Spirit, Heart, Home brings St. Croix Valley together

Sarah Junko, Layout Editor
April 30, 2015

ArtReach St. Croix is a non-profit art gallery that combines works from local, regional and national artists to create beautiful collections. The gallery is presenting a new exhibition that will connect with viewers emotions.

“Spirit, Heart, Home” was created by artists with various mediums and techniques to express their spirit, expose their heart and celebrate their home. The collection is based off of the the themes from the book “Love Medicine” by Louise Erdrich.

The exhibition is shared between the ArtReach gallery in Stillwater, the National Park Service St. Croix River Visitor Center in St. Croix Falls, WI and the Great River Road Visitor & Learning Center at Freedom Park in Prescott, WI.

“Those locations are the gateways on either end of the St. Croix River Valley.” Executive Director of ArtReach St. Croix Heather Rutledge said according to The Stillwater Gazette. “Sometimes we forget that we practically live in a National Park. This is a way for people to go out and look at the art, but to also enjoy the beautiful place we live.”

“Love Medicine” is a novel composed of many related stories that take place in a Chippewa Indian reservation in North Dakota. The novel spans over 50 years and revisits characters at different points in their lives.

The collection is a part of The Big Read in the St. Croix Valley. The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts that helps to promote reading in American culture by awarding grants to innovative reading programs in certain communities.

“There has been a push to get the book, ‘Love Medicine,’ into the hands of as many people in the last few months (as possible),” Rutledge said according to The Stillwater Gazette. “We hear from libraries that there is a demand for the book and additional copies have been purchased.”

For many people it is hard to start reading a book that they have never heard of, or any new book. “Spirit, Heart, Home” is merging the concepts of literature and art for those who are not necessarily book people or art people.

Connecting Communities and The Arts

http://ww.valleybookseller.com/category/events/valley-reads

http://www.neabigread.org/