I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.
Oct. 14, 1999
By Devlyn Brooks
It's "Niimii" in a landslide.
The Bemidji Community Arts Center announced Wednesday that the Niimii Powwow Dancer sculpture by Wanda Reise Odegard of Bemidji was voted the most popular piece on Bemijdji's 1999 Downtown Sculpture Walk.
Tallying 184 votes, Niimii fared better than the next four vote-getters combined, according to Peggy Crandall of the arts center. "Dragonfly" sculpted by Michael R. Pettit of Dent, Minn., finished second with 78 votes and "Loneliness" by Ross Hagemeister of Bemidji was third with 73 votes.
The rest finished in the following order: "Dance of the Loon" (16), "Fearless Frog" (15), "Guardian" (15), "Radiator" (7), "Tipperary" (6), "Totem" (5), and "Hen" (4). Two other sculptures, Busby's "Walleye" and "Victorian Street Lamp" were excluded from the voting because they are already permanent pieces of the walk.
Because it won the People's Choice award this year, Niimii now will be purchased by funds raised by the Bemidji Community Arts Council, and it will become a permanent member of the sculpture walk.
It will join the other two, which were both sculpted by Lyle Nichols of Palisade, Colo. Busby's Walleye and Victorian Street Lamp were purchased and donated to the sculpture walk by area businesses.
Although it is for sure these three pieces will remain, Al Belleveau, who spearheaded the sculpture walk, said they may not remain in their current spots.
This was the first year Bemidji's sculpture walk existed, and it was sponsored by the Bemidji Community Arts Council. The idea originated with Belleveau, who saw a similar project when visiting his hometown of Grand Junction, Colo.
He then spearheaded the effort here, and got the arts council involved. The first sculpture was placed May 25 and 11 pieces were placed in the following weeks.
The pieces that will not be permanent members of the art walk are now for sale to the public, except for the Dragonfly, which already has been purchased, Belleveau said.
"That's quite gratifying because someone bought the Dragonfly right away," he said. "That's what we wanted to do, provide a place for local artists to sell their work."
The 12 were placed in an order that took site-seers from the Tourist Information Center on Lake Bemidji, wound through downtown to the Beltrami County Courthouse and back to the information center.
The committee involved with the sculpture walk had hoped the artwork would enhance the downtown area, help promote Bemidji as a cultural center, create a place where local artists could display their work and draw tourists further into town.
Belleveau said the sculpture walk has been a popular attraction this summer, and it was so highly received, that a similar project is going to be built in Grand Forks, N.D. It will be patterned after Bemidji's walk.
"I've heard quite a number of people say this is one of the most exciting things in the community in a long time," Belleveau said. "And there's a lot of exciting things happening."
He said more than 500 calls for artists already have been sent asking for submissions for next year's sculpture walk which will expand to 20 sculptures, not including this year's three permanent choices.
The sculptures again will be placed throughout downtown and even further west than this year, he said.
"I think it will be easier this year to find sponsors and artists to submit work," Belleveau said, "now that people know it's a viable place to sell art."
Comentários