Celebrating Region 5

In the summer of 2009, Scott Lykins and a few of his colleagues from the Eastman School of Music organized some informal classical music concerts in the Brainerd area. They never anticipated their actions would help launch the premiere classical music festival in the Midwest.

Lykins, a cellist who grew up in Brainerd, had returned for the summer with his friends to wait tables and enjoy the area’s lakes. The concerts were a practical way for them to keep up their performance skills before returning to school in the fall.

“We didn’t know if anyone was going to show up to those concerts,” admits Lykins. But each new event drew a larger crowd than the last. The final event of the summer took place at a church in Nisswa and included talented performers from both the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra.

“We packed 300 people into that little church. After seeing that and the excitement about classical music, I committed to continuing to organize events,” Lykins says. That was the start of the Lakes Area Music Festival.

Early on, people questioned whether a classical music festival could succeed in Brainerd. But the people behind the concert series always had faith. The Lakes Area Music Festival transitioned into a nonprofit organization with an ambitious vision of becoming a “thriving worldwide hub for classical music and a force for broad and sustained development in central Minnesota.”

Lykins moved back to the area after he completed graduate school, in large part because of the organization’s success. Initially, he served as artistic director and then he took on the role of executive director as well.

“Having a person dedicated full-time, year-round to both of those areas has been a great asset,” Lykins says. “It’s been wonderful to see the growth of the organization and growth of our programs and artistic product.”

The Lakes Area Music Festival just celebrated its 10-year anniversary. The three-week summer schedule featured everything from small ensembles performing chamber music to opera, ballet and a full symphony orchestra concert. There were 166 all-star musicians from top national and international orchestras and opera companies performing.

The nonprofit now organizes concerts year-round. Lykins says he’s proud of the artistic quality and caliber of musicians they’ve been able to attract as well as the size and diversity of their audience. His goal is for the lakes region to become a classical music destination — that more people will start to plan their vacations around the concerts the organization produces.

While many of the festival’s early supporters were retirees with summer homes in the lakes area with season tickets to the Minnesota Orchestra or Metropolitan Opera, a portion of the audience is unfamiliar with classical music and has never attended a live opera.

Strong community financial support enables the Lakes Area Music Festival to offer concerts without set ticket prices to ensure accessibility for everyone. “People are welcome to come experience high quality art and donate what they’re able to do,” explains Lykins. “In our first decade, we’ve been uniquely successful at bringing new audiences to classical music.”

Because the uninitiated may be intimidated by classical music, the organization is committed to educational programming. Its outreach includes workshops and performances at a number of nontraditional venues such as public libraries, elder care facilities, the county jail and a center for victims of domestic violence.

Community members have embraced the organization and are invested in its success. In addition to providing monetary support, many host performers in their homes and donate their time to help with events — 300 people volunteer with the festival each summer.

Lykins notes that the level of commitment and ownership from community members has ensured its sustainability. “The community we are in is is what has made it all possible. I don’t think our organization would have been able to thrive if we were just anywhere,” he says.

Rural towns have struggled for years with “brain drain,” the phenomenon where young people move away for college and job opportunities and don’t come back. But lately, some towns are experiencing a return migration of young people attracted by small town quality of life.

They’re bringing their skills, energy and experience back home with them. Some young entrepreneurs are returning to start their own businesses, which provides a nice boost for local economies. A prime example of this is Digital Ink Design & Graphics in Baxter.

Josh Goble grew up in Brainerd and started working for a local company in the sign and graphic design industry right out of high school. “I knew it was what I wanted to do. It’s a job where I’m not working at the same thing every day and I’m passionate about making signs and graphics,” he explains.

After moving to Colorado and working for a sign company there for a few years, Josh and his (now) wife Sara returned to the Brainerd area. He decided to start his own sign, banner and graphics production company.

Along with the help of partner Dan Lundberg, Josh started Digital Ink in 2007. He admits that starting the business was a risk and gives the community credit for supporting the venture.

“I was raised in Brainerd and have lots of friends and family in the area. Word of mouth was huge for us,” Josh says. “We stayed busy with past clients who knew my design style and work ethic.”

Initially, the company rented a building in the Baxter Industrial Park. It established a unique niche in terms of both design and product offerings.

Josh comes from a motorsport background and has friends in the industry, which helped Digital Ink land big name clients such as professional snowmobile racers Tucker Hibbert and Levi LaVallee.The snowmobile graphics the company produced for these nationally-known riders helped enhance its client base and business.

“You can’t really pay for that kind of exposure,” says Josh, noting the company has landed many new projects based on this attention, from motorsports to construction company vans and trailers.

