The theme for the 2020 Artists on Main Street was Vision’s of Northfield’s Future. These projects that might, for example, address concepts such as evolving demographics and increasing cultural diversity; climate change or the environment/ nature in general; the impact of technology and digital life on physical communities; or many others besides.
The Northfield Downtown Development Corporation funded the 2020 Artists on Main Street by Springboard for the Arts and the Bush Foundation thanks to a two-year $30,000 grant from Rethos. Artists on Main Street was a collaboration between the Northfield Downtown Development Corporation, the Northfield Arts and Culture Commission and the Northfield Arts Guild.
A virtual workshop announcing the details for the program took place on June 5, 2020. Two artists/projects were selected. Learn more about the selected Artists on Main Street projects below.
Spreading the Love / Finding the Heart of Northfield
Artist(s): local glass artist Geralyn Thelen, with the assistance of metal artist Dale Lewis.
Location: outside of the Armory building near the corner of Division and 6th Streets.
Description: “The tree is a symbol of life,” said Thelen in her application, and “the leaves will be heart shaped to represent love.” More importantly, she added, the leaves will be multicolored to demonstrate that “all are welcome in our community.” In addition to the sculpture itself, Thelen created a corresponding 6-inch heart for every interested downtown business, creating a scavenger hunt and encouraging participants to “find the heart” of Northfield while learning more about the wide variety of businesses that make downtown Northfield so vibrant.
Musical Portraits of Northfield
Artist(s): Louis Epstein and Daniel Groll (Louis and Dan and the Invisible Band)
Description: The duo created a series of songs describing the sights and sounds of downtown Northfield, which will “complement the visual delights of the district and strengthen the notion of Northfield as a musical city,” as Epstein and Groll described in their application. The topics and destinations for these musical portraits will be crowdsourced from community members, with a focus on children and families, to identify the businesses, buildings, public spaces, and other downtown sites they love most. QR codes were placed at downtown locations to access the music videos and songs online. Listen to the entire album online here and watch the music video for On Division Street online here.