Natural Heritage Art Centre featuring Jessica Turtle, Founder

In this episode, Jessica Turtle talks about the upcoming Grand Opening of the Natural Heritage Art Centre located in Osceola, WI.

Jessica describes the different areas of the space, including the solo exhibition space, the Elm Tree Story Booth where you can immerse yourself into the art through your personal stories, the market for local artists and authors to feature their work that you can purchase, and the classroom where you can get hands-on with your art. 

They'll be offering classes for all levels. If you're looking to try something new in the art world, this is your place. They will have their Grand Opening on November 5, 2022. Tickets are limited, so make sure you get your tickets NOW!

From Naturalheritageartcentre.org:

Through a wide range of community arts programming, the Natural Heritage Art Centre supports emerging and established artists to build a sense of community, ecological awareness, and civic pride. Programming includes art education, exhibitions, performance, public art, and placemaking activities curated for area residents and visitors to the region. 

Special thanks to episode sponsor: Big Guys BBQ Roadhouse

Transcript

Natural Heritage Art Centre
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THIS TRANSCRIPT HAS BEEN AUTO-GENERATED USING AI TECHNOLOGY. THERE MAY BE WORDS THAT ARE INCORRECTLY TRANSCRIBED.

[00:00:00] 

Katie: 

Katie: thanks for being on the podcast. 

Jessica: Thank you for having me. 

Katie: You're building something that is brand new to the Osceola area. And it's called the natural heritage art center. How would you describe that to someone? Well, I guess nobody's seen it. So how would you describe it? So

Jessica: the art center is going in. A [00:01:00] historic building. 

Jessica: So it's the Zoran building, it used to be.

Jessica: The model T.

Jessica: dealership. , so it's just a big, wide open. 

Jessica: , Cement space.

Jessica: with a brick facade. It's beautiful. It was kept in its original condition. And then we just went in and added. 

Jessica: A few walls and barriers to create spaces.

Jessica: like the

Jessica: But other than that, yeah, it's just, it's still true to its original form. 

Jessica: So essentially this is a 4,700 square foot space where we can facilitate all sorts of different creative activities. So it's meant for emerging and professional artists. We do have a gallery called the heritage gallery and that's right. When you walk in. And it's 500 square feet of solo exhibition space. So that's specifically for artists that have a developed body of work. 

Jessica: They come in and they get a four month rotation period, which is quite long for a solo show. , and then their work is. 

Jessica: Embedded into our program.

Jessica: so that artists will then also teach a workshop. So you can learn.[00:02:00] 

Jessica: Their process.

Jessica: how they do it, or just their background intentions. and then we also have public events, so we'll have live concerts. 

Jessica: We'll have poetry readings.

Jessica: we'll have workshops and we have a full. Ceramic studio, that's going in. 

Jessica: I'm like, man, what else?

Jessica: I'm 

Katie: Well, it's a lot to unpack. So let's, I want to ask a few follow up questions to a few of those things. So talk about the solo exhibition that.

Jessica: yeah. 

Katie: I don't know what to envision when you say that. So what is a solo exhibition?

Katie: I, you know, I'm, I'm not so ingrained in the art world.

Katie: So, what does that

Jessica: mean? 

Jessica: So when you do a solo exhibition, it means that you are given the space as an artist.

Jessica: Too. 

Jessica: Completely curate the space. So you'll, it's just your

Jessica: work on display. 

Jessica: And typically that comes with a title and some sort of background for the purpose of the show and

Jessica: the work Works together to tell some sort of story.

Jessica: And the first artist that we'll work with is Sarah Brockie. She's from Duluth, Minnesota. 

Jessica: Her work all.

Jessica: Kind of [00:03:00] has that same, a similar message throughout it.

Jessica: So when you go into the gallery, you'll see just her work. On display, there'll be a didactic that will explain. 

Jessica: The intention behind the project.

Jessica: And then you get to go in and just experience.

Jessica: her work only.

Jessica: A lot of the typical thing, like if you went to an art museum, you're going to see a whole diverse group of artwork and it'll be

Jessica: kind of curated. by room.

Jessica: This is just one room.

Jessica: one space dedicated to that artist. To give you a full spectrum of their body of work.

Katie: Okay. 

Katie: So sh is she a painter? Is she a sculptor? 

Jessica: Oh, She's a painter. and she's an educator. So She works with St. Scholastica.

Jessica: up in Duluth, Minnesota. 

Jessica: And Her. Yeah, her primary. I believe she's just an acrylic painter, but I think maybe she has some oil, oil painting 

Katie: Okay. 

Katie: So this great artist from Duluth is actually going to be there for four months, teaching workshops, as well as it throughout those four months, that those workshops workshops will happen. 

Jessica: So It'd be one workshop offered maybe two, but we're still working on those details.

Katie: Okay. [00:04:00] That sounds like a really awesome opportunity. Yeah. Is that unique to your location? Or is that something that's pretty common?

Jessica: It's very hard to find.

Jessica: Okay. So it's a unique opportunity. And just that. It could be an emerging artist who doesn't have the status to reach a higher gallery or to reach a museum. But they have developed a very extensive body of work that hasn't been seen. 

