The creative hub that is Fergus Falls just got a little bigger! We’re delighted to welcome Wade Underwood, Angelique LaPointe, and Eli Zemper to the Falls Community Arts Exchange.

The selected artists will be collaborating with 3 Fergus Falls staples on community-centered projects throughout their time in town: the Fergus Falls Public Library, Victor Lundeens Printing, and Outstate Brewing! Each artist will experience a 4-week partnership with one of the partner organizations, and receive a $4000 stipend, lodging, and Springboard staff support throughout their stay. From the artists themselves, here’s what they’re looking forward to:

Wade: “I’m so excited to be back home working with the community that raised me and to be partnering with Outstate right on the banks of the Otter Tail River.”

Angelina: “As a printmaker, I serve as an informal historian, voice for my community, and steward of traditional craft and equipment. Participating in the Falls Community Arts Exchange affords me the rare opportunity to print alongside others who share and enjoy this work within the heart of their own community. I am so excited to meet and collaborate with the Victor Lundeen Company and the people of Fergus Falls.”

Eli: “I’m excited to participate in the Fergus Falls Artist Exchange because it offers an opportunity to explore how art can create connection, belonging, and delight in everyday life. I’m especially interested in learning from the people, stories, and traditions of Fergus Falls and discovering what we can make together that neither of us could create alone!”

Meet the Artists

The Falls Community Arts Exchange invites artists to experience and engage with the vibrant arts community in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and connect with Springboard’s work and advocacy in rural creative community development. Learn more.

Featured image by Brittanni Smith.

Congratulations to Laura, Jun-Li, and Sara! Comic Illustrated by Minnesota-based artist Sophie Wang.

Minnesota’s artists aren’t that different from artists anywhere, but there are some unique parts of Minnesota’s ecosystem that explain the breadth and depth of the creative response to the federal immigration enforcement surge. Read the full story.

The regionally-based Artist Emergency Relief Fund Network assures that arts and culture workers are seen, valued, and supported, even when times are tough. Full story at https://artsmidwest.org/stories/minnesota-artist-emergency-relief-fund-network.

Climate health requires collective care, and when it comes to weathering the uncertainties of the future, artists play an essential role in how we move forward together. Through Springboard’s Artists Respond: Weathering Together initiative, 40 artists across North Minneapolis and Powderhorn, MN built a network of small-scale, community driven projects that offered creative ways to support their neighborhoods in climate action and understanding.

In the summer of 2025, with support from Hennepin County’s FORTIFY fund, Springboard facilitated two Artists Working in Community (AWC) one-day intensives at PLOT Gallery and Juxtaposition Arts. These intensives gathered 40 local artists for training in climate preparedness and action, cultural organizing, and narrative work. Following the intensives, the artists created series of small scale community engagement projects across Minnesota’s North Minneapolis and Powderhorn neighborhoods. Projects included poetry gatherings, fashion shows, public art, poster making, skill sharing, community meals, and more. Some highlights:

Weathering Together Fashion Show, led by The Red Light House, at the Kroenig Nature Center in North Minneapolis featured recycled garments, runway presentations, and community conversation to connect climate justice with local artistry. 

Weave Got To Do Something, led by Luciana Bongiovanni, invited neighbors to transform plastic bags into yarn and contribute to a collective woven tapestry, turning everyday waste into conversation about care, reuse, and local action at the 40th Street Park Recreation Center within the Powderhorn community.

Shug Munic’s project, Quilting Amidst Collapse, created quilting circles in Powderhorn as a neighborhood space to process climate grief and practice healing together. Centered in textile tradition and gentle, repetitive handwork, the project prioritized relationship and reflection over producing a finished object, inviting neighbors into a low-barrier, culturally rooted gathering where conversation about collapse, care, and resilience could unfold at a human pace.

Drag Story Hour created A History of Powderhorn Lake, a children’s adaptation from a Socioecological study of Powderhorn Lake by Nurse T. In the video, Doña Pepa, Old Man Shimmer, & Sid Sity embark on a storytelling journey that tracks the history of the pond in our Powderhorn Park neighborhood. Rooted in historical accuracy, we come together to learn how our park was created and to brainstorm ways to move forward. Watch the video on YouTube.

