(upbeat music) - Hello and welcome to Prairie Pulse.

Coming up a little bit later in the show, we'll profile Minnesota visual artist, Dawn Rossbach.

But first, joining me now is Brenna Gerhardt.

Brenna, thanks so much for joining us today.

- Thank you for having me.

- We've been laughing and cutting up here before we go on the air, so excuse that.

But you're the executive director of Humanities North Dakota.

And before we get started talking about that, tell the folks a little bit about yourself and your background.

- Oh!

Thank you for asking.

So I grew up in Center, North Dakota, home of Hazel Miner, kind of our folk hero from the town.

I went to Concordia College here in Fargo-Moorhead area, and then I went to Harvard Divinity School, and I moved back because I just missed my family, I missed the state, I missed the culture, and I've been back ever since and just enjoying my life here.

- Well, great.

So tell us, for those out there, what is Humanities North Dakota?

- Yeah.

We are North Dakota's largest lifelong learning community.

So we host classes and events for folks just to keep their minds active and engaged, and we like to tell people to turn their gray matter into what matters, by coming to our events.

- So with that, what do you define as your mission?

- Our mission is to make learning affordable and accessible to everyone in North Dakota.

- Can you talk about, some about the history, how it was formed and how it got started?

- Yeah.

So we've been around since 1974.

So every state has an arts council and they have a humanities council.

The arts council is a state agency, but we're a independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

- Well, so how... What's the relationship or is there one?

Because people often get 'em confused.

- Arts and humanities?

Absolutely.

So the arts do it and we talk about it, but we'll often partner with them on different projects and events.

Like a play can be, in wonderful, a text for a conversation or a discussion.

But we're really focused on history, philosophy, literature, ethics, those kind of soft skills that aren't the sciences.

- So how are you funded?

- So we get funding from a number of different sources, from the National Endowment.

For the humanities, we get funding, we get grants.

And then, a lot of our funding comes from individual donors who are our members.

- What about employees and volunteers, can you talk a little bit about your structure?

- Yeah.

We have a pretty small staff.

There's six of us and we have a statewide mission, so we do really rely on our volunteers.

We have 15 board members, all across the state, three of which are appointed by the governor, and then we have just a fleet of dedicated volunteers that really help us make our programs happen, especially librarians.

So thank your local librarian for making some of our programs happen, because they're really dedicated to our mission.

- Now we're gonna talk about a good number of your programs in just a few minutes.

But what kind of programs do you really focus on, just as an overall type thing?

- Oh wow!

We wanna meet people where they're at in their learning journey.

And everyone has a different learning style, they have different learning interests.

So we kind of offer a little bit of something for everyone.

So none of our programs are the same.

They all have a different format, a different subject matter.

We just really... We try not to just do the same thing over and over again, but really we're constantly reinventing ourselves, I guess, in some ways.

- Okay.

Well, obviously, in this day and age, how did you function during the pandemic?

- Wow!

First we came to a screeching halt, but then we really pivoted and embraced this online Zoom platform.

Once I realized my parents could figure it out, and they're the most anti-tech people you could possibly imagine, I knew that we had something here, and so many of our members had contact us and just saying they were intellectually lonely and wanted that contact.

So the first thing we did was start Public University and start hosting classes online, where people could meet weekly or twice a week, connect with ideas and each other, and then we really just moved all of our programs online, and it was actually an amazing opportunity for us.

We asked during COVID now, what is this doing to us, but what does this make possible?

And it really made it possible for us to get into rural communities on a consistent basis, where it was cost a lot of money and took a lot of time to send a scholar from UND out to Crosby, but now they could Zoom with that scholar twice a week during a class, and really connect with both that scholar and the other people in the classroom.

- Well, there you go.

You explain maybe how it works, but- - Yeah.

- Is it true that 90% of your offerings now are online?

- Yeah.

They are.

If you would ask me, I was kind of opposed to online learning.

I was like, "I love being with people.

I love the connections, the side talk."

I just...

I love...

I love bringing people together.

Coffee after church is my favorite part of church, to be honest.

And so, I didn't wanna lose that.

But once we started doing the online programs and saw the way people could connect...

I mean, we have snowbirds Zooming in during the winter, who can stay connected to North Dakota and their neighbors.

