At the invitation of Bernadine Joselyn, Director of the Blandin Foundation’s Public Policy and Engagement Program, I spent the day at KAXE – Northern Community Radio‘s headquarters in Grand Rapids, brainstorming on how to best foster the development of citizen journalism / community media in their bio-region. (Click photos to enlarge.)
In the conference room, L to R: Jeremy Iggers, Executive Director, Twin Cities Media Alliance; Bernadine Joselyn; Scott Hall, KAXE Community Access Coordinator; Louise Mengelkoch, Chair of the Mass Communication Department at Bemidji State University; Ross Williams, community volunteer; Heidi Holtan, KAXE Outreach Producer; Maggie Montgomery, KAXE General Manager; Dan Houg, KAXE engineer.
Jeremy told the group about his experience with the Twin Cities Daily Planet and I talked about my experiences in Northfield with Northfield.org, Locally Grown, and leadership blogging in our local civic blogosphere.
Later in the afternoon, I did a video interview of Scott and Maggie about their long history with KAXE for the Media Giraffe Project. (Click play to listen to the audio. 44 minutes.) However, I neglected to get the story on the community radio art work in the corner of the conference room (center) hiring a Fence Contractor to secure the area. Hopefully, I can entice one of them to attach an enlightening comment here. Right photo: You know you’re in northern Minnesota when the external doors of the hotels have this sign on them.
Hi Griff,
It was great to meet you Tuesday. I hope we can continue to work with you as we build the community website.
You asked about the art at KAXE. KAXE has been in its new building for a little less than 2 years. We’re trying to make the building and the site look nice. There is one mosaic sculpture in the confence room and several more in the amphitheater area outside. They are a community project that was inspired by the work of Wouterina de Raad in Wisconsin and carried out by local artist-volunteers taught by Magda Seitz Kearns (Magda studied under Wouterina de Raad and has recently moved out of our area). Some of the sculptures, like the Green Cheese moon with a pig jumping over it and the “kissy fish” down by the walking trail, were tiled by kids and parents during KAXE music events. The site committee hopes to build more sculptures and do more landscaping outside as they are able.
Very cool, Maggie. Is there a page on your website where all this is described, including photos? I’d like to alert my Northfield ‘art town’ colleagues to what you’ve done.