Today we’d like to introduce you to Anne Buckvold.
Hi Anne, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I grew up surrounded by art and creative people and things. My mom worked on the 7th floor of Dayton’s, in the advertising department and drew the ads. We would take the bus from Southwest Minneapolis downtown so she could drop off her work. The community I grew up in, looking back, was a bit of a powerhouse involving many resourceful, creative and independent women and a fair amount of them were business minded. They weren’t the exception in my world, they were the norm. I grew up just blocks away from Anita Beck cards and the reindeer house. I even worked there for a time, which opened up a couple cool opportunities. Most of me is probably just a by-product of all of that.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
My biggest challenge is that I’m pretty old school.
Technology is something I’m completely uninterested in and consequently feel quite inept at. For example, I’ve never put together a power point. Updating anything, my phone or my laptop, I feel incredibly uneasy about so I tend to avoid those things, which usually works against me at some point. Creating a website or using/managing my art beyond a simple post on Instagram? Forget it. But I wish I felt differently, I know it limits my potential.
Another challenge is I tend to have lots of ideas, I have a lot of interests and a strong inclination to find connections between things. I’m pretty sure I give the impression of being a bit all over the place, I could be wrong, but to me, pretty much everything feels connected. I’ll be turning 50 in less than a year, that feels big and as though I’m in an exciting kind of pressure cooker. I want to live purposely, and have impact. The challenge there isn’t quite anxiety, but certainly some jittery feelings.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
The fact that I’m unwilling to look at anything less than the whole, is something that often sets me apart. This is something I’ve been learning about myself more over the years, and especially now as it applies in a political sense. I ran for mayor of St. Cloud last year, and that wasn’t my first run for office. I briefly held a council seat in St. Joseph for a couple years too.
I never imagined growing up I’d get political, but along the way things changed as I saw poverty increase in our state and I became a mom. I just knew things could be better than they were, and that the only way that would happen is if we became better organized, so that’s what I set out to do. I also have difficulty being anything other than fiercely independent when it comes to politics. I’m action oriented and prefer to-do lists over party platforms that too often go unrealized.
My personal to-do list includes getting Amtrak intercity rail to St. Cloud and Moorhead and am currently organizing an event and campaign (#minnfrastructure) to do this. I’m probably best known for my work organizing the #FinishNorthstar campaign, but I/we need to change all of that which is what the #minnfrastructure campaign is all about.
I am and have been many things, an artist, a community organizer, a politician, a columnist, a therapist and social worker and am wildly interested in other places and people. In 1994 after graduating from highschool I went to Greenland, as an exchange student. It was amazing, and upon returning I became more interested in Arctic issues working for a non-profit and traveling to Northwest Territories to apprentice as an artist, and other places to better understand Arctic issues and the interconnectedness that exists between us. In 1996, with a head full of ideas that I wanted to sort out, I created a wall map of the Arctic that National Geographic and National Science Foundation ended up promoting to teachers across the US. That’s something historically I feel most proud of, and learned from. But personally it just felt great to expand my brain in that way, for people to better understand people. But honestly, I feel like my best work, is yet to come.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I grew up in Minneapolis, but have now lived in the St. Cloud area for almost 20 years. In many ways, St. Cloud reminds me a lot of the Minneapolis I grew up in. Growing diversity, working and middle class, lots of parks and places to just hang out. It’s got a pretty chill vibe.
But unique to St. Cloud, I feel is that it has a lot of potential, there are a lot of people doing things, starting businesses, restaurants and eateries. It’s fine in many ways, as it is, but it also has potential. That is exciting to me and I love it.
So St. Cloud has potential, but what we don’t have, is vision.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://annebuckvold.com
- Instagram: ighttps://www.instagram.com/annebuckvold?igsh=dWg0ZWJ1dG14ZHE4
- Facebook: url.https://www.facebook.com/share/1ABvmmUrqe/
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/share/1DTSRJsyWE/