It was just kind of magical.

And the right professor can really do that and make an online community.

So I kind of had to eat some humble pie there, if you will.

And now people said, "Please don't stop doing this.

This has just become a part of my life."

And people who are shut-ins...

I have young kids, so for me, I don't have to find a babysitter.

I can take a class at night, just the accessibility.

That's kind of our struggle now though, is with the small staff.

How do we start bringing back the in-person?

Because I haven't given up on that.

I'm still passionate about coffee bars and conversation, that's important to me too.

So that's kind of gonna be our struggle moving forward, is trying to balance everything out, but maintaining that platform of online programs, 'cause people have just asked us to continue to do that for them and we wanna deliver.

- Yeah.

Well, we're gonna talk about a few of the programs.

You already hit on one.

Public University, expand on that, tell us more about it.

- Yeah.

So that came out of COVID, and we realized that people really wanted kind of a deeper dive into subjects.

A lot of times we had one off events.

But we wanted to connect people with their favorite college professors on this platform.

So we'll have history classes, philosophy classes.

We have writing workshops, which they're really popular.

And they're six to 12 weeks, they're online, they're once or twice a week, some are during the day, some are during the evening.

We offer 20 each semester, so that we hope that there's something in there that people like.

Some are lecture format.

Our Norwegian mythology with Natalie Vandurism was a really popular lecture format one.

But then we have discussion based ones, Rafi and Donian teaches one, and it's kind of about exploring, what do we do with monuments, like Civil War monuments, contested places in America?

What do we do with that?

Let's have a conversation around that kind of topic.

So we hope that people log on and find something that really interests them.

- Interesting.

What about One Book One North Dakota?

- Oh!

That's one of my favorite programs.

So that's a statewide book club.

So once a month, we bring in a nationally recognized author, and you folks actually record it and turn it into a podcast for us.

So a little plug there.

We really appreciate you doing that.

And I know about a year ago, today, we were in this studio with Louise, Edrick, Denmark, Court, and Mark Vince, for a special sense of place, One Book One North Dakota.

'Cause part of that program is also recognizing North Dakota's best and most prized authors, but it's just a great time for book clubs to tune in or individuals.

You don't have to read the book before you come.

Maybe you wanna check out the author to see if they're interesting, and this might be a book that you wanna read.

Or if you have read it, you can ask that author questions about the book.

So that's just a fun, once a month program.

And we're fortunate that the Paris Family Foundation supports that, so we can bring these amazing people to Zoom, to North Dakota.

- This next one I'm gonna ask you about, it seems like all your programs are game changers, but what about GameChanger?

- Yeah.

That used to be an in-person event, just a full day festival bringing different thinkers to North Dakota, but now it's once a month, online.

We really try to bring provocative thinkers to a North Dakota audience.

They're interviewed by a local North Dakota, who's an expert in the subject matter, and then we open up to Q and A.

We try to stump these folks, but we really try to bring in cutting edge thinkers in different- - This is about what though?

- So some of it we brought in people to talk about the internet and the way it's changing humanity.

Those big challenges.

We've really focused a lot on the politics lately, 'cause people are really concerned about the state of our democracy and what's happening, political divides, should we abolish Electoral College?

Just people that have ideas about how we can solve... We really want problem solvers.

How we can solve some of the intractable problems that our nation is facing so we can move forward.

- So a lot of different subjects is what I'm getting at.

- Oh!

Absolutely, absolutely.

- What about Little Mo Writers and Page Turner?

- Yeah.

So Little Mo Writers is the only law residency writing program in North Dakota.

So that's a seven month project, and people apply and we only accept eight writers.

And the idea is that, when you're done with it, you have a book ready for publication.

So that's kind of for more serious writers who have a book project kind of on the back burner, been thinking about it, and they just need someone, I think Edd Depp said, invites them to a deadline so that they can finish the book and we can get more stories from and about North Dakota out there in the world.

And then at the end of the Little Mo, we have something called Page Turner, and we invite those authors to read from their books, or what we hope will become their books.

- Is there an age limit for that at all?

- No.

- Okay.

- No.

Anyone.

- And what about Brave Conversations?

I think it's one that you may like.

