00:00:13,367	S1:
Welcome to Bismarck Insights with mayor Mike Schmitz, a transparent and engaging conversational dive into meaningful topics impacting local government in Bismarck, North Dakota. Bismarck Insights is dedicated to removing barriers between the city of Bismarck and the citizens we serve every day.

00:00:32,567	S2:
Hello and welcome to Bismarck insights on Bismarck Mayor Mike Schmitz. And today we're going to focus on the arts, specifically Dakota West Arts Council, Council call Council. And we have with us today Jason Thoms, who is I think you're the director or executive director, board member, maybe director. Yeah. So, Jason, let's first let the audience know a little bit about you, your background and what drove you to this Position.

00:01:01,267	S3:
Well, thanks. Yeah, I'm glad to be here. Thanks a lot for the invitation. Well, I grew up. I'm a fifth generation professional musician in my family, and so we kind of like to talk about ourselves as the happiest, poor people in the world. So the opportunity to just make music has been in our blood for a really long time. My kids all did music. My youngest son is actually a working on a degree in voice and is going to graduate this next year, so it's exciting. Music and art are really important. My middle child is actually in New York City doing grad school in visual art and is going to is going to finish their master's degree this this year too. So it's kind of about who I am, who our family is. I moved here to Bismarck to teach at Bismarck State College, to be the choir director there. They went through a variety of changes, just like all the institutions in the state did after Covid. And that position ended about a year and a half ago. And so I was trying to figure out, what do I do? How do I make an impact? How do I find something that I enjoy doing? And I was on the board for Duke, Dakota, West Arts Council, and I was asked, would I take over as the part time executive director? And so I did that. I also am the music director at Trinity Lutheran Church downtown, and I'm the artistic director of Dakota Pro Musica, which is a professional choir. I started here in Bismarck when I moved. So I'm involved in a lot of aspects of the arts. And I think one of the things that really connects me is I just think I, one of my personal missions is to try to make the world a more beautiful place, at least for a little bit of time. And I think the arts do that for our community. They provide moments of beauty, moments of community, and I think those are the exciting things. And that's really what's drawn me to Duke.

00:02:54,400	S2:
Okay, so let's talk a little about more about what Duke does or Dakota Arts Council. Um, specifically, what are what are the types of arts that are involved? What groups are maybe members or you know, what what is it the the the council does itself. Um, and then we can talk about Bismarck and Arts. More specific.

00:03:14,100	S3:
Yeah. Yeah. Well, Dakota West Arts Council has been around. I think they got their 503 status in 1980. So it's been a part of Bismarck for quite a long time. Um, it's had a variety of slightly different roles over those times. Um, when I came on to join the organization, I felt one of the things that was maybe missing for an arts organization, especially since I was a part of Dakota Pro Musica, was it's sometimes really hard to get the word out about what's happening in the arts or what's happening in our community. There's just so many other voices, you know, Bismarck's expanding and growing and there's it's maybe hard to figure out a centralized place. And so I thought it would really be important for Duke to be able to spend a good portion of their energy helping our member organizations better communicate communicate with the community. Um, for us to provide grants to help maybe create more opportunities for free arts in the community. Um, and then we have individual artists, not just music organizations, but the theater, the, uh, painters. We have Baga, you know, all these different organizations in our community are all members of Duke. And so our job in a lot of ways is to help promote them, to help them better figure out how to connect with people. And I think that's really important, because in a community where there's so much diversity of things to do, uh, it's it's so much easier to find one place to go look for it. And that's kind of what we're trying to do with Dakota Arts Council is to kind of be the place where the community could come to our website or go to our Facebook page and get a good sense of what is happening for children, for adults all around the community, in the arts, or anything kind of related to culture and heritage. Sure.

00:05:07,868	S2:
And so the members are individuals and organizations. Yeah. So let's talk a little bit so we can kind of promote those organizations. The individuals are hard to promote. Yeah. Organizations maybe we can. You mentioned bag up. Well, what other organizations are really members of that? We're trying to also bring awareness to it.

