Today we’d like to introduce you to Terri Orth.
Hi Terri, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Lake City Area Arts (LCAA) is a community focused 501c3 art center in beautiful Lake City.
Background: Lake City Area Arts started out as a one day street art festival in 2014 under the name Washington Street Arts Festival. In 2015, the name was changed to Lake City Area Arts. We’ve existed for a decade, growing each year. In 2018, Lake City Area Arts moved to its present rented location at 105 W. Center Street which is approximately 3500 square feet and is wheel chair accessible.
Our mission: Strengthening the Community through arts and culture.
More detail: The LCAA has become a very active venue. We promote arts and culture within our walls and within our community. Inside our walls, we host classes, art exhibits, monthly Sunday afternoon concerts, monthly Saturday evening concerts, cultural art/music events, open studio hours, weekly music circles, and a host of other events. Outside our walls, we hold an annual all-day Music Showcase in a local park, host a jazz performance in another park, hold an annual outdoor art in motion community art exhibit, and more. We partner with the Lake City Chamber, the Shops of Lake City, with the Anderson Center in Red Wing, The LC Historical Society, the local schools, and with the Southeastern MN Art Council. We keep our members updated on all our happenings with our webpage, facebook posts, and with a weekly email .
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
You asked about obstacles and challenges. That is easy to address, and is probably true for most non-profits.
Lake City Area Arts is an all volunteer organization…volunteer board members and volunteer helpers. While we have many generous members who volunteer (by helping host music events, gallery open hours, art center open hours, and help in planning events, housing visiting performers, help staff fundraising events), we struggle to maintain a full 9 member board. As a board, we struggle balancing the demands on everyone’s time with wanting to continue to host interesting/art related opportunities for our community members.
Another challenge is funding. While we have many local and statewide opportunities to apply for programming grants or grants for specific physical operational needs, there are very few avenues for overhead expense support. Since we rent space in an older building; the rent, utilities, insurance, etc really add up. For the most part we rely on memberships (which are set very low to allow access to those with fixed financial sources), donations, and fundraisers. Fundraisers can be fun, but they do consume alot of Board member and volunteer time.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
So many deserve credit for our ongoing success.
We credit the prior board members for starting and growing the organization. Many prior Board members continue to help out with projects that are near and dear to them.
We credit our current board members, the LCAA members, and volunteers for helping feed us ideas, helping carry out those ideas, and for their financial support of the arts.
We credit those organizations (state-wide and local) who are able to make financial grants available and the businesses and individuals who provide donations which help us keep the doors open and help us provide wonderful, varied programming.
Pricing:
- Senior membership – $25 annual
- Individual membership – $40 annual
- Household membership – $60 annual
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lcaamn.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lakecityareaarts
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LakeCityAreaArts/
