North House Folk School is known regionally and nationally for its work to promote traditional folk arts and trades, as well as for several wonderful events like the Wooden Boat Show and Unplugged: The Northern Harvest. North House has been selected by the Minnesota State Arts Board to receive a $44,405 grant for day-to-day operations.
The Minnesota State Arts Board has awarded 154 grants totaling $13,873,269 to Minnesota organizations through its operating support program and the Community Arts Schools and Conservatories program. North House Folk School was one of those grant recipients, receiving $44,405 to continue its work.
North House Executive Director Greg Wright explained that the operating support program assists schools and arts programs that are considered “Minnesota institutions.”
Wright said the Minnesota State Arts Board understands the challenges of “keeping the lights on” and the operational support grants help meet day-to-day operations.
Unlike the grant that North House received from the Minnesota State Arts Board when it expanded its Unplugged: Northern Harvest event to include MPR’s Mountain Stage, which was an “Arts Tour” grant, operating support grants can be received more than once.
According to the Minnesota Arts Board, grants awarded in the operating support program support high quality, established arts organizations that produce, present, or exhibit works of art; nonprofit organizations that provide a broad range of services to artists; and community arts schools and conservatories that make arts learning available to Minnesotans of all ages and abilities. To ensure that North House is fulfilling that mission, members of the Minnesota State Arts Board visit the Grand Marais campus several times each year.
“They are very diligent about making sure we’re doing what we are supposed to be doing,” said Wright.
The operating support grant program is funded by an appropriation from the Minnesota State Legislature from the State of Minnesota general fund and the arts and cultural heritage fund and funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Wright noted that North House is very fortunate to receive this grant as well as funding from the McKnight Foundation. North House received $75,000 in 2011 from McKnight Foundation for building educational capacity.
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