Why the Arts Matter More in Rural Minnesota: What Small Communities Understand

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Art Lives Here.

Ely’s connection to the arts is not new. It is over a century old.

From its earliest days, this community has been drawn to what brings people together. Perhaps it is the Minnesota cold that encourages connection. Perhaps it is the remoteness of the region that binds us more tightly to one another. Whatever the cause, the arts have long been a central catalyst.

For more than 100 years, Ely has actively participated in artistic life. Musicals and plays. The city band. Concerts and community performances. Alongside performance, there has also been a deep commitment to the study and practice of the arts, with roots stretching back into the late 1800s.

This belief in the power of art, and in what it can do for a community, has been passed from generation to generation.

Here in rural Minnesota, art does not arrive the way it often does in urban centers. It does not appear fully formed. It is shaped piece by piece, by the place, the pace, and the people who show up again and again.

Here in the Northwoods, I have spent much of the last five years witnessing what the arts make possible in our community. Ely feels like a small but powerful microcosm of America. At just two square miles, it is large enough to support ambitious ideas and small enough that even modest actions can be felt almost immediately.

National research increasingly recognizes that art in rural communities functions differently than it does in urban centers. It is shaped by local priorities, relationships, and long-term presence rather than scale or novelty.¹

The work happening at Northern Lakes Arts Association fits squarely within this understanding. It is an example of creative placemaking. The National Endowment for the Arts defines creative placemaking as a collaborative process in which public, private, nonprofit, and community partners intentionally integrate arts, culture, and design into community development.¹

At NLAA, this place-based approach shows up in how people participate. Last year, NLAA recorded more than 21,000 instances of participation across performances, classes, and events, measured through attendance at each activity. With Ely’s population just over 3,000, this level of engagement reflects significant repeat participation. Based on attendance patterns, an estimated 50 percent of participants engage in more than one program area over the course of a season, returning as audience members, students, volunteers, and collaborators. This ongoing involvement reinforces the idea that creative life here is built through continuity rather than one-time events.

This work did not begin with my tenure at NLAA, and it will continue long after I leave. It is rooted in the values of those who came before us, in generations who endured the realities of rural northern Minnesota and believed that quality of life mattered, even in hard conditions. The arts were not an escape from that struggle, but one of the ways it was made meaningful.

Creative placemaking strengthens economic, social, and physical outcomes by aligning the arts with local priorities and lived experience.¹

In rural communities like ours, participation in the arts includes both attending events and engaging in personal creation. Much of this engagement happens through informal, community-based practices. From rehearsals and art workshops to poetry nights and concerts in the park, the work that builds community is multifaceted, not only in medium and genre, but in how it invites people to take part.

Not all art is ticketed, and not all art happens in formal settings. Taking a guitar to the park on a summer afternoon can be just as enriching as staging a production of Tosca or La Bohème. Creativity invites more creativity, and that matters. It opens space for sharing, collaboration, and the exchange of gifts and talents across a community.

At its best, creative participation allows people to recognize shared experience, to build empathy and understanding. And sometimes, it simply offers a moment to pause and enjoy. That matters too. Joy is not incidental to community life. It is essential.

Arts participation is not limited to formal venues. Informal, community-based creative activity plays a critical role in rural cultural life.²

Like many things in our community, the strongest ties are rooted in tradition. Year after year, Ely shows up. We see it in the 138-year history of the city band and the nearly 70-year legacy of the spring musical. We also see it as newer traditions take hold, as repeated gatherings build familiarity, trust, and momentum, from the Ely Film Festival to Broadway in the Boundary Waters.

This kind of support does not happen by accident. It is built through dedication and sacrifice by community leaders who understand what a moment of belonging can do, not just for individuals, but for the health of the community as a whole.

Research on participatory arts shows that repeated engagement builds social capital. Over time, it strengthens trust, deepens relationships, and creates a shared sense of belonging.³ In places where one-off events are common, it is often the consistency of practice and the time spent together that distinguishes lasting impact from temporary excitement.

We see this clearly in organizations like the Ely Folk School, where a wide range of crafts and teachings invite people not only to learn new skills, but to enter spaces intentionally designed for connection and inclusion.

Taken together, these efforts form a rural arts ecosystem. Each organization feeds a different part of community life. Individually, they are strong. Interwoven, they amplify one another.

What emerges is not a collection of isolated events, but a system.

National arts research increasingly frames rural cultural organizations as ecosystem builders, supporting artists, audiences, youth, and local economies through interconnected systems rather than standalone activity.⁴ When arts organizations are embedded in place and sustained over time, their impact compounds.

In rural communities, this systems-based approach matters. It allows resources to circulate locally. It creates pathways for artists and young people. It strengthens relationships between organizations, institutions, and neighbors. It turns creative activity into cultural infrastructure.

Ely has always understood this, even before the language existed to describe it.

Art lives here because people continue to show up. Because traditions are carried forward and new ones are given time to grow. Because creativity is practiced, shared, and sustained in everyday ways.

In rural Minnesota, art does not decorate community life. It helps hold it together.

Art lives here.

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Footnotes

¹ Creative Placemaking and Rural Arts Frameworks National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Placemaking and the Our Town Program; National Endowment for the Arts, Rural Arts, Design, and Innovation in America.

² Arts Participation in Rural Communities National Endowment for the Arts, Come As You Are: Informal Arts Participation in Urban and Rural Communities; National Endowment for the Arts, Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA).

³ Participatory Arts and Social Capital Daykin, N. (2021). Social capital, participatory arts, and wellbeing. Sonke, J., et al. (2024). Arts, social cohesion, and wellbeing: An integrative review.

⁴ Arts Ecosystems and Economic Impact Americans for the Arts, Arts & Economic Prosperity 6; National Endowment for the Arts, Rural Arts Impact Research.

References

• Americans for the Arts. Arts & Economic Prosperity 6.

• Daykin, N. (2021). Social capital, participatory arts, and wellbeing.

• National Endowment for the Arts. Come As You Are: Informal Arts Participation in Urban and Rural Communities.

• National Endowment for the Arts. Creative Placemaking and the Our Town Program.

• National Endowment for the Arts. Rural Arts, Design, and Innovation in America.

• Sonke, J., et al. (2024). Arts, social cohesion, and wellbeing.