Twenty Years In The Making.

This spring, the idea that I had twenty years ago will be celebrated. I still can't believe it.  Twenty years ago, we started the Spring Arts Festival.  I had waited for the arts to be included in the public school system because now I had my own little fella in the system.  Then I  realized that it probably wasn't going to happen. Instead of more concentration on the arts and validation that there was value in arts-in-education, I saw a decline and I saw more and more of what was offered slowly but surely being eliminated.

Having established the first afterschool enrichment center in Minden with the emphasis on the arts, I came to recognize an enormous opportunity to bring the arts to the community sans public education.  So, I pitched the idea of a festival for children to the board of Cultural Crossroads and it was an easy sell. Well, I say that now, maybe I didn't give them much of a chance to disagree. When you're talking about children and what they need, Minden is a great town to pitch.

We started planning and our first festival was held downtown with our now ever popular hands-on museum held in the same building that now houses City Artworks. We blocked the downtown area and brought in every imaginable arts discipline from music to theatre. Harmon Drew Super Group performed on the brick streets of Minden. Privately, I was disappointed in the turn out. I thought Harmon and his group deserved a bigger audience. But through the years, I would see disappointment again in many things that I thought would be cheered, celebrated, promoted and most importantly appreciated. And not that they weren't but not to the degree that I thought they should be.

It's been a labor of love and of heartache these twenty years. But I guess anything worth the fight is worth the battle. And I am admitting now that it has been a battle. As an advocate for the arts and certainly an advocate for children, I thought combining the two would be an easy sell. But to be honest, it hasn't.  Every year I would agonize over what could we do this year that would really get their attention? What could we offer that would really show them that this is truly a good thing? And when would the school system finally understand that they need Arts-In-Education?

So, now here we are 20 years later and I am looking over the many 'moments in time' that we captured on film and it makes me ponder. So, what did we want to accomplish? What benchmarks did we hope to reach? I guess in my heart of hearts, I was hoping that the town and more importantly the children would see the beauty in the arts. I thought they would come to understand as I have that the arts makes life so beautiful. And sometimes art makes life bearable.

As I gaze over the many photographs that captured the beauty of the moment, I realize that I was wrong. We had accomplished what I wanted. The children had embraced the beauty of the arts through their dance, music and spoken word or painted images. We captured it in time, at the time, for the moment and for the experience.

I am proud to tell you that after 20 years, I am still amazed at the talent we have in this little community. I am still appreciative of the many volunteers who seem to find the time each year to help us give to this town the gift of the moment!

It's our birthday! We're 20 years old and still growing! No gifts, please! ...just money, so we can continue to do what we love.