Today we’d like to introduce you to Alicia Peters.
Hi Alicia, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
We are the Millstream Arts Festival — an outdoor juried art show since 1982 featuring original works by local and regional artists: drawings, paintings and prints; hand-crafted jewelry; high-end photography; hand-thrown pottery; custom leatherwork; upcycled art, glass, woven textiles — a kaleidoscope of colors, textures, shapes.
We also host a “Bookend Literary Arts Tent,” with works by local authors and poets.
The festival also features live music, dance, theater and hands-on art activities for kids and adults.
Each year, the Millstream Arts Festival exhibits 50+ artists and authors, and draws an audience of 5,000+ people from Central Minnesota and beyond.
Our goals include exhibiting fine, handmade art to a wide audience which may not otherwise experience art and artists first-hand. Local and regional artists have the opportunity to exhibit their works, engage directly with the public and sell their works. Some of the artists have been at the festival year-after-year and have their loyal followings. Others are emerging artists. Others come from traditionally underrepresented communities. Art demonstrations and activities give kids and adults hands-on experiences with art.
Each year, the festival adds more activities for kids (and kids-at-heart), with the Avon Hills Folk School and other groups.
The Millstream Arts Festival has built up a wide range of community connections over four decades — and contributed immeasurably to building an arts cluster in central Minnesota.
The festival takes place on the main street of the small town of St. Joseph, population 7,000. The date of the festival — the last Sunday in August — is set to reach out to college students just as they arrive and before classes begin, a way to welcome young people to St. Joseph and central Minnesota and forge connections between college and the larger community.
All of this is made possible by a small board of community members, partnership with the City of St. Joseph, a grant from the Central Minnesota Arts Board (with funds appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature from its general fund), donations from local businesses and the Sisters of the Order of Saint Benedict, and volunteers on the day of the festival.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The largest obstacle, which also is its greatest asset, is that a very small core of individuals (8 to 12 people) on the volunteer board pull off the festival each year — bringing together individuals, groups, the city, the local business community, as well as artists and authors.
The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 was a major challenge — and we had to regroup entirely. In 2020, the festival was virtual, hosted online. Then in 2021, instead of a one-day festival with 50+ artists and 5,000+ visitors, we hosted weekly Millstream Arts Mondays with a few artist tents and live music in an alley, allowing smaller crowds. In 2022, we returned to a street closure in the City of St. Joseph with 50+ artists and 5,000+ visitors. But only in 2025 did the festival return to Minnesota Street, the main street in St. Joseph. As you can imagine, these shifts have required a lot of creativity and logistics, and have been very labor-intensive! Our small volunteer board has taken this all in stride.
Our festival board also has dealt with personal issues, including the tragic loss of one of our members to cancer.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Our Work/What people might not know about you
Millstream Arts Festival is about connection with community. Arts always have been key building community among people of all backgrounds. In our artist and author lineup, music programming, activities and demonstration activities, we aim to celebrate the diverse contributions that different individuals and groups make to the fine arts and the common cultural heritage of our community.
At a time of great challenge in Minnesota — and a great need for recovery in the aftermath of events from December through February (and likely beyond) — the transformative, unifying power of the arts is needed more than ever. The arts are a bridging activity, bringing people together around common creativity and humanity.
Our target audience includes art lovers of all ages, and a general audience who would not otherwise experience art first-hand. The Millstream Arts Festival encourages the people of central Minnesota to explore artists from all walks of life and perspectives, and to create something of their own.
We invite people of all backgrounds to experience different perspectives and to engage in conversation across divides.
Central Minnesota has a vibrant, growing immigrant population — hailing primarily from Africa, Latin America and Asia — who live and work in the area, and are a key part of the artistic community.
The Millstream Arts Festival for more than four decades has been a gathering space that brings us, in all our differences, closer together around shared music, a painting, a ceramics piece, a dance….an event where people can come together to connect, have shared experiences, and explore our commonalities. It provides a gathering space where people from all walks of life and cultural, ethnic, religious and political backgrounds can share a meaningful, common experience.
The work that artists and performers do — and that Millstream does in bringing them together— is critical to bridging divides.
The Millstream Arts Festival exposes people to different perspectives, provokes new ways of thinking, gets people to view their perspectives through a different lens.
This has been the essence of the Millstream Arts Festival for more than four decades. We have been open and welcoming to all people, perspectives, and stories that make up our community. Today, this unifying power of the arts is needed more than ever.
In addition, the arts have been a key part of the emergence of the small town of St Joseph as a unique, one-of-a-kind place for visitors to explore — a hub for unique food and small business options, too. The Millstream Arts Festival is a key part of building that vibe — bringing 5,000+ visitors each year to experience the town of St. Joseph and its unique small business community.
The arts festival is part-and-parcel of this small town’s economic development, helping to build a shared, vibrant sense of place and make the larger community aware of the extensive arts scene in our community. It is a catalyst not only for artistic output and artists being able to earn income from their work, but also exploration of the St. Joseph area natural and small business community.
A host of community organizations provide volunteers — from the Sisters of St. Benedict to the College of St. Benedict/St John’s University to local businesses to non-profits who work with children to the local Lions Club, the American Legion and more. These connections and mutual exchanges make the arts a creator of lasting community, beyond the individual works of the artists and the one day each year of the festival. They also contribute to the ever-increasing “vibe” of St. Joseph as a small-town destination.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
Many of us have been involved for over 20 years with the festival!
Pricing:
- The Millstream Arts Festival, held on the last Sunday in August, is free and open to the public.
- Artists seeking to exhibit and sell their works at the festival pay a Jury/Application Fee (non-refundable) of $25. Those selected by a panel of judges pay a fee of $100 for a single booth or $85 per artist for a shared booth (limit of 2 exhibitors per booth)
- Authors selected to exhibit and sell their works in the Bookend Literary Arts Tent pay a fee of $30.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.millstreamartsfestival.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/millstreamartsfest/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MillstreamArtsFestival
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@millstreamartsfestival8377
- Other: Zapplication: https://www.zapplication.org/event-info.php?ID=14498