00:05:25,901	S3:
Well, I mean, we have Baga and Bismarck Arts and Gallery Association, the capital Gallery. We have Bismarck Downtown artists cooperative. We we have the gallery. 522. Those are all kind of different arts galleries. You know, you, Mary and Bismarck State College are both members. We are trying to help promote what they do. We have the Dakota stage and they have a, you know, their Christmas stories just about to start. We have the there's the theaters at both of the colleges, and we're trying to help the public schools connect even a little bit better. And then we have lots of music organizations the Symphony Dakota Pro Musica, the Civic Chorus, Missouri Valley Chamber Orchestra. I'm going to miss some people's names in there, right? But we have about 35 member organizations and individuals who are part of that. And it's it's really great to be able to work with those folks, because I'm often pretty regularly on the phone talking with people at all these different organizations and kind of saying, what can we do? What are you doing that we could help you promote? But the more we talk that way, then I find out, well, maybe there's these two groups could connect. So, you know, part of my job and I feel like, is to help network. And one of the things I really try to share with all of our member organizations is to say, what I'm I want to would love to see is us finding more and more ways to collaborate. Is there a way that the children's choirs can be with the simple they were just with the symphony.

00:06:58,467	S2:
Yeah.

00:06:58,901	S3:
It was great. You know, and so I mean, and I reached out to both organizations and I said, I really appreciate that you collaborated. You know, I just think sometimes it takes a word of thank you, a word of encouragement when we do something exciting. The civic chorus, every time they do a concert, they collaborate with another music organization in the community. It's just wonderful to see that. And so, I don't know, I just think if we live in just one little silo, like we only go to the symphony concert, what is that? What does that really do to help our community? But if we can get the children's choir to be a part of that, or the civic chorus as a part of the symphony, or, you know, and we bring the symphony. The symphony was part with Dakota Pro Musica last March. The more we worked together, we're not stealing each other's audiences. We're we're expanding what's available to the community. Sure. And I think that's really I love that.

00:07:51,467	S2:
It is. And I mean, I was at the the last orchestra. Symphony orchestra with the with the children choirs, children's choirs. Their multiple. Yeah. And it was beautiful. And the music was awesome. Yeah. So you mentioned grants. That's part of the mission of Duke. How is it someone can receive a grant? What's the process for them to go through? Because that's also helping expand the exposure right. To art.

00:08:17,367	S3:
Well, you know, that's an interesting thing. When we we got around Covid time, obviously everything was struggling. And grants kind of shut down at from Dakota Western Arts Council. We brought them back last year. And we do that in part because of some of the funding we received from the city. We want to make sure that what the city is helping provide to reaches into the arts is actually reaching directly into the organizations in our community. Um, we're going to be coming back out in January with a new set of grants. Um, and our focus is kind of special projects that will help promote more or less free. Free. Free performances. Free concerts. You know, stuff in the park. Um, every organization has to raise money. Every organization, a lot of times has to sell tickets and things like that. And we're happy to support organizations that do that. But our our priority is to say, is there a way that you can think, what could I offer for free? Could I take something to the library of free performance, to the library that I could get this grant for? And so that's another thing. I'm just trying to encourage folks to say, you know, if you only ever have a ticket price, then there are people in our community who are excluded. And if we if every once in a while we have a free concert or a free experience, I don't think that hurts our organization. It might help us get some donations, it might help us reach more people. And so that's part of what I'd like to see happen with the grants from Dakota West Arts Council is it encourages more free experiences. One of the things the symphony did last year with our grant is that they helped bring in. I think they bring in all the fourth graders in, so they helped use that money to bring all the fourth graders from Bismarck schools into here. Their concert experience. That's perfect. That's a perfect example of what we like to use that grant money for.

00:10:09,567	S2:
And to fund the grants. I know the city has certainly supported the the organization, the council, but is there other ways you're raising money or generating revenue? Because, I mean, yeah, it's pretty pretty easy to run out of money.

00:10:22,367	S3:
Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah, definitely. Well, you know, we've actually been in a relatively good financial position. One of the things our membership fees, we actually raised those membership fees when I became executive director. It's not a lot $250 for an arts organization. We call it the enhanced level, but we do a lot of promotion for them. We're trying to do a lot of things, so I think it's well worth that $250. But when we have 35 or 38 members that are all paying somewhere between 100 and 250 bucks, that really brings in a lot of funds. And so that's helped us. We get some granting money from other organizations, the Leech Foundation here in town. And and that was the one thing that when I came on, I'm really good at asking for things. And I don't care if anyone says no, I'll just keep asking. So I lived in New York City area for 13 years before I moved to Bismarck, and I taught at a college there and did stuff. So I kind of have a New York sense of yes or no. I just keep on asking. But, uh, no, I think there's lots there's lots of ways that our community can help and support the arts. And I think that's that's in part of a way. One of the things I'm really trying to work for is how do we get our community, the larger community, the corporations, to help and, and look that the arts are important? Sure. Capital City Christmas just did all their events in the last week or so, and we're now their fiscal agent. We help them manage their grant grants and the monies distributed and things like that. and it's just amazing to see when the community comes together to support what Capital City Christmas does, that they can do so much with those funds. And it's not tons and tons of funds, but it's funds that are coming from different corporations and different people. And it reaches out. And at a time of the year when, wow, this is the time of year that you do things right.