While climate repair can’t be solved by one moment or project, artists can help us imagine what’s possible and how we can work together to build a future worth weathering.

Project Gallery

We have big news to share: Executive Director Laura Zabel will be transitioning out of her role after 21 years of leadership. While we’ve prepared a formal announcement, it wouldn’t be Springboard without an artist’s touch. Illustrated by Minnesota-based artist Sophie Wang.

Minnesota’s small businesses paid a steep price during the immigration enforcement surge. The community bonds they built may be worth even more. Full story at https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/03/30/as-ice-surged-minnesota-neighbors-and-local-businesses-forged-new-bonds.

When Jenny Endris, Lead Playworker at Otter Cove Children’s museum in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, heard that she would be spending a month working with a resident artist, she didn’t know what to expect. “I was made aware that we had an art resident coming, which I found quite mysterious and exciting,” she shared. “There are new surprises unfolding every day, and we just show up ready for an adventure.“

And an adventure certainly unfolded when Nicole Rojas-Oltmanns—along with her family—arrived in Fergus Falls in October 2024 to participate in the Falls Community Arts Exchange, a partnership-based art residency stewarded by Springboard for the Arts. Equipped with a downtown apartment, a stipend, a supplies budget, and a creative spirit, Rojas-Oltmanns jumped into The Cove.

As a former English teacher and educator, much of Rojas-Oltmanns’s work as an artist is teaching-based. After an initial brainstorming meeting with Otter Cove staff, Rojas-Oltmanns honed in on two key subjects for her residency: civics and supporting caregivers. She dove right into the civics-minded project and organized an election for the Mayor of Otter Cove.

The Cove had held similar elections in previous years, but Rojas-Oltmanns elevated the process to a whole new level. There were seven critter candidates, each with their own platforms, such as Sally Swan for “Free Speech,” Otto Otter for “Protect Our Lakes and Rivers,” and Stella Squeakers for “Lifelong Learning.” “It was really expanded from what we had done previously,” noted Endris, “and had kids thinking about the reasons why they were voting for one or the other. And I could hear them discussing and deliberating over it.”

Kids made signs, flyers, posters, pamphlets, and other creations in support of their favorite critter. Rojas-Oltmanns designed a hand-crafted voting box, brought in real voting booths, and created interactive “Kid Citizen” pamphlets for the young voters. Parents, grandparents, and caregivers all got involved, and division and partisan politics were checked at the door. “We didn’t even talk about Democrat or Republican,” Endris explained. “We just talked about; these are the critters and these are their causes, these are their goals for The Cove.”

When election day arrived, the kids chose Otto the Otter as their Mayor. “It was such a close run!” Rojas-Oltmanns shared. Endris was amazed at how “far-reaching” Rojas-Oltmanns’s project was. “These are the things that make an impression on kids, that they remember,” she said. “I have no doubt that some of these kids, the first time that they’re 18 and get to go to the ballot box, they’re probably going to remember back to their first voting experience at Otter Cove.”

In the midst of an exciting election season, Rojas-Oltmanns also found the time to focus on her other objective: supporting caregivers. She attended local ECFE classes, talked to parents, and collected a survey. “People were really open about what they felt like they needed more of and what they wished they had known when their kid was younger,” she said. Based on these interactions, Rojas-Oltmanns created informative posters that are displayed on the walls of Otter Cove. Each poster is equipped with a QR code leading to a website Rojas-Oltmanns built, filled with helpful resources regarding child development.

During her four weeks in Fergus Falls, Rojas-Oltmanns also tapped into local businesses, connecting with the Precious Plastics Lab, the Fergus Falls Public Library, the recycling center, Victor Lundeens, and more. “There were lots of places around town that ended up being really helpful in our process,” she said.

As her project wrapped up, Rojas-Oltmanns and her family found it hard to leave. “We expected to like Fergus Falls, but we really did fall in love with it. We really became very connected to it over the course of a month, and I wasn’t expecting that.”

