe who've never met each other before, but because they're in this tradition of old time string band music, they know their repertoire, and they're ready to go as soon as they hit the stage.

(crowd applauding and cheering) - One, two, three, one, two three.

(mellow old time music) - I explain the music by telling people, this is their legacy in this country.

This is some music that has been passed from person to person, for generation after generation.

- The beauty of traditional music, is that you can't break it.

Because the idea is, I don't have to play it exactly like anybody.

It travels down the river of time.

I can pick it up and I can make it mine, but it brings joy.

It helps you at times of sorrow.

So yeah, I'm hooked on it.

I hope I can play it through arthritis, through old age, through whatever, for just as long as I can.

(mellow old time music) It's music that is so disconnected from the music business.

It's people making music for their own enjoyment, and for each other, with each other, and creating a real sense of community, which is what has made this gathering so special.

People come back year after year.

They know each other, they feel a part of the whole event, and they are.

(mellow old time music) (guitar rock music) - Caryl Clossner of Oronoco has been a farmer all his life.

Now he does woodwork.

He'll introduce us to a device called a scroll saw.

Let's take a look.

(snappy piano music) - A farmer always considers himself a farmer.

Well, I've been a farmer my entire life, and I'm 74 now.

So born on a farm, and still here.

When I was, I think it was 10 or 11 years old, grandparents, my mother, and I went to Billy Clocks down in Spillville, Iowa.

And that was two brothers that did all this carving and scroll saw work.

And I saw what they did, and it was, I guess I was hooked at that point.

(saw buzzing) The main thing you want with a scroll saw is get something with as little vibration as possible.

Takes quite a bit to tip the nickel over.

Work with a scroll saw, that's the main thing, 'cause yeah, fretwork, most people don't have any idea what that is.

Hopefully I have my pictures handy, because trying to describe it is a little difficult sometimes.

Real fretwork, I started that about maybe 20 years ago on a small scale.

And then when I quit milking cows, and then I didn't have them to take care of, so I had a lot more free time, and it's about 12 years ago.

Then it took off into the bigger stuff.

(mellow music) I don't like using all the same wood, get a little variety.

I don't put any paint on anything.

Everything is just natural color.

The big clock back here, there's eight different types of wood on there, that gives you your different coloring.

And we're out in the country.

I don't have somebody, a house just 10 feet from me, or 20 feet from me.

I can get out.

I can listen to the birds sing in the morning, watch the deer going up the driveway, all kinds of different things.

The log cabin there, I gave it to my girlfriend.

It's just a log cabin.

She lives in a log cabin, in the woods.

So she saw it, she wanted it for Christmas.

So I made it.

(large door sliding open) (mellow music) I mean, I like just the fact that you can turn just a simple piece of wood into something that's a lot of people can't do, or don't wanna do.

It's a variable speed saw, so you can change your speed, whatever you work for.

When I'm doing this woodworking, I feel a sense of accomplishment.

To me, it's relaxing.

You have to concentrate on it, and you just kind of let the rest of the world go by.

(scroll saw buzzing) Sometimes I'm at the scroll saw for five minutes.

You can't follow the line.

You have blades break, and you just get up and walk away.

And I've had other nights, I start out at seven o'clock, and I've gone as late as 1:30 in the morning already.

So every day is different.

You want something as straight as possible, so that it doesn't, the points don't break off, or you don't want any knots in it.

I start right with the logs, and cut it into boards and dry 'em, and then once you get ready to make something why then you take the boards, and you plane 'em to the thickness you need, and cut 'em for the size pieces you need.

And then you start putting your design in.

(mellow music) When I'm cutting a log into boards, why it's amazing what you can find for a grain in one log that you won't have in the next one.

And different coloring from one log to the next, even whether it's oak, or walnut, or cherry, you're still getting something different.

My favorite kind of wood, would probably either cherry or walnut.

Walnut cuts real easy.

You got a nice finish to it when you cut.

The hardest thing about it is staying on the lines, especially if you're got something with a straight line that you're trying to cut.

The end clock up here is called The Times of Normandy is the name of that clock.

That one's all cherry.

Well, this is the big one.

The designer called it the Tower of Time.

It's four foot wide, nine and a half foot tall.

There's eight different varieties of lumber in it.

Doors around this section all open.

But if I had to guess, why I know it's over a thousand hours that I've invested in it.

