Arts on Superior began as a CAPP (Comprehensive Arts Planning Program) grant from Perpich Center for the Arts in 2007. The grant provided monies to poll the residents of Lake County for needs in the arts and arts education in order to create a 5-year plan for arts and arts education in our area.
In our second year Arts on Superior began writing grants to support school arts residencies in our district. In FY 2009 we provided school residencies for Two Harbors High School and Wm. Kelley High School in Theater and Visual Arts, respectively and we supported the puppet residency at North Shore Community School. In succeeding years we have supported storytelling/literacy residencies at Minnehaha Elementary School and Visual Arts and Community Dance residencies at Two Harbors High School. We have supported a total of nine residencies in our first five years.
In the fall of 2010, Arts on Superior received nonprofit status [501(c)(3)] as a nonprofit arts education organization. This allows us to expand our programming to include everyone in our community. The Fridays in the Park summer concert series was our first project under this expanded vision and mission. We designed this series to bring together residents and artists from our community, and to support our community’s financial well-being by providing tourists an incentive to enjoy our community and stay in Two Harbors on their way up the shore.