Art Grown Here: 2026 Houston County Artist Mentorship Exhibition
Sat, Nov 21, 6-8 pm Opening Reception
Additional exhibit hours: 10 am – 2 pm on Saturday Nov 28th, Dec 12th &19th
Free and open to all
Mainspring is proud to announce the Houston County Artist Mentorship Exhibition, featuring work from the 2026 cohort of five Houston County emerging artists: Eliana Babinski, Kay M. Capps Cross, Lisa Glass, Matthew Pearson, and Brooke Perry. The exhibit will open with an opening reception on Saturday, November 21st from 6-8 pm for community members to view the artwork and enjoy refreshments, artist remarks, and live music.
In addition to opening night, the exhibition will be open to the public on the following Saturdays from 10 am – 2 pm: November 28th, December 12th, and December 19th. This exhibition and opening reception are free and open to all.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Eliana Babinski is currently focused on creating work with ink pen, some digital designs, and felt landscapes. She has a small business selling stickers and prints called Rainbow Rose Art. Ela focuses on making small things that make her happy. Right now her inspiration is coming from getting to be outside exploring the local area and finding patterns within nature. She’s excited for the artist grant and is looking forward to learning from other artistic people.
Kay M. Capps Cross has been a working quilt artist for over 20 years. She has taught, lectured, written books and trained folks on all things quilting (including creativity). Her current area of development is quite different; she has recently picked up a camera and is experimenting in a new art form as an emerging photographer. Kay’s eye and work has not been so much concerned with realism, but with storytelling, breaking free from “rules”, and the therapeutic benefits of creativity. This springboard into photography will help her grow and push her to really experiment and play at this beginning stage as a photographer. Kay is excited to discover how her artistic eye will develop and grow through this new journey behind the lens.
Lisa Glass has been creating with her hands since she discovered them. Currently she primarily makes magic with fabric, but has dabbled in everything. Lisa uses her sewing machines to make a few house staples (caps, winter gear, absolutely epic costumes) while they (the sewing machines) side-hustle as therapy tools as she enjoys late stage capitalism with chronic illness and a family. Lisa is an avid gardener and home chef with backyard chickens with a certain set of skills. Her goals are to make art out of the unexpected and get it out into the world, in some way, shape, or form. Art as a statement, art for the regular day to day, continue art therapy for C-PTSD, art for the sake of art, made by her hands into the hands of others.
Matthew Pearson received a degree in creative writing with emphasis in poetry, and has spent a lot of time being taught the linguistic arts. He is mostly self taught in all forms of visual art, and is an illustrator and designer of characters. He has self-created his own comic books; his style lies in the cosmic, and Mathew is interested in capturing ideas such as consciousness and space in his works. Matthew’s art embodies power and emotion, along with a promotion of the inner self without shame. His art expresses his political beliefs and views of the world through imagery of machines, people, and characters that appear in his works.
Brooke Perry is an emerging artist based in rural Minnesota who uses painting and drawing to connect with the world around her. Brooke’s current work explores different paints (including acrylic and gouache), surfaces, and techniques as she experiments with ways to express what she sees and experiences in her surroundings. Through her art, Brooke hopes to share the beauty of the place she calls home and invite others to see the familiar landscape in a new way.
About the Artist Mentorship Program: The Houston County Artist Mentorship Program will train the five mentee artists over the course of six months through 1) art workshops taught by regional mentor artists; 2) tailored art career mentor sessions in both cohort and individual settings; and 3) a culminating group art exhibit at Mainspring.
The participating five artists are being mentored over the course of the program by regionally established mentor artists.
This program was created to meet a need for more direct support for early career or emerging artists in Houston County, in comparison to the amount of support for artists in neighboring counties. Through this program, Mainspring aims to foster a more supportive and inter-connected arts community in the largely rural Houston County.
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts & cultural heritage fund.
ARTCAMP!
Sat, Nov 14, 1 – 3 pm
FREE and open to all
Taught by Sarah Johnson
Join Winona-based artist Sarah Johnson for a Caledonia ARTCAMP! session! ARTCAMP! is an invitation to get creative & play together. For this session we’ll be making art that focuses on CONNECTION.
ARTCAMP! is FREE & open to all youth and adults. Youth under 10 are asked to be accompanied by an adult. Session runs from 1-3pm and participants are able to join at any time during that timeframe. Art supplies, art instructions & snacks will be provided.
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts & cultural heritage fund.
All Ages Collage Workshop
Sun, Dec 6, 1 – 4 pm
FREE and open to all
Taught by Akiko Ostlund
Join Artist Akiko Ostlund for an all ages, interactive, and fun collage workshop at Mainspring!
At this all ages free workshop, participants will learn the accessible and engaging art form of collage from artist Akiko Ostlund. No experience is necessary, and all materials will be provided. Food and beverages will also be provided for free. Registration is requested so we can plan materials and food accordingly.
Participants can come alone, with friends, and/or with family to create collage. You can come for a short while, or stay the whole time. This will be a fun afternoon of creativity and connection!
Akiko Ostlund is a visual artist, performance artist, teaching artist, curator, and an activist who lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A native of Osaka, Japan, she uses writing, dance, collage, and puppetry to tell stories that reflect her time, and a narrative of immigrant women of color that is often underrepresented.
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This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts & cultural heritage fund.
Nonfiction Writing Workshop
Sat, Dec 12, 1 – 3 pm
Led by : Christopher Vondracek
Cost: $10
Writing with (rural) place in mind. From Vondracek’s (cramped!) home in DC’s Capitol Hill, he’s written of place in two books — the South Dakota prairie in Dancing with Welk and the prairie towns/forest homes of the Upper Midwest in Redlin or Rodin. He’s also written a poetry collection with a poem for every county in South Dakota (Rattlesnake Summer) and is at-work on a manuscript of the same for Minnesota (Pigtail Winter). He’ll discuss tools of time and tone, of topography and voice, into a piece of writing that elevates Place to the role of a character. He’ll also share habits he’s learned as a journalist and documenter to open up ourselves (and our subjects) to place-based tensions.
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts & cultural heritage fund.
Author Reading: Christopher Vondracek
Sat, Dec 12, 4-6 pm
With author Christopher Vondracek
Free and open to all
Christopher Vondracek, a Washington reporter with the Minnesota Star Tribune and native of Wells, Minn., will be reading from his latest book, Redlin or Rodin: Essays on Midwestern Scenery, from the University of Nebraska Press and Bison Books. The work explores Vondracek’s own understanding of his changing homeland of Minnesota and South Dakota through an engagement and reassessment of the hallmark rural duck-and-deer painter Terry Redlin. Started as a pandemic project, Vondracek’s inspection of Redlin’s paintings spurs a literal trip from the East Coast back into the Midwest–a land where grain elevators and church steeples and water towers are the only visual markers from miles away–and where Vondracek eventually comes to terms with an internal landscape of beauty and loss, ever framed by the Farm Crisis of the ’80s, that he finds in himself.
