fantastic open house
Hi! I’m Julian and I’m part of the volunteer leadership team.
One week ago today was the Center for People and Craft’s very first event, an Open House—and boy, y’all made it a full house too! We welcomed over 300 people of all sorts through our doors.
Some learned of the school through friends, some online through social media or news coverage, some from seeing fliers in their neighborhood. One lovely woman I greeted even told me she was just spontaneously moseying in on her walk home and asked me to describe the place to her daughter over the phone!
As someone who spent a Saturday afternoon weeks ago with around ten volunteers, some familiar friends and some new, scrubbing the place clean and painting the walls with a fresh coat it was incredible seeing these rooms so lively and full for the first time.
If you didn’t catch the Open House, I’ll paint you a picture of last Saturday:
In the thrumming heart of the Loring Park neighborhood towers a beautiful old cathedral. A bold red sign by the street out front draws your eye to a door nestled in a tucked away corner, just past a little playground.
A small wooden sign hung with colorful cordage next to this door echoes the words of the sign on the street: “The Center for People & Craft.” You walk in the door, you see kids and elders and everyone in between milling between rooms, conversing, reading signs on the walls.
You begin wandering the hall to the sounds of chatter and banjo, you poke your head in the first room. There’s a loom to one side, a circle of folks crafting with colorful yarn and branches in the back left corner, and a big old family dining table set up as a station where you can make your own linocut print.
The big room down the hall is packed with people grabbing plaintain chips and homebaked cookies from the snack table, volunteers passing out mugs of steaming tea, carvers gathered around a table with their shavings piling round their shoes, folks spinning yarn at their wheels while a musician in the corner strums and sings.
The walls display questions like, “What communities are you part of?” and “What big-picture changes could our classes and events bring to the world?” and those questions are surrounded by a rainbow of sticky notes. Some handwritten notes have tally marks added to show agreement, some have arrows pointing to other notes with exclamation points added.
In the last room, there’s a resident artist’s studio set up, a collection of tools, supplies, prints, and pieces throughout the space. The artist is weaving at their big loom in the center while answering questions from a curious crowd.
This is how it starts. And we are so excited to share it with you. We had a warm, wonderful event thanks to all of you who showed up and to everyone who volunteered their time and work to make this happen.
To be honest, building a folk school is not easy work. But it is important, fulfilling, hope-fueling work. CPC is very much a work in progress and a work of love.
We want to welcome anyone to contribute to what we’re building here in whatever way works best for you. If you have time or expertise you can volunteer, or money or material items like needed furniture, tools, and supplies you can donate, we want to hear from you.
To learn about how we are spending our funds or to contribute, click the link below to visit our GiveMN page.
To contribute in another way, reach out through our website or send an email to info@peopleandcraft.org.
And if you’re excited but don’t have something to contribute in those ways just yet, we would love if you tell a friend about us!
There is so much more to come, so please keep an eye out for upcoming events, volunteer opportunities, and future classes.
Cheers,
—Jules