“We expected to like Fergus Falls, but we really did fall in love with it. We really became very connected to it over the course of a month, and I wasn’t expecting that.”

The staff at Otter Cove had a similar feeling. “We have this responsibility to these families and to these kids,” said Endris. “Because we have the fertile soil to sow a seed, and I was just so blessed, really, to share that opportunity with Nicole, because I could feel the respect and the value that was placed on that opportunity. I can’t wait to do it again.”

All photography by Brittanni Smith.

The Falls Community Arts Exchange invites artists to experience and engage with the vibrant arts community in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and connect with Springboard’s work and advocacy in rural creative community development. Learn more about the program.

Alignment is something many people seek in their lives, and New London-based artist Sonja Madsen sculpted her own alignment during a month-long art residency in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. With a degree in metalsmithing and sculpture, a talent for casting bronze, and a passion for creating otherworldly creatures through various materials, it made sense that Madsen was matched with the Creation Shop and its owner/artist Blayze Buseth for the Falls Community Arts Exchange, an art residency hosted by the nonprofit, Springboard for the Arts. “Blayze and I felt super aligned,” Madsen shared. “The way that we create—even though we work in different mediums—we’re both very centered on creating these sort of whimsy tales through creatures that aren’t quite human—learning and sharing so much about the human experience, though.”

Buseth hoped that Madsen would be able to “experience the community through the Creation Shop,” and shortly after Madsen’s arrival in September, 2024, Buseth handed over the keys to the Creation Shop. Inside, Madsen was equipped with a designated space where she could work and create. Buseth taught her about ceramics and wheel-throwing, and the two artists traded tips and techniques. By the end of the month, Madsen had created over 80 new pieces. Madsen also witnessed the realities of running a studio, which she noted is “not for the faint of heart,” and saw firsthand how Buseth builds community through the Creation Shop. “It’s a chance for an artist to see how another artist is trying to make a living by bringing the arts to their community,” Buseth said about the residency.

While doing her sculpting work, Madsen was able to tune into Buseth’s many community workshops, and eventually taught her own. Toward the end of her residency, Madsen guided two youth classes. The students created hand-sculpted pinch pots, designed to hold different items such as rocks, Pokémon cards, cherries, and more. The kids also created their own unique creature—a trinket guardian—to protect the trinkets in their pinch pot. Madsen’s goal was for the kids to branch out of the norm, to think outside the box and let their imaginations run wild. “Because kids just have so many ideas and there aren’t enough outlets for kids to be creative.” Inspired by Madsen’s classes, Buseth hopes to offer more workshops led by guest artists in the future, noting that it’s a “chance for the community to have something new and exciting to look toward.”

Not only did the students learn something from Madsen’s workshops, but Madsen also learned something about herself. She has prior experience in teaching, but she shared that “being able to lead a class in art through the Community Arts Exchange felt really aligned and validating.” The experience solidified her dreams of becoming a professor, and she is now attending graduate school.

When Madsen wasn’t sculpting, teaching, or observing during her time in Fergus Falls, she was most likely playing trivia. “In love with how many trivia nights Fergus Falls has,” she laughed. She went to coffee shops, walked along the river, attended the farmers market, and participated in community festivals. “There is so much charm and coziness all throughout the town,” she said, and she is already planning a return visit.

“I think that you can engage and connect with people so much better through art than, really, almost any other means.”

Overall, Madsen explained that the arts, and programs such as the Falls Community Arts Exchange, are essential for healthy communities. “The value I personally get out of making art is just so grounding in my life,” she said. “There is nothing else I could be doing that makes me feel as centered, or focused, or calm and clear-minded. It’s so centering and grounding. And I think that that’s something so many people need in their lives. And whether that’s from the perspective of making art or just partaking in art and witnessing art, it’s something so critical for people to interact with. I think that you can engage and connect with people so much better through art than, really, almost any other means.”

All photography by Brittanni Smith.

The Falls Community Arts Exchange invites artists to experience and engage with the vibrant arts community in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and connect with Springboard’s work and advocacy in rural creative community development. Learn more at https://springboardforthearts.org/programs/falls-arts-exchange.