- Yeah, I love this program.

This is a new program.

It's actually the Marilyn Hudson Brave Conversations Project, and it's honor of a tribal historian who we lost, unfortunately, during the pandemic.

And just to honor her legacy, where she always invited people to her kitchen table, anyone and everyone, and she wasn't afraid to have deeper, more meaningful conversations.

So we'll bring in a speaker, and in April 20th, we're bringing a mortician in, Caitlin Doughty, and we're gonna have a brave conversation about death and dying.

And it's not a conversation we often have, but it's a conversation that we need to have as a community and as a individuals.

And so that will be right here in Fargo, and we invite people to a table.

There's a moderator at every table, and you'll have a guided conversation.

So not only do you listen to the speaker, but you'll have a conversation with people in your community who you've never met before.

'Cause we sit people at tables and that's the idea, is that you meet new people and have a good conversation.

- Are most of your programs aimed at more adults and later lifelong learning, or do you have things aimed at children also?

- We will do children's programming, but our primary audience is the adult out of school, public.

Because there's really nothing for them.

We're really filling that gap, where we can give them consistent learning and educational opportunities.

And we also believe, if children see the adults around them engaged in reading, and learning, and ideas, they're gonna be inspired to do that.

So that's really important to us to meet the adult.

But we do have some programs for kids, like our We the People program, it's a high school civics education program.

- I wanna ask you about that in just a moment there, Brenna.

- Okay.

- Well, I should... Then we'll go to that one then.

So tell me more about We the People.

- Yeah.

That's really about meeting the need for social studies teachers, to have really high quality training.

The state issued a mandate that all high school students need to pass a civics test, a simple civics test.

But it was an unfunded mandate like many mandates that come.

So we're filling that gap by, we're offering textbooks and high quality training.

We bring constitutional scholars around the nation to train our teachers how to be better teachers and to be content experts.

And the best part of this program is, it ends in a mock Congressional hearing.

So we have a state competition and the judges are Supreme Court justices, and these kids have to go in front of them pretending to be members of Congress, and make an argument.

And they don't know what the question is until the beginning of the semester, and then they get these questions.

It might be, again, should we abolish the Electoral College?

Or how do we overcome voting rights issues?

And they have to make an argument.

There's no right answer.

They're graded on how well they defend their position.

And the kids that graduate from this program, are more likely to run for public office, they're more likely to vote, and they're more likely to be active in their community.

So it's something that we're really passionate about and believe in, and I think it's a great program for kids.

- What about Chautauqua and Chat?

- Oh!

Yes.

So my predecessor, Ev Albers, created the modern day Chautauqua movement.

So we had tents, and we have scholars dressed up and portraying historical characters, it might be Carl Jung, it might be Sacagawea.

And what we did this, during COVID, was, we did a Chautauqua training institute.

So we took four of our best Chautauquans, and they've trained 12 brand new characters.

People who've never been portrayed in a Chautauqua.

We have Junko Tabei, the first woman to climb Mount Everest will be there, Rachel Carson, who wrote Silent Spring, with some really, really fascinating Chautauqua characters.

And in January and February, you can tune in over Zoom and you can listen to them present, and you can have a chat with them.

- I think during... During your online efforts too, didn't you see membership go up?

- Yes.

Yeah, it was... That was something that was completely unexpected.

But I think just being able to be in front of people, giving them that option to connect with us in a more meaningful and consistent way, was just something that people had been looking for and we hadn't realized it.

So it was kind of something that was just right, an opportunity right there in front of us, but people were forced to learn how to use Zoom, which really helped us out a lot too.

- Well, it's been the one silver lining, I've said to myself out of the... Out of the COVID situation was that people learned to use virtual meetings.

- Yeah.

- Which was positive.

I don't know much like you.

But how can people become members in your organization?

Is it simple, or do they... What do they need to do?

- Yeah.

Well, we stole your model.

So they donate and they can become a member, but you don't have to be a member to take part in Humanities North Dakota's programs or events.

We just really want people to be engaged.

But if they believe in our mission and wanna support lifelong learning, of course, we'll happily accept their donations so we can do more programs.

- Well, Brenna, you said six, I believe, full-time staff or six staff.

You didn't... - Yap.