Jessica: And that can run from, you know, somebody who's been painting for five years as somebody who's been doing this for 40 years. Hiding out in the woods and you'd never know, right. 

Jessica: And so this is giving them space to kind of take it public. And the focus is on them.

Jessica: And then it's followed up with a discussion as well. So like, we'll do a potluck dinner.

Jessica: and invite them to come and talk about their work and that's open to the public to attend, which is really fun. 

Katie: Got it. 

Katie: So, who would you say is the ideal person to take the workshop? 

Jessica: It's anyone aspiring to. Learn something new. So as an, as a painter myself, I would take the workshop with the intention of kind of seeing how the artist does what they do and seeing if any of [00:05:00] Techniques or skills can be applied to my own practice. 

Jessica: Sarah designed them to be accessible to anyone. 

Jessica: But this isn't going to be necessarily a paint and sip situation.

Jessica: This is going to be more like I have an interest in painting.

Jessica: and I want to develop it further.

Jessica: Right. And whatever spectrum you're in. If Just starting out with watercolor or if you're fully advanced we can all learn something from her. So. 

Katie: So your solo exhibitionist Obviously will change three times per year, Is it always going to be a painter? 

Katie: Nope. Okay. So 

Jessica: we can show anything. We want the beauty, the beautiful thing about this space for me is that there's no limitations. 

Katie: Yeah. It's yours. 

Jessica: Since mine. 

Katie: I'll do what I want.

Jessica: yeah. I'll do it, how I want to do it too. 

Jessica: And you know, the artists that I've picked or people that I've worked with before, or that

Jessica: I've been following and have interest

Jessica: And that I think their work has value in being seen and it isn't necessarily being seen. . And I think also in consideration is the rural community and having access to this. I mean, Especially in Osceola, we have to drive a minimum of 45 minutes. [00:06:00] Uh, To get a museum experience or to get 

Jessica: That type of an experience. And I think that rural communities. Need it and love it and want it just as much. Yeah. 

Jessica: And there's no reason

Jessica: why we got to drive so far. I'm like, let's do it here. 

Katie: So thinking through your space.

Katie: I feel like I walked in and I saw the solo exhibition

Katie: space, and then I moved to the next space. What's the next space that I'm going to see. 

Jessica: So the front is divided between the solo, exhibition space or the gallery.

Jessica: called heritage gallery.

Jessica: And then to the right is more of a lounge area. That we brought in what we call the Elm tree story booth. 

Jessica: And we built it.

Jessica: I think it was 2018 or 2019. And it was traveling around collecting stories, pre

Katie: COVID. 

Jessica: It's just a little tree it's built out of Elmwood. And it's probably, I don't know, 10 feet, 11 

Jessica: But

Jessica: it's a booth. You go inside.

Jessica: And there is a phone inside and it has a recording device.

Jessica: and it prompts you to tell it a story. And that will live there. It's going to stay there. It will still travel a little bit, [00:07:00] but it'll always return to that space. 

Jessica: So then.

Jessica: anybody from the community or visitors can come and share a story with that with the And what we do with those stories is transcribed them to visual artists, to then create a visual representation of your story. And once we have enough, we do a show. And so then people can come and listen to the audio. 

Jessica: And then look at the visual. And it's really fun. We've 

Jessica: A couple of times now.

Jessica: and it's been really, really

Katie: great. 

Katie: That sounds Really interesting. I would love to see that.

Jessica: Kids also really love slamming the doors. 

Jessica: Uh, Yeah. 

Katie: So someone walks into the booth and they tell their And then what would that story be about? How long is it and what kind of topic might it be? 

Jessica: Sure.

Jessica: So when it was out in public we partnered with M WMO, which is the Mississippi watershed management organization. And they were looking for stories that were collected along the Mississippi river, within their watershed district. 

Jessica: And so we used it to do that.

Jessica: We positioned it in different [00:08:00] places like it was at the Mississippi market on west seventh. And, um, it went to an equal center. Um, and somewhere in Wisconsin, sorry. 

Katie: That's okay.

Katie: There's a lot of 

Katie: places somewhere in Wisconsin. 

Jessica: It went. Uh, to have, , a faith organization And so we basically diversified where it could go and set it up for a period of time. 

Jessica: A person goes in, they tell the story.

Jessica: In the co-op.

Jessica: they, it was a family of like seven. They each took turns sharing a poem that they wrote. 

Jessica: But then say in the brewery, we got um, stories from people like we did stories from the wild, right? So they. 

Jessica: Their experience of wild Mississippi. So it was a story about.

Jessica: Crossing the.

Jessica: in Itasca. 

Katie: Crossing 

Jessica: over the river

Jessica: And I task it and then realizing that it goes all the way to Louisiana we also received stories. 

Jessica: From the faith organization we weren't expecting we're very emotional stories about the 35 w [00:09:00] bridge collapse.

Jessica: which I hadn't even thought about.

Katie: Sure. 

Jessica: But that happened within the watershed district.

Jessica: And then when that was given to an artist, 

Jessica: That was very heavy for them as well. And they transcribed it through. 