00:12:18,200	S2:
Sometimes we need to raise the spirits, because holidays can be a very difficult time for some people. And and being able to get some opportunity to maybe celebrate some wonderful events in our community and maybe see some things that are, are different that they haven't seen in the form of art, or listen to art or watch a performance.

00:12:37,367	S3:
Well, I think it's, you know, what you just mentioned is really important. You know, my my wife died in 2020, shortly before Covid happened. And so sometimes the holidays are not the best time of the year, you know, but there's something about when you can come together in community and, you know, and you don't have to be happy about every part of, of, of a, of the holiday season. But there's something that's that's really nice when you can go see the community Christmas tree and you hear some carols, or you go to this or that event and you see the kids singing, I think there's just something uplifting to say, you know what? There's a lot of joy and a lot of beauty in our community, and the arts can help that. Even in for folks who have a difficult time this time of year, which many people do.

00:13:20,667	S2:
Yeah. So let's talk specifically about what's going on in Bismarck and the arts and what what you've seen maybe change good or bad, in the in the time you've been in Bismarck and certainly been involved with Dakota West Arts Council.

00:13:35,267	S3:
Yeah. Well thank you. Well, I think, you know, the, the probably the single greatest problem that we've encountered was Covid. It shut down a lot. I mean, you know, music organizations couldn't do performances. You couldn't be close to each other. I mean, but funding shutdown, all these kind of things got crazy. And so the recovery coming out of Covid has been long and slow. But what I would say based on my experience, because I've been here more or less since Covid, I was here in late 2020 when I moved here. Um, you can see things growing back, and I'm starting to hear from folks, oh, we've had more people come to this concert, or we had like, we had more people singing in the community Messiah this year than we've had since before Covid. So some of this stuff is coming back. People are getting back into the swing of just doing things together, which I think is exciting. Um, funding has funding models have changed? The federal government is funding the arts differently. The state has to fund them differently, you know, and so there's there's a lack of money in some areas and then there's over there's maybe more money than some people need in other areas. You know, especially with this year, there's a lot of funds available for the 250th anniversary of America coming up this year. And so, um, there's a lot of opportunities that you can apply for that. But in a lot of ways, it also tells you what you're going to be performing. You know you're going to be performing more patriotic music if you're going to do that. So I think there's a lot of great things happening. Uh, Dakota West Arts Council, since I came on, we've now decided to do an in print calendar during the summer. And we just came out with one last week for the winter, more or less the holiday season. And so we have those available at both the the Mandan Library and the Bismarck Library at the Convention and Visitors Bureau. There's other places people can pick up those calendars, and it has every single, um, event that was submitted to us from all our members. Like every weekend coming up. Like, if you're not going to go to Yuma this weekend or go to the Civic Chorus next weekend or the children's choir that weekend after that, you know, there's there's all in there. We've also spent a lot of time trying to upgrade and create a community arts calendar on our website. So if people go to Dakota West. Arts Council you click on community Arts calendar. There's actually a really great app that we've been able to add to our website, and people can subscribe to the calendar that they're interested in. Sure. And get information. You can click on there and buy tickets. You can click on there and know get a map to right where it's going to be. So there's a lot going on. And our our number one job is just to make sure that it's easy for everyone to find it. Find out what's all happening. So the Christmas season is obviously time everywhere. Arts organization. Everyone is trying to do something because people want to do experiences at Christmas presents. I almost think presents sometimes are falling away. It's let's do this together as a family. Let's do this together with my friends. And so there's so many things you can go to with friends and family, to go to the theater or to the concerts coming up in the next few weeks.

00:16:51,868	S2:
And that's very important. And that kind of touches on, you know, the calendar and how we get people engaged. That's very good. But in addition to that, you know, I think there's been an effort from your organization to try to get art exposed to our public. And so what are some of the things that the Arts Council has done to try to encourage that? Not just art painting, but write or statues or anything like that, but also the performances. And you mentioned some of that with some of the granting. Did I get some free opportunities for someone to go to performances? But there's some probably some specific things that have occurred.