And no, I never thought halfway through that I was gonna quit.

As long when I got that far, it was finish it.

Yeah, I've had people that have seen it eight or 10 times, and they'll come in here and they'll look at it.

Was this here the last time I saw it?

Well, it was here the first time you saw it.

It hasn't changed.

I'm hoping that some museum would wanna take it and put it on display.

I've had several people say it should be in a museum for more people could see it.

I couldn't say that to have anything that's I would say is favorite.

'Cause everything is a little bit different, and little different process in doing it, and different sizes.

And some is more complex than others.

It's just a nice accomplishment when everything is done.

(snappy piano music) (guitar rock music) - The Paradise Center for the Arts, in Faribault, is a hub of creativity.

It offers arts education, four galleries for visual artists, and live performing arts that include music and theater for all ages.

The center welcomes all people to experience the transformative power of the arts.

(rhythmic drum brush music) - I think that we all have that memory of the first time that you heard a song, and it touched your heart.

Or the first time that you saw live theater, and you were absolutely blown away.

Or you saw a piece of art that you just couldn't live without.

That to me, is the transformative power of the arts, and it's different for every single person.

I am Heidi Nelson, Executive Director of the Paradise Center for the Arts in Downtown Faribault.

The Paradise Center for the Arts is a multidisciplinary arts center.

And what that means is that we not only have an auditorium with 300 seat capacity, but we also have art classrooms, and we have galleries.

So we have four onsite galleries here, and we manage a gallery that's at the Allina Hospital.

Now they just recently changed their name.

So the Paradise Center for the Arts was started in 2005 and six.

So it was a combination of the Faribault Arts Center, and the Paradise Community Theater.

So they joined forces, purchased this building that we're in, this historic building, and renovated it and opened the doors in 2007.

You know, when this place started, they didn't have the money to do everything.

They had gotten grants, and they had donations that came from community members.

But there were lots of parts of the building that were still unfinished.

So I was able to do some of that, got some more donations, got some more help.

But then we also had the ability to be able to pay off this debt.

They started with 1.3 million when they opened the doors.

So to be at 500,000, 12 years later was incredible that they'd already paid down so much.

I actually started as the Interim Director in November of 2019, our previous director had left.

I was on the Board of Directors, and was lucky enough to be hired as the official Executive Director on March 19th of 2020, 'cause I'm the queen of good timing.

(soft mellow music) So I had some pretty major goals when I started this position.

And obviously getting through COVID was the first one.

That was incredibly emotional, just maybe not crying every day was good.

But one of the things that I did after we paid off our mortgage, which was a huge accomplishment.

And really if we didn't have the agreement with the city of Faribault that we did, that wouldn't have happened.

There were quite a few things in the building that needed to be done.

And so we started with lightening up our lobby area a little bit.

It was really, really dark.

So the colors are kind of gold and green.

And so I went in and got on the ladder, and listened to books on tape, and I painted, because we didn't have any money.

We literally had about $50,000 in the bank, and we had about $500,000 worth of debt.

Since then, we've now turned our financial picture around.

Not only have we paid off that mortgage, but we took advantage of PPP, and the SVOG, and really were very lucky to have the grants that we had gotten.

And you know, now I can tell you that we have a little over $200,000 in the bank, and being debt free.

So it allows us to offer more free and fee-reduced programming.

(mellow guitar music) One of the things that we learned during COVID, was that you need to go with the flow.

You know, I think a lot of people now saying, "Well, it just is what it is."

And that really was our mantra for a long time.

We really realized that you couldn't get upset about the small things.

But one of the things that we did in order to pivot the way that we catered to our community is we did things like live streaming.

And we live streamed some shows, we utilized Facebook Live.

We actually did a fundraiser called Paradise Sings at Six.

And so every night we had asked actors that were dying to be able to perform that had been on our stage.

And we asked them to record themselves singing, at six o'clock.

And so we aired those at six o'clock every night on Facebook Live.

And that was so much fun.

And we actually did raise quite a bit of money.

So it was nice to be able to do that.

But another thing that we did is we did virtual art classes.

We had one teacher in particular, and she still continues to do them.

It was one of those things that we realized was really needed in our community.

There's so many kids that are homeschooled, that take advantage of that.

But even elderly, that don't necessarily wanna drive, but they still wanna be able to be creative.

And so they take those art classes virtually.