Jessica: The story was about the school bus that had.

Jessica: Participated in like getting everybody safe. Um, Piling everybody in the bus and keeping them above water. And that was exactly what the artist decided to paint. And there was like a common thread throughout the story. 

Jessica: About beads.

Jessica: As a visual that kept coming up in the story. And so the artists had kind of threaded beads throughout the image. Um, And then we showed the work at MWO mall. And it was open to the public to view. 

Jessica: So, Yeah. it can be anything From poems to personal stories to anecdotes or. There was some that were about.

Jessica: noticing how much trash was along the river bay. 

Jessica: You know, and like them going out and picking it up.

Jessica: or just, there was a whole bunch of stuff.

Katie: Yeah. So that's an opportunity for someone to actively participate in when they visit. They [00:10:00] can walk in and tell their story. 

Katie: Do you ever have to.

Katie: knock on The door and say, okay, time's up. 

Katie: Oh, 

Jessica: So far, no. 

Jessica: have had to ask people not to slam the door or

Jessica: Not to swear into it, but. 

Katie: Right. I know, I'm thinking like after a few cocktails,

Jessica: Yeah. The brewery was a lot of kids. Surprisingly. Saying things like you're a duty head. 

Jessica: But I kept those soundbites cause you never know it

Katie: could be useful. Yeah. You never know. 

Jessica: Yeah. 

Katie: Okay.

Katie: So we have seen the solo exhibition. 

Katie: We have visited the sound booth and you called it. Remind me the name for 

Jessica: Elm tree story booth.

Katie: True story booth. Okay. 

Katie: And then what's the next space.

Katie: that we're going to look at? 

Jessica: So then we have the marketplace. 

Jessica: In the marketplaces where we offer.

Jessica: Stuff that's handmade by local artists. From the region Midwest, basically. 

Jessica: And then we also have a space for authors to sell their books.

Jessica: And then we'll also have a resource library. 

Jessica: And that will be reservable, so you can come and check out anything [00:11:00] that has to do with ecology. Anything that has to do

Jessica: with photography, art in any way. 

Jessica: Be it the business of, or the practice of we're gonna build that library through donation. 

Jessica: And we've got a pretty extensive start already.

Jessica: So that's

Katie: exciting. Nice. Yeah. 

Katie: What's the next space. 

Jessica: The next piece is the classroom itself. So the classroom is a very modular and that was by design. We want to be able to adjust to any kind of activity that comes up. Like we are here to serve the community. And we don't want to tell the community what they need. We want to ask them what they want and to try our best to provide 

Jessica: And one of my areas of love is ceramics. And I think anyone that lives in the St Croix valley knows that that's a pretty prominent. Medium, right? We're all kind of high down in the woods and playing with clay. 

Jessica: Which is great. But I'd like to kind of bring it to the forefront a little bit more and offer people kind of a step into what it's like to make ceramic pieces from hand building to throwing on the wheel.

Katie: Yeah. 

Jessica: There's a wet area which will have six wheels available and [00:12:00] then we'll have two wedging tables and some other stuff.

Jessica: you know, the specific to that slab roller and things like that. 

Jessica: And we'll offer classes in hand building and we'll offer classes in pottery.

Jessica: And all the way from beginning to. You know, just open studio Yeah, so, and then the regular classroom. 

Jessica: We did this really cool thing where we found an old school in central Wisconsin, that.

Jessica: Had been purchased by someone for development, and they found the school was full of the science lab tables. 

Katie: Oh yeah, the really cool.

Katie: Perfect for art. 

Jessica: They were in bad shape. So we went and collected them. We've got 22 tables.

Jessica: And we restored them and they will be our mainstay as far as the classroom is concerned, but they're great for a lot of different mediums.

Jessica: Easily cleaned. Um, But they're really cute. So. Those will be in our main space and those will flip during events to being where people can sit and watch music or re listen to poetry or whatever. So, 

Katie: yeah.

Katie: How many people can you fit in the classroom at 

Katie: I suppose that depends on the activity. 

Jessica: It depends on the activity. So, our, the lowest we'll do is probably 12. And [00:13:00] then we can actually see it up to 40. So 

Katie: Yeah, 

Jessica: depending on 

Katie: for all of the classes, are any of them very casual where it could be anyone that might be the sip and paint kind of person, or is it really geared toward the person that is delving into becoming an artist? I think 

Jessica: it's.

Jessica: I think we're going to make sure that we cover both, right. We want people to have access to the space and we don't want to isolate anyone.

Jessica: I'm not really interested in the paint and sip situation,

Jessica: but that. 

Katie: Yeah. That's 

Jessica: cause I'm a painter. right? 

Jessica: But I know that.

Jessica: it, It does bring people together.

Jessica: And it is something that people enjoy doing and maybe we'll do it.

Jessica: On a more elevated level where we're going to maybe require you to work a little bit more.

Jessica: on developing an image on your Um, instead of just copying something someone's demonstrating. Yeah. 

Jessica: But wine will definitely be a part of it. So I mean, I shouldn't roll out paint and sip. 