00:17:26,801	S3:
Right. Well, you know, there's there's been a bunch of grants that in the last year or so that I've worked directly with the folks in the city offices, that they wanted to apply for an asphalt grant for some kind of design or, or different options. So I'm always happy to go in and, and work and kind of consult with folks and try to help them write the grants. A lot of times doc ends up writing the grant on behalf of the city or of another organization to help them do that. There's lots of great public art. I my my expertise is music and performance that way. But we have folks on our board who are really great at art and public art. Molly McLane, who was the former executive director, she loved that. So, you know, we have the art tunnel that kind of goes by the Capitol building. Um, there is a new Mandan Art alley that just got done this week, this last summer, and Duke sent some funds to help support that. Um, there's, you know, there's a lot of different opportunities that you have. Like, you can wrap electrical boxes around town, you know, with designs and some of that has happened or, or find ways to have benches that are designed or you drive around and you see horses that have been painted. Yeah. You know, sometimes people say, well, I don't understand why you would need to have public art. It seems like just kind of a waste of money. But there's something to me that art is always about community. You know, or it's an opportunity for the Convention and Visitors Bureau. They have a map that you can go around town and see all the cool public art experiences. You know, you have murals on the sides of buildings, and people are constantly saying, oh, I want to put a mural on this building. And I know that you guys are working on that as a public art, as part of the next part of the arts and culture plan. And so there's so much interest, you know, when you look at a bigger city, you go to, you know, a place like New York or something like that. There's always art, there's always sculpture, there's always things on the street. Part of that is just because there's rich people who want to put some art, some art out on the street. But I think there's there's something about the community can come together and think about the things that they love and want to show that to, to the community.

00:19:43,567	S2:
Well, I think it gives that artist the opportunity to express themselves in a and show what they can do that, that the patron, so to speak, doesn't need to go pay.

00:19:54,000	S3:
Right.

00:19:54,601	S2:
To go see.

00:19:55,467	S3:
To me, Public free art experiences. Concerts are so vital. Um, and they have that beautiful mural that was painted on the the bridge over there by the landing area. I mean, that that's amazing. It involved a wide variety of different artists. And there was the community helps paint that. You know, a lot of times when they have a big community art project, they have any person can go and paint and they say, paint this corner. And when it gets done, you have an opportunity to be a part of that or that amazing thing they're doing up in Mandan on the silos. I don't know if you've seen that, but they they took the big silo thing and they've painted the entire thing. Yes. That's those are the kind of things that make that draw people into the community. You know, I mean, every time someone comes to North Dakota, I drive them to Salem. Sue. You know, I mean, you might not think, okay, that's not a piece of art, is it? It's a piece of art. It's a sculpture. It's it's something that draws us into the community. So that kind of stuff matters, you know? It gives a definition. It tells us about this part of the community and I don't know. I just think it's amazing.

00:21:04,667	S2:
Well, you know, this summer we start to see the application of some art on our sidewalks downtown. And I think it allows the opportunity someone to bring a smile to their face as they're maybe walking, maybe in a hurry to get someplace, and maybe it gives them an opportunity to stop and rest for a moment, or pause and just and take it in so well.

00:21:23,467	S3:
And there's even there's even a lot of information available about paint, you know, paintings that happen maybe in crosswalks and things like that, that actually create more safety because of the folks driving, realize something is happening there. And so, you know, art is not just only to make it beautiful. Art can actually provide a safe spot. It can provide a place of joy, a community experience. So I think there's there's a lot there. Sure.

00:21:52,300	S2:
So let's, you know, there are probably artists who don't even know how to get involved. What can they do? How can they get involved with your organization or one of your member organizations? So how do we how do we push them to.

00:22:05,567	S3:
Yeah. Well, I mean, the Arts Council is trying. Our number one goal is to try to get as many folks as possible to consider becoming members, because the more folks we have members, the more we can help them network. We can help them connect. Um, we this new community arts calendar that we've created. Um, our members can post on there as much as they want for for free. But people in the community, if they want to get their event on there, they can pay us a small fee. I think it's like $10 and they can get their events put on our community calendar, or they can consider becoming a member. Sure. And this year we have an AmeriCorps volunteer, actually, my child who's in grad school in art and they are going to be doing throughout the whole spring a lot of online, um, Webinars or zoom calls and stuff with individual artists talking about different ways that they can, um, maybe label or or create titles for their pieces of artwork, you know, kind of interesting things, but that's open to anyone in the community. You don't have to be a member. Sure. So we're trying to do more online, uh, opportunities to do that. And then if you go on our website, you can go up to the members, you can click on there. And we have actually created member profiles, kind of very similar to what happens at the, uh, the Chamber of Commerce. Okay. And so you can go on there and you can click and there's pictures. There's information about each different arts organization. There's a button that donate. There's a button to connect to them. Yeah. We just want to try to make Dakota West Arts Council the place to go. If you say, I want to find out more about the arts, then you you go to that website and you can find the individual artists, you can find the organizations, you can find out what's happening in the community. You can see some of the recent public art stuff that's happened in maybe in the last five years. Um, and so I just, you know, that's our goal. Sure. It's to is to have be a resource for the entire community, but then also help our members do better in connecting with the community.