You didn't say they were full-time staff.

- Six full-time staff.

- Yap.

- And with all the things that you do, who do you partner with?

You gotta have help out there.

Who else?

- Oh my gosh!

We have so many dedicated volunteers that help us with our in-person.

We have tons of scholars around the nation who believe in our mission and they volunteer to teach our classes.

So we're really lucky and thankful for that.

And then we partner with folks like you, Prairie Public.

We partner with libraries, we partner with some museums, we partner with colleges, we partner with high schools.

We're always looking for a good partnership to leverage what we can do in our resources, 'cause we're such a small staff.

- What are you looking at on the horizon?

You got a number of good programs here, or projects, but are you looking for new ideas and new things?

- Yeah.

Well, now we kind of figured out the online and we're really proud of that.

But now it's that bringing our in-person programs back and doing that in a way that's manageable.

We had a Think and Drink program that people loved.

Bill Thomas is a regular.

So we'd go to a pub, we'd bring in a scholar, we'd have a really great conversation.

But it's really staff intensive to bring those back in all the communities that they were functioning in.

So now we're hiring, so hopefully we can bring on a new staff person, go up to seven, and then we can bring programs like that back.

Programs... Beloved programs that people loved, that we just haven't been able to accomplish yet.

- Yeah.

So are there any new...

I wasn't invited to the Think and Drink, by the way.

I just want you to note that.

Did you come up with any ideas that you know you're gonna move forward with, or do you just kind of percolate with them and work on new projects as you go along?

Or is your year full every year, or can you take on new projects?

- Well, right now, no.

Our year is absolutely jam packed.

But as we continue to fundraise, as we continue to expand, then we're gonna be adding programs.

But we like to do that with... We have community advisory committees, and we really ask the community like, "What's missing here?

What are needs that we can fill?

Where can we partner?

Is there something already happening that we can help grow?

Or do we need to create a new program, class, or event that would fulfill that?"

- So Brenna, what's the best part of your job?

- The best part of my job is meeting people, meeting other lifelong learners and learning from them.

I love... My favorite question to ask people, "What are you reading?

Or what's a book that changed your life?"

And people's eyes light up and they tell you.

And often traveling to smaller towns to meet with people.

Kids used to memorize poetry, and I will often ask if I see someone who's seven year old, they like, "Tell me about your English teacher.

Did you memorize poetry?"

And they'll stand up and they'll memorize a poem, and they're just so excited about that.

So it's just...

It's those human connections around ideas, that just really excite me and just fill my heart with joy.

So coffee bars and conversation, again, is kind of what it all comes back to.

- Then you told me all that.

But, so what now are the goals for Humanities North Dakota?

And you might say, you changed that name not too long ago.

- Yeah, we were... North Dakota Humanities Council was kind of off-putting.

Like, "What's a council?

What is that?"

So we kind of dropped that and we had a new marketing, where Iris Sweetland is our volunteer spokesperson.

She's a retired librarian and she's just a hoot.

You'll see her at the end of our program, she'll pop-in in her workout gear and thank everyone for being there.

And that's just really important to us, that we're approachable.

'Cause I think people think, education, especially higher education, and they might think elitism or not accessible, and we want everyone to know that they're welcome to the table.

We're all continuing to learn.

If we had all the answers, we wouldn't be here, right?

And so that's really important to us, that we're just welcoming, and open, and people know that we're here for them in their lifelong journey of learning.

- Well, Brenna, you're doing a lot of good things.

So if people want more information, where can they go?

Who can they contact?

- Yeah.

They can either give us a call at (701) 255-3360 or even better yet, go to humanitiesnd.org.

- Thanks for joining us today.

- Thank you for having me.

It's been fun.

- Stay tuned for more.

(upbeat music) Dawn Rossbach is a visual artist from Menahga, Minnesota.

Before becoming a full-time artist, Dawn worked as a teacher, where she honed her talents in many different artistic mediums such as painting, printmaking, and stained glass.

In her gallery, Studio 176 in Park Rapids, Minnesota, she displays her wonderful creations.

(church bell ringing) - My name is Dawn Rossbach, and I am now a full-time artist and co-owner of a small gallery in Park Rapids.