Jessica: I mean, we'll have intro, we'll have beginner and we'll have advance. I mean, That's the whole idea is. To kind of move you through those levels. And [00:14:00] for you to have a space to do that. Like I've moved a lot as an artist. I've moved a lot and I've been restricted by space. 

Jessica: And I've had to switch my medium from 3d fabrication to painting on flat paper for storage purposes.

Jessica: And

Katie: I just

Jessica: like to be able to facilitate this space to not. 

Jessica: Restrict artists from doing what they really want to do, even if they've never done it. And they just want.

Jessica: to like play with it or try it. 

Katie: Yeah, I think that's great. 

Jessica: And the collaborative nature too. I think being around other creatives or just anyone even interested in being creative. Just feels good.

Jessica: Right. And it motivates you. So like, you know, you can go home and hide and hang out in your private studio, but then you can also come out. And you can Skillshare,

Katie: Yeah.

Jessica: think is great. 

Katie: Well, and I also think about the people that might have a nine to five in a cubicle that. 

Katie: They hate, Or maybe it's their home in front of a computer.

Katie: these days.

Katie: And they just need a creative outlet.

Katie: and a place to go try something. different. That's creative. And so that was more [00:15:00] so the root of the question of like, can

Katie: Maybe be the intention of someone that has that sip, sip and paint mentality where it's like, yeah, it sounds fun. I'll try it. 

Katie: And then they might end up in the staying in that and and moving through that because it is a creative outlet that they want to lean into. And That's just the starting point, but that's what you said that that's the intro. 

Jessica: Yes. So basically 

Jessica: My main love is being a facilitator of creativity.

Jessica: I don't. really, I don't, I shouldn't say I don't care, but I'm not.

Jessica: super concerned about how skilled someone becomes. 

Katie: more. 

Jessica: I'm fascinated by the introduction of.

Jessica: new and.

Jessica: Ability like.

Jessica: how often I hear, honestly. And here I'm not creative. 

Katie: Right. 

Jessica: Or I can only draw a stick figure. I hear it a lot and it's actually not true.

Jessica: Even if you don't identify as a creative person, I can guarantee the only difference between me as an artist and them is the point in our lives to which we decided not [00:16:00] to be artists. 

Jessica: All kids are creative.

Jessica: Everyone starts out that way. There is a point that you reach where you go one way or the other. If it's science or math, it doesn't matter. It's all creative fields. 

Jessica: The world is built by insanely creative people.

Jessica: Be it engineers, architects. It doesn't matter. But you can always come back to it and find it. It's always going to be there even culinary. I mean, culinary is creative too. And that's forgotten. 

Jessica: I mean, it takes a lot of skill and creativity to come up with. new stuff every day. And it can be exhausting. 

Katie: Right. Well, and that's why, you know, I worked in the food service industry and worked with a lot of chefs. 

Katie: And You wouldn't believe how many of them went

Katie: home and ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. 

Jessica: And ramen. I love it. 

Katie: After they created a Beautiful.

Katie: multi-course meal and yeah. Yeah. It's a lot of effort and it takes a lot out of you. 

Katie: And it's a gift to others. 

Jessica: That's a really good segue

Jessica: to it. I'd actually really love to talk about the food component. So I have a [00:17:00] very long history in food. I have a passion for it, a love for it. The sharing of it is what. Like binds my friends and family together. Basically, if I have interest in you as a friend, I'm likely going to cook for you. And it's more, a lot more than likely that you're not going to leave. 

Jessica: Because we'll come back for dinner. 

Jessica: I've navigated space through there.

Jessica: Like It doesn't matter what I'm doing.

Jessica: That, that food is always a component. And. 

Jessica: I had a friend asked me when I told her about the art center, like, well, where does the food come in? And I froze because it. Oh, it doesn't. But it does because every program I have now launched. 

Jessica: Just to get started has some sort of food component to it. So it's a lot of potluck sharing. 

Jessica: I think it's a great way to let people bring a little bit of themselves, a little bit of their history, a little bit of their heritage or connection.

Jessica: Their creativity. 

Jessica: To the table and to share it.

Jessica: And

Jessica: you know, I think with like, say the artist, talk, for example, with Sarah, it's called dinner and discussion. And each person that signs up [00:18:00] to come brings a dish to share. And as far as community development, I think that art is obviously great, but food is even better. And the combination of the two. 

Jessica: I'm very excited to see what happens with it. And hopefully. You know, we can kind of bring it in another ways, too, like partnering with restaurants. 

Jessica: To do like a lunch and learn or.

Jessica: Any, any variety of those things. Yeah. Yeah. But food's there. It's important. 

Katie: So what's your go-to potluck item that you bring. Oh

Jessica: man. It's based on what's in my house. 

Katie: I 

Jessica: a garden and I have a neighbor who is a farmer and he puts, he gives us stuff seasonally. I think that's one of my favorite things about living in that area is just the abundance of great ingredients. Like last night, we got this massive box of butternut squash. 

Jessica: And so, you know, I'm, I'm facilitating a class with a friend of mine on Saturday.

Jessica: and I'm bringing butternut squash soup. It's. It's like it's so comforting, especially right

Katie: now.