00:24:13,868	S2:
And, Jason, I'm glad and I sure brought it up earlier, but I'm glad you mentioned Mandan and the projects that have occurred over there in the last 12 months, and they're probably ongoing because we are one community. And even though we're sitting here in Bismarck and this is, you know, I'm the mayor of Bismarck, we are one community. And I think it's very important that all of us, whether it's Bismarck or Mandan or Lincoln or Burleigh or Martin County, we have this opportunity. So thank you for reminding everybody that they can see it more than just in Bismarck.

00:24:45,267	S3:
Yeah. Well, and this is and we want folks to come to Bismarck from around those, those communities too. So there's a lot. It goes back and forth. Right. It's not there's not walls. Right. You know.

00:24:55,200	S2:
You're very much are not.

00:24:56,267	S3:
Walls. Yeah.

00:24:57,100	S2:
So what would be your dream project for the West Arts Council?

00:25:02,100	S3:
Well, we first we tried to do our dream project, which was we applied for this Levitt Grant that we applied for. That would have brought more free concerts to the parks in the summer. Um, we we were one of 300 cities or communities in the country that applied. We made it to the top 100, and then the wider community voted here and around the country, and we made it to the top 50. But we didn't make it. We didn't we didn't get one of the top 25 prizes, but Minot did. Um, but that was a really great experience to be able to talk to folks and say, couldn't we have more free concerts in the park in the summer where we can just get families to come and have food trucks? And that kind of stuff is exciting to, to to find ways that we can just bring our entire diverse community together. Mhm. Um, there's some other options. We're trying Since we didn't get that big grant, there's a smaller Levitt Grant that we're looking at applying for. So we're just trying to find more ways to get especially, I think in the summertime we have our kids summer stage, which happens ten, ten Wednesdays during the summer. Free stuff for kids at noon in Custer Park. We have General Sibley, where we do four concerts in General Sibley during the summer when local bands come in. We were working with Vega for the Capital Affair this year to add more music and arts experiences for kids. So to me, that's that's really the dream is how do we get more into our community? How do we get more people to be excited about the arts and just understand that the more arts we have in our community, the more vibrant and exciting it's going to be. And I think there's a lot of data that people share about just how much, how much money comes into our community. For instance, say when someone goes to the symphony concert because they're not just driving. Only going to the symphony concert and going home. They're going downtown to have a dinner beforehand, or they go out to the bar afterwards or, you know, whatever is happening. So, you know, a ticket to the bell often is, is more money into our community than just the money that goes to the symphony or to the children's choir.

00:27:17,567	S2:
I mean, I would say that's probably at least 75% true. Yeah, maybe. Maybe much higher even. So, uh, any last thoughts? You have any opportunities or challenges you see, that we need to try to address, if we can, as a community for the arts and Bismarck and Mandan?

00:27:35,167	S4:
Yeah. Well, I just what I would encourage.

00:27:36,868	S3:
Folks to to go and if they haven't been going to arts events in our community, just go and experience them, especially this time of year. You know, during this Christmas season, there's lots of free. In fact, many, many of the arts organizations are actually offering free concerts. You, Mary, has a free. Free concert tonight. Tomorrow and Sunday we have the Civic Chorus. Has a free concerts next week on Friday and Saturday, Saturday and Sunday and Dakota Pro Musica. Our concerts are free this cycle. On the 19th at the Abbey in Richardson, the 20th here at the Cathedral and the 21st in Mandan. So there's lots of free art. And so I would just say try it, experience it, and bring your family.

00:28:25,067	S2:
Okay. Well, wonderful. Thank you for joining me today on Bismarck Insights. It's a pleasure. And people just go on and enjoy the the art that's available. And whether it's in an art gallery or it's a music production put on, I think it will bring joy to your heart. And that's most what what is most important. And it certainly is an amenity that is important for those people we want to attract to our community to come here and live.

00:28:47,467	S3:
Right, definitely. Thank you. Yeah, thanks.

00:29:01,701	S1:
Thank you for watching Bismarck Insights with mayor Mike Schmitz. If you have specific topics or questions you'd like addressed in future episodes. Email em Schmitz at Bismarck. Anti-government.

00:29:15,367	S1:
Or call the city of Bismarck at (701) 355-1300.

00:29:19,767	S1:
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