(upbeat music) Studio 176 started with friends of mine, Jeremy Simonson and Laura Grisamore, and Tiffany Besonen was another person who started off the gallery with us, and that was in August of 2019.

And then this year, it seems to have taken off, really nicely for us.

(upbeat music) Sometimes when people come into the gallery, a lot of times there's an audible gasp like, "Ah-huh.

Wow!

I didn't know this was here."

And they just... You can just see them light up, and I think that's a really cool thing.

I've always been into art ever since I was little, and took all the art classes in high school and kind of continued it, but then my opportunities were not really there.

And when I was 34, I went back to school, to college, and I was gonna become an English teacher, but then switched over to art.

And then after teaching for a bit I was like, "I need to be doing this as well.

Working as an artist and teaching it."

Now I'm a full-time artist.

(soft music) I think one of the things with teaching art is, I always was learning right along with the kids.

There was no doubt about it that, I always wanted to learn new processes, new techniques, and share those with the kids.

But at the same time, I was growing right along with them.

So I don't really focus in on one thing, and I think that, I'm sure that comes from my teaching.

But my personal ones, I'm probably in, mostly in painting, print making and stain glass right now.

Some of the themes in my art are definitely food.

I have a series of recipe prints, that I call 'em.

It's recipes that are like ones from our family, like my mom's spaghetti.

So then I create that visually, and the coconut cream pie, chicken Caesar salad, her vegetable beef soup.

So those are all then visual recipes, so to speak.

Some of the figures that I do, are kind of these plump people.

So I've done quite a bit with figures, but they're not...

They're not cartoonish, but they're not super realistic either.

Oh!

How can I forget?

The tree.

The spirit tree, which is been a muse of mine for...

I'm not even sure how many years.

But it's a tree that's located on Highway 71, about five and a half miles south of Park Rapids.

And it's this lone white pine.

It's very close to the highway.

It's just one of these landmark trees that everybody knows, and so it became kind of my muse and I've done...

I dunno.

Probably 50, 60 versions of the one tree.

I do really, really like oil painting, and I just returned to that maybe a year ago or so.

Sometimes I will sit right down at the canvas with no intention and just start working with the paints and seeing what happens.

The reaction of the paint is really enjoyable and I can get really lost in that, stain glass as well.

How I got into stain glass is, my dad did it first and then when he passed away, I was the only one that could really take the equipment and the supplies, because I was the only one that had room for it, so then I just started creating my own works.

I call them The Bevel Made Me Do It.

They're abstract kind of pieces panels.

But what I'll do is, I'll start with the actual bevel...

The reason it's called the bevel, is because these edges are beveled down, meaning at a slant on the edges.

I'll start there and then I'll work around that, and I'll start selecting the glass.

Mostly I start working with colors that work together, and then I'll throw in something that's got texture to it, so I've got those components to make a really good composition.

And then from there I'll grind the pieces, and then I will foil them, and then solder them, then patina, and then polish, and then it's pretty much ready to go.

But it's a long process.

A small piece like four by 14 inches, that's kind of the shape that I use a lot.

It probably gonna take eight to 10 hours, total, because there's much more technical process with the stained glass, where you have to pay attention to what you're doing.

And same with print making.

There's a lot of similarities between those two, in that they're both so technical and there's so many things that can go wrong.

(upbeat music) So I've been doing print making for 30 years.

So I do linoleum blocks, I do etchings, I do wood blocks, wood cuts, wooden engravings, copperplate etchings.

I do mono prints.

There's a whole variety of print making methods under the guise of print making.

I think when I design, one of the things that I go for, especially with the block printing, is, I'll look at the composition and then contrast, and then creating patterns.

So no matter what it is.

But each print, successive print, because you can do multiples of it, is considered an original print when they're hand pulled, because the artist hand is involved with it.

(upbeat music) Ray Bradbury from Fahrenheit 451 has this quote, and I know I won't get it right.

Create something so that your soul has a place to go when you die.

So I think for me it's kind of that little bit of creating something, so then if it's in somebody's home, it's kind of there.

It's an honor to know that your work is good enough to be on their walls.

- Well, that's all we have on Prairie Pulse for this week.

And as always, thanks for watching.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota, on November 4th, 2008, and by the members of Prairie Public.