Katie: But 

Jessica: yeah. I typically respond

Jessica: in the moment to whatever ingredients I have going on. 

Jessica: Cause it's a [00:19:00] nice

Jessica: fun splash of no pressure creativity, right? 

Katie: Where will the music be?

Jessica: That's a good so the music is a little bit of a challenge, but we've, we've met that challenge by creating

Katie: a stage

Jessica: that will come apart and store away. So it will live 

Katie: In 

Jessica: backspace, we are kind of limited. We can't have, you know, punk rock shows or.

Jessica: rock bands, but, you know, we can do a lot of singer songwriter. We can do spoken word, we can do poetry. We can do. You know, that kind of

Katie: stuff. 

Jessica: We put in 40. Acoustic panels. Which really helped. 

Katie: I bet.

Jessica: Yeah. 

Jessica: And in the summertime next year we want to develop the backspace as

Jessica: a patio. 

Katie: And so 

Jessica: we'll be able to incorporate the indoor and outdoor

Jessica: So we can have music outside or we can have it inside.

Jessica: And then

Jessica: you know, food trucks too, if we want, but. 

Katie: Nice. 

Jessica: That kind of stuff.

Katie: So as far as the space.

Katie: goes, is that pretty much everything? Like we walked through the space. 

Jessica: Yeah.

Jessica: That's that's about it. 

Katie: I want to talk about you.

Jessica: Oh, okay. [00:20:00] 

Katie: Were you born and raised in the area?

Jessica: No. 

Jessica: So I was born in the Chicago land area.

Jessica: And

Jessica: we moved Frequently kind of popped around, but I ended up in Prescott, Wisconsin. 

Katie: For

Jessica: the last two years of high school. And really fell in love with the St. Croix valley. And I moved to the twin cities for a little bit, and I lived in Duluth for about seven years. For college, 

Jessica: then I returned back to the synchro valley.

Jessica: The river is just. 

Jessica: I don't know, it's pivotal for me.

Jessica: Lake superior was as well, but it's the river community is pretty amazing. So

Katie: So you've always been Midwest. It sounds 

Jessica: Midwest. 

Jessica: Yeah, I mean,

Jessica: I did some bouncing around east coast and west coast, but yeah.

Katie: When Did you know, you were

Katie: an artist

Jessica: Right away. I don't think that was even a question. I 

Jessica: To be honest, the Mo okay. So.

Jessica: I've, I've told this story a little bit only because it, I think it resonates with a lot of other artists, but there was, there was like a person. That demonstrated the S the lifestyle that I. [00:21:00] Until I saw it. I didn't know it was what I wanted, but I saw it and it was. There was 

Jessica: Family friend, whose father was a painter in Chicago.

Jessica: and he had a flat downtown.

Jessica: and it was filled with his paintings everywhere. And it smelled a little bit like raw tobacco and oil paint. And I walked in, I think I was maybe eight or nine at the time. And just.

Jessica: That was it. 

Katie: Yeah. 

Jessica: This is where this is what I want.

Jessica: I love the smell and loved everything about the.

Jessica: artist himself was he was. He was kind of introverted and a little strange. And I just thought that was cool. I don't know. Maybe cause Um, but there was like stacks of used brushes and just, I don't know the colors and there was pain all over the floor and it just 

Katie: Yeah. And then 

Jessica: I just chased after it like developed a skill over time. And. 

Katie: Yeah,

Jessica: don't think it was ever. Really a question after that, it was more just like, how do I make money? It became the question, 

Katie: right. right. How [00:22:00] did you do in school? Growing up? 

Jessica: Terrible. 

Jessica: except for an art

Katie: clothes. 

Jessica: Yeah.

Jessica: It was terrible.

Jessica: I just really wasn't. I wasn't. 

Jessica: Introduced to the right things. I think.

Jessica: If I had been taught. Science the way I understand science now, like Neil deGrasse, Tyson science. 

Katie: I

Jessica: have been all about it. Um, I didn't know yet. And I, if I had been taught about natural sciences or bugs, like I'm obsessed with that stuff now. 

Katie: Yeah. 

Jessica: I just don't think I was introduced to the right things up until to be honest, I now do need to mention this because he is a local person. Having gone to school in Prescott, Wisconsin. I had an art teacher. Um, Mr. Sass check, Mr. S. Um, Phenomenal. 

Jessica: Phenomenal influence on me as well.

Jessica: Basically he let me be terrible at school and then gave me access to the studio. Um, If I just showed up. 

Katie: Yeah, you

Jessica: [00:23:00] kept me coming to school and got me through the last two years. And I graduated because he let me show up. I got two hours in the morning to paint. 

Katie: Wow. 

Jessica: Yeah, I wouldn't have done it otherwise. 

Katie: That's incredible. Yeah. 

Jessica: So thanks. If you're out there listening. 

Katie: I hope 

Jessica: to do that for somebody else. You know, like I hope to be that influential.

Katie: I

Jessica: think that's really Really cool.