About 5 years ago, Digital Ink grew too big for its leased location. The partners bought a new building in downtown Brainerd. The larger space opened up new opportunities and room for larger projects.

The company also received a North Central Economic Development Association loan to purchase a large format printer, which greatly enhanced its in-house printing capabilities since the company had been outsourcing its large format vinyl printing.

“That piece of equipment was the one thing we needed at the time that upped our game through the roof,” says Josh. “It really helped us tremendously.”

Josh notes that the fact that Digital Ink is a one-stop-shop sets it apart from competitors. If someone is starting a company, for example, it can provide all aspects of branding, from logos to business cards and vehicle graphics. Design and production all happen in-house, which is unique.

Three years ago, Josh bought out his partner. He and Sara now own and run the business themselves, with the help of two additional employees. Digital Ink will increase its service offerings in the near future and add an additional employee as well, according to Josh.

Region 5 has proven to be the perfect place for the Gobles to grow the company, both for business and personal reasons. “We chose Brainerd because we’re from Brainerd and really liked the tight-knit community. We wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” says Josh.

When Jose Hernandez and Maria Chavez De Garcia planned to open a Hispanic Market in downtown Long Prairie, they turned to NCEDA in partnership with R5DC to help make their dream a reality.

R5DC Regional Development Planner and Long Prairie community member, Dawn Espe, shares, “Long Prairie has one less vacant store front since the market opened its doors, giving residents culturally diverse downtown dining and shopping options and making it easier for other industries to attract employees, and drawing people to our small town.”

Jose Hernandez’s brothers also work in the business; Euogio (Geo) does the butchering and will also be involved with cooking in the café that they plan to open soon. Javier works in the market, and also has close ties with the Agua Gorda Cooperative.

The brothers are among Long Prairie’s Hispanic immigrant population that has grown from 1 percent of the city’s population in 1990 to one-third of the town’s population today. A two-fold boost to the local economy that comes with both population and economic growth with new Americans, Long Prairie’s Hispanic population is a micro-chasm consistent with national Hispanic growth trends in rural communities.  

A local meat processing plant first attracted many people from the community of Agua Gorda in the Mexican state of Michoacan. Many are building businesses alongside their Anglo neighbors, investing in the community. The Agua Gorda Cooperative, a set of Hispanic farmers who started with garden plots at a local church, now owns a 54 - acre parcel of land on the edge of town, in addition to farming 5 certified acres leased from the city.

NCEDA, in partnership with R5DC, continues to provide industry expertise from its private sector led, non-governmental members for community development and lending programs to enhance the quality and vitality of life in Todd, Wadena, Morrison, Crow Wing and Cass counties.

R5DC is supporting an economic development opportunity that utilizes culinary art, fuctional and nonfunctional art installations and experiences that intend to make Sprout Growers & Makers Marketplace in Little Falls a destination as well a reflection of the unique cultural diversity of central Minnesota.

Sprout Growers & Makers Marketplace is a newly constructed 20,000 sq ft local food processing facility, cooking demonstration kitchen and indoor winter marketplace for growers and makers, established by a cadre of thinkers over the last 6 years who hosted its grand opening April 1, 2016. Sprout Marketplace offers a unique community engagement setting that creatively engages residents to design projects and intrinsic/social programming at a one-of-a-kind regional space where art/culture/food increase cultural appreciation and offer positive economic impacts.

WHAT WILL THIS EFFORT DELIVER?

Commissioned ART. Project Core Team members (from Sprout, R5DC, The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwa, 3 Cheers Hospitality, The Latino Economic Development Corporation and local grower artists with trusted relationships within Amish and Somali grower communities), will continue to meet with culturally diverse communities to prioritize commissioned art that will reside at the Sprout Marketplace to allow for ongoing conversation and appreciation of diverse cultural heritage. 

Art demonstrations. In addition to commissioned art from culturally diverse artist, grant funds will support performing artists and artist demonstrations coordinated for general public on open Marketplace dates.

Multi-cultural culinary art demonstration and cooking classes. Core team members engage regional culinary artists/chefs to set cooking demonstrations and cooking classes of heritage recipes, alongside community members.

Business classes. Growers and artists will set forth a schedule of learning opportunities, such as succession planning that increase economic prosperity.

Deployment of a variety of art forms selected to address economic development offer mutually beneficial impacts. Artists partner with local growers at Sprout Marketplace to increase economic benefits and livable wages for both. All activities improve our region’s way of doing business, create an improved ecosystem that collectively provides new experiences for residents to financially prosper, and welcome all resident to participate and learn from each other in ways that inspire future initiatives.