By Delta Giordano, Knight Foundation St. Paul Program Assistant I confess that I have put off writing this blog because it would mean admitting that summer is officially over!  In St. Paul, the markers for the end of the season are the Minnesota State Fair which runs through Labor Day, with kids starting school the next day after recovering from carnival rides and a variety of foods-on-a-stick.  After a hot and dry August, we are easing into a beautiful September weekend and as Susannah Schouweiler’s recent post reminds us, we still have one more outdoor music festival to look forward to with Concrete & Grass.

A highlight of my summer was being one of fifty shareholders in Springboard for the Arts’ Community Supported Arts (CSA).  The CSA program was so innovative and successful in St. Paul that the Knight Foundation has sprouted new CSAs in other Knight communities this past year with more to come.

I picked up my art shares at three events hosted by Springboard for the Arts in June, July and August.  It was a great opportunity to meet the artists, other shareholders, Springboard and MNartists.org staff, as well as enjoy the amenities of each location:  Lunalux Studios (during the overnight Northern Spark Festival), Silverwood Park, and the Black Dog Café in Lowertown St. Paul.  The last CSA event on August 19 was truly fitting as shareholders not only picked up their home-grown art but could partake of Community Supported Agriculture by purchasing produce and plants at the adjacent Farmer’s Market.  According to Andy Sturdevant, Artist Resource Manager for Springboard,”This year’s Community Supported Art program sold out for the third year in a row. The pieces of work picked up on this Sunday morning by fifty shareholders included everything from some beautiful ceramic tumblers by Alex Reed to photographic documentation of a conceptual Diet Coke-fueled journey across the state of Minnesota by Steven Lang.”

Andy Sturdevant of Springboard for the Arts joined the August round of CSA artists including Alex Reed, Tara Costello and Steven Lang, along with Jehra Patrick of MNartists.org

Thanks to Andy, Jehra and the 2012 CSA artists for sharing your work and helping many of us to start our own eclectic collection:

• Collaborative team of photographer Louisa Podlich and writer Christian Dahlager