So as you come into the Paradise Center for the Arts, you're gonna see four onsite galleries.

We have two galleries on either side of the lobby, and one straight ahead.

The largest is the Carlander Gallery.

In the hallway that leads to the auditorium, we have a very special gallery called the Corey Lyn Creger Memorial Gallery.

That gallery is unique, because it's for only children, 18 and under, to be able to display their work.

We have students that come from the high school and from Bethlehem Academy.

We have students from Shattuck-St. Mary's, and we actually have just young children.

The youngest child that we had that actually had an entire gallery exhibit was three years old.

So it was just, it's a fun space that we have.

♪ Me loving you ♪ As you walk through the auditorium doors, you're gonna see 278 seats on the floor.

We have a stage that handles two theater troupes.

We have Paradise Community Theater, as well as the Merlin Players.

And then we also have shows that are live music, entertainment, comedians, things like that that happen on the weekends.

And so for instance, tonight we have Patsy Cline coming here.

It's actually Joyann Parker doing a tribute to Patsy Cline.

That's actually quite a bit of what we do.

We have a lot of tribute shows.

It seems to go over well in our community.

And we do also have people who come and do their own individual music.

So, you know, things that are are written by artists that come and perform on our stage.

♪ Always ♪ (audience applauding) Upstairs at the Paradise Center for the Arts, we have a beautiful pottery lab that sits along the front of the building.

It has wonderful sunshine that comes in in the afternoon, and it's probably the most used space in the entire building.

All through COVID, we had people who came into that pottery lab.

In fact, there's one woman who said that without that space for her in order to be creative, that COVID would've just crushed her.

She said she absolutely needed to be able to be creative in that space.

(liquid shaking) The Faribault Community is about 25,000 people.

And we have a fairly large African American, Somali population, and also a fairly large Hispanic population.

What we do is we try to engage with those cultures, as well as the rest of the culture that we have, the people that we have here in Faribault.

What we have found is that there are so many people that are anxious to be able to be creative.

We have something called the Marquee Children's Theater.

It's a opportunity for kids to come to a camp in the summertime, and they rehearse for three weeks, and then they put on a performance.

And what we find is there's a very wide base culturally, for that program, and it's wonderful to be able to get children who can start really early.

We want people to be able to be entertained.

We want them to have those cultural experiences.

And so we try to keep class costs down, and we try to keep event costs down a little bit.

You know, we're going through this really difficult time right now.

And so one of the things that we did about a month ago is we lowered our ticket prices by about five dollars a ticket, just to make it a little bit easier.

We know that gas and groceries are expensive.

One of the things that people don't realize is, you know they drive down the street, and they see what's happening every week on that marquee.

I get on a ladder and change that physically myself.

I don't like that in the wintertime.

And I don't like that in July.

I also don't like that I can't say on that marquee what's coming up two weeks from now.

I can't advertise the gallery shows that are happening.

There's just too much.

So having a digital marque is gonna be very helpful for us.

Also being able to advertise in other languages, which will be huge for us.

Our community has shown that everyone is for this place.

People love it, they want it to stay open, and they're willing to support it.

(mellow guitar music) (lively rock music) - Finally, for Mankato, we have a short history of Bethany Lutheran College in a video from the Blue Earth County Historical Society.

- [Presenter] Bethany Lutheran College began in 1911, as the Bethany Ladies College with the support from the Emmanuel Lutheran Church, and the Mankato Commercial Club.

Attendance numbers were not as high as the college would've liked in the following decade, and the school was reorganized in 1919, and eventually purchased by the Norwegian Synod in 1927.

It was at this time, the college became co-educational, and created a full high school program, and junior college program.

The college continued its path of growth over the following decades, and added new curriculum offerings, as well as new buildings on campus.

The high school program ended in 1969 as more students were enrolling in the college rather than the high school.

Bethany Lutheran College has always been a fine arts institution.

However, the school saw athletics rise in the 1960s, as they went to many state competitions.

Bethany Lutheran College remains a fine center for higher education in Blue Earth County.

For more information about historical topics, visit our website at BlueEarthCountyHistory.com.

- We've reached the end of this tour.

Thanks for riding along.

See you next time "Off 90."

(lively energetic music) - [Narrator] Funding for "Off 90" is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, and the citizens of Minnesota.

(loon calling) (mellow piano music)