Katie: Yeah, I mean, You could be the space that, you know, the kid that doesn't want to do football and baseball and soccer and all of the mainstream sports. The might finally have a space that feels like home for them.

Jessica: I really hope so.

Katie: Yeah. 

Jessica: And I also think about that too, of like growing up. If I had an art center in town. Like close. I would have utilized it.

Jessica: Yeah. Big time. 

Katie: Yeah. 

Jessica: I just don't think resources were really there for that then. 

Katie: Yeah.

Jessica: they are now, so

Katie: yeah, for sure.

Katie: So you got through. school. Then

Jessica: Uh, It took time to just float around [00:24:00] and I kind of drifted through trying to work.

Jessica: to figure out what I wanted to do. I did a lot of retail and restaurants. 

Jessica: And then it kind of became clear. I was very confident in my abilities in art, but it wasn't quite there yet. 

Jessica: And I had approached an agency about.

Jessica: like, children's books, illustration. 

Katie: And they

Jessica: was a big flat, no. 

Jessica: My portfolio was terrible. I thought it was great, but I didn't know. Right. Yeah. And they made a recommendation that I go to school. 

Katie: Okay.

Katie: And

Jessica: I said, you're going to And so I did. And I mean, it wasn't even, 

Jessica: I went to school for metal fabrication that didn't go for illustration.

Jessica: but yeah. 

Jessica: I went to school and I think going to school and getting the liberal arts degree

Jessica: was the smartest thing I did for 

Katie: Yeah, it actually

Jessica: showed me that I was re really great learner. 

Jessica: And it introduced me to things that I didn't know. I didn't know. I took a botany class and I got obsessed with the parts of a flower. 

Jessica: I had the right

Jessica: teacher,

Katie: Yeah. 

Jessica: African art history. 

Katie: I had

Jessica: no idea how much I was missing. 

Katie: Yeah. 

Jessica: [00:25:00] My my professor 

Katie: hope. Right.

Jessica: who has since passed, but was pivotal. And introducing me to the art that I love now. And the styles that I really value and appreciate and want to promote.

Katie: Yeah. 

Jessica: And you know, he, he told 

Jessica: Uh,

Katie: A 

Jessica: of different things about my work that motivated me to move it in the right direction.

Jessica: And so I think that was good. It was good advice. I'm glad I did it.

Jessica: Yeah. It was an expensive choice, but it was good. 

Katie: What made you choose metal fabrication? 

Jessica: Oh, so I had the department head.

Jessica: Basically said, why are you painting? You're going to paint anyway. And you're just going to get better as you do it. 

Katie: He's

Jessica: like do something you don't know how to do. And be a good painter with that. 

Jessica: And he happened to be a sculptor, so maybe he was biased, but. I can moved into sculpting and he was right. He was completely right. 

Jessica: I just learned tools and I learned materials and I learned how to bring what I already know into something new. 

Katie: And

Jessica: yeah. Aside from not having access to the materials [00:26:00] afterward, I would've just kept doing it. It was, it's really fun. It's just like, I mean, it's everything.

Katie: Yeah. 

Jessica: And you learn math and science too.

Katie: So when you say metal fabrication,

Katie: Like welding, right? Yeah.

Jessica: Some welding,

Katie: artistically. 

Jessica: Wax casting. So lost west casting sculpting something in wax and then casting it in bronze.

Katie: Oh, 

Jessica: Or yeah, basically fabrication. So.

Jessica: I did a whole bunch of different, like false riveting,

Jessica: which is where you take two junk pieces of metal and you rivet them

Katie: together. Give 

Jessica: it a pivot point. And there was small metals, which was jewelry. I learned all Yeah. And we learned like patina And take welding, MIG welding. Really all of it. That's great. 

Katie: If there's one piece of your metal fabrication work

Katie: that you could show. If someone says, show me one piece, what would it be? 

Jessica: I probably wouldn't. 

Jessica: Because it wasn't really developed, like it was about learning and it just, I didn't really produce anything. Great. I did make. 

Jessica: This one [00:27:00] giant sculpture that was.

Jessica: made out of chicken wire and saran like

Jessica: clay on unfired clay. And the intention was that it would kind of disappear over time. Uh, So I can't show you.

Katie: Right. 

Jessica: And it was before the cell phone. So it wasn't easy to record. 

Jessica: They have some photos of it. 

Katie: Dang. Nokia's didn't.

Jessica: Half of my life has gone. I don't remember it, but. 

Jessica: Yeah, I mean, it was, it was more just about the learning of, of doing 

Katie: it.

Jessica: And it was kind of less about the actual production.

Katie: Yeah. 

Katie: So you got through that school.

Katie: Sounds like that was better experienced than high

Jessica: Yes. 

Katie: What happened

Jessica: I hit the road. I went to Pennsylvania. And I started teaching ceramics to kids. 

Jessica: Aye. I had never been around kids before. 

Katie: You're like, no. 

Jessica: And the, it was 400 of them.

Katie: It was formed

Jessica: kids between the ages of four and 17. 

Katie: [00:28:00] Wow.

Katie: you 

Jessica: with them and work with them for a period of four months. 

Katie: What the heck? Kind of school is this, so

Jessica: it's an east coast thing. 

Katie: Yeah. 

Jessica: it's kind of like, skill-building where they send their kids to these. So there's a culinary camp. There's a ceramic camp.

Jessica: There's A whole bunch of different things like this.

Jessica: that they travel around to and they, they learn. 

Katie: Like a creative boarding school kind of great much. Yeah. Interesting

Jessica: outdoor, which is nice. 

Katie: So it 

Jessica: still has a camp feel, but it is very structured. 

Katie: And it's year 

Jessica: No, it's just in the summer.

Jessica: months. It's what they do when they're not in normal 

Katie: school. Got it. 

Jessica: But they have. They have incredible facilities. 

Jessica: And I mean, we had this massive ceramic studio where I could teach up to.

Jessica: like 40 kids at once.

Jessica: Which is not ideal, but.

Jessica: it

Katie: Looking

Jessica: good. 

Katie: you're like if you were a chest adult, 

Katie: This So much better. 

Jessica: four year olds were the best because it was like a mud bath. 

Katie: I bet. I bet.

Jessica: Yeah, they were really fun 

Katie: Yeah. Yeah. 

Jessica: And that that was really great. It [00:29:00] taught me about teaching.

Jessica: I mean, they taught me about

Jessica: scheduling and organizing and cleaning and. 

Jessica: Hanging out with little people.

Jessica: and what they do. They loved bay. It was great. 

Katie: buggers in clay.

Jessica: I chose an earth red earth and where, which was not.

Jessica: I learned that lesson too. I mean, that stains and it stains everything. 

Jessica: So I won't be using rather than way, or if anyone's asking. 

Katie: Right. 

Katie: So after Pennsylvania then came back to the Midwest or whenever the other coast still

Jessica: hanging 

Jessica: I was just

Katie: next?

Jessica: traveling. I traveled a lot. I traveled solo. I did a solo trip. 

Jessica: Up and down the east coast.

Jessica: and just camped very low budget. I think I had a total of $217 to my name at the time. 

Katie: Nice.

Jessica: And did it in a little old, like rusty Corolla, but. 

Katie: you eat? 

Jessica: Farmstands whatever they had.

Jessica: Yeah. Yeah. A lot of farmstand stuff. And then 

Katie: is that where you, 

Katie: That kind of [00:30:00] plays into the culinary piece.

Katie: where it's like, you've probably figured out. Ways to take something from that farm stand and make it.

Jessica: yes. 

Katie: Over the campfire. And 

Jessica: met a lot of people. 

Katie: Yeah. 

Jessica: So that was, there was a lot of sharing there, which was cool. A lot of people kind of doing the same thing All of us doing it with nothing. Um, You know, 

Jessica: I got to sail I met somebody who has a sailboat. That's on the one of the finger lakes and they were like, well, you want to experience it? So I did. 

Katie: Did you like it? I loved

Jessica: it. Yeah. I loved, I loved the 

Katie: but do you feel like You could do that on your own now? 

Jessica: No. 

Katie: I've never been sailing. So I don't know.

Jessica: couldn't do it alone. 

Jessica: But I could Definitely.

Jessica: do it when someone else is taking care of the boat. 

Katie: Yeah,

Jessica: I'm more of the kickback, but. Yeah, that was great. And then, you know, I returned back to Duluth and I met my partner. And we've known each other actually for a really long time, but we started hanging out and. 

Jessica: Things changed and now, yeah,

Katie: he's

Jessica: working really hard on opening this space with me. So. [00:31:00] 

Jessica: So 

Katie: is a joint effort. Okay. When did you first have the vision for this

Jessica: place? 

Jessica: I started natural heritage project.

Jessica: In 2018, I believe. 

Jessica: Through farm table foundation.

Jessica: And we had worked with fourth graders and fifth graders. 

Jessica: Where we gave them.

Jessica: The natural heritage inventory list.

Jessica: which is kind of obviously what the name is from its natural heritage. 

Jessica: But the inventory list, every state has one and every state has a budget to maintain it, which is to observe and count.

Jessica: All of the species within a state's borders. And they assign 

Jessica: Um, Uh, An at risk level. 

Jessica: If it's secured or abundant all the way down to.

Jessica: you know, being at high risk of depletion. Okay. Okay. And so we, we met with the kids and gave them an option to pick one of the 1200 species on the Wisconsin list. And they paired up in groups and. 

Jessica: Each created an artwork to represent the species that they picked and they had to pitch. [00:32:00] Why they were doing it. Ah, like why they thought that we should be aware of this specie that's disappearing. 

Jessica: And what we could do. So then they worked with

Jessica: the DNR, They worked with local facilities.

Jessica: They worked at the library. And they came up with a pitch and they. They were amazing. And it was So much more than I could've ever hoped for.

Jessica: And that once they finished the art piece, we did it an exhibit. 

Katie: And then

Jessica: we invited the public to see it and they dressed up. I never asked them to dress up, but all the kids 

Jessica: And I mean, they were wearing ties.

Jessica: It was so cute. And then they stood in front of their work and took turns and all of this is facilitated by them. Uh, They took turns telling the public why that we should be concerned about the depletion of this animal or creator or creature or whatever. 

Jessica: And sharing all of the valuable things that they learned.

Jessica: Like what they eat and where they live and what they do.

Jessica: And all of that was out of my hands and it just a spark kind of happened where I was like, this is what I want to [00:33:00] do. I want to facilitate this. 

Jessica: Um, Be it kids or adults, it doesn't matter. But and watching the multi-generational audience, I mean, it was like their grandparents and their neighbors and their friends and family, and they all showed up. And they all learned something. I mean, there

Katie: was one. 

Jessica: I really like thinking about, which was the use of. Oh, what are they called? They're

Jessica: Poison peanuts. 

Jessica: And they're used to eradicate gophers, which I understand.

Jessica: I

Katie: I have a garden.

Jessica: I get but there was, there is a. Negative that happens when other animals come in contact with this poison that's used. Right. 

Jessica: And there's a specie that is been completely depleted.

Jessica: To the point where it's countable numbers left. And this one boy was just adamant about telling everyone in the room, not to use poison peanuts. And it was incredible. 

Jessica: Not all the information was there, but whatever. 

Jessica: Um, Yeah, so I saw that and then we kept doing things like that.

Jessica: I kept Popping up in different spaces.

Jessica: and doing shows like that, working with [00:34:00] different groups and it just felt really good. And then I had always said there was this building in town. 

Katie: Like how 

Jessica: great it would be to do it here.

Jessica: To have a space here. And if that building ever opened, I'm like, woo. 

Jessica: And then Very shortly there, the building became available and I had to kind of put my money where my mouth 

Katie: was.

Jessica: and do 

Katie: Wait a manifest. 

Jessica: my partner was like, you know, that.

Jessica: buildings available. 

Katie: Yeah. 

Jessica: So yeah, so here we are now I'm going to do it. 

Katie: And when, when was it that you acquired the building? 

Jessica: Uh, So let's say we signed in August. 

Katie: But 

Jessica: we, we met them and I think April. And started putting things together. And I had written the business plan a long time ago. And. Thanks. Just kind of collided into the perfect moment. Or storm. 

Katie: Not storm. 

Katie: That's awesome. And so your grand opening is coming up. It's not [00:35:00] open to the public yet.

Katie: Talk about where you're at right now and then where you're leading up to for your grand opening. Sure,

Jessica: sure. So we are still in mid construction. If you walk by and the lights are on, you'll see a lot of weird stuff moving around. We plan to be open and. 

Jessica: By November 5th for the grand opening celebration.

Jessica: we are going to open that day. We have tickets on sale now. 

Jessica: Um, They are going pretty fast, so that's

Jessica: cool. We do have a limited amount of tickets 

Katie: available. 

Jessica: And the, the tickets we decided to do the tickets because a, we want to, you know, Make sure we take care of our musicians and our poets to make sure they're getting paid. And then also. 

Jessica: 25% of the ticket revenue and we'll go towards.

Jessica: A fund that will help pay for workshops and material fees for people that can't.

Jessica: Or that demonstrate some sort of need. 

Jessica: And that realm. 

Katie: That's cool.

Katie: Keep that 

Jessica: mind.

Jessica: and tell all your friends to 

Katie: How did they buy tickets?

Jessica: So they can go online. Under the events tab. Um, you scroll down and it'll take you to. The signup when there's like a little ticket. 

Katie: And your website is natural heritage [00:36:00] arts center.

Katie: Dot org. 

Katie: So that's natural heritage artists center is spelled.

Katie: C E N T R e.org.

Jessica: Yes. 

Katie: And I will link that up in the show notes, which social platforms are you active on with the

Jessica: center? 

Katie: I'm doing 

Jessica: my best. I'm active on Instagram and Facebook.

Jessica: at the moment. 

Katie: With any opening of any space, you're probably looking to connect with certain people who are you actively seeking to connect with right So

Jessica: I am very interested in. 

Jessica: Collaborations and partnerships. So I'm looking for.

Jessica: Artists, I'm going to Skillshare. 

Jessica: Anybody that wants to teach a workshop for extra revenue for themselves.

Jessica: that's a great opportunity. Um, And I'm also looking for artists that have products to sell. So, or vendor, I mean, artisans. 

Jessica: Makers. So if you're doing, if you're still banker. If you're a candle maker, we're looking for that kind of stuff. We have space for you. We're accepting inventory through the month of October. 

Jessica: And we'll obviously be accepting inventory periodically as we, as we go forward too. So if you don't get in by the grand opening, it's okay. You can always apply later to. [00:37:00] 

Jessica: Okay. So there's an application for both.

Jessica: On

Jessica: Okay. If you go to. Marketplace. There is a consignment form that you can fill 

Jessica: And then if you go to workshops, there's an instructor application. And you can always just email me too and kind of describe what you're looking at doing, and we'll see if it's a good fit. 

Katie: Perfect. 

Katie: Thank you for being on the podcast. I appreciate it. And thank you for being a part of

Katie: get out And try and listing your events on there. I appreciate that too. 

Jessica: Thank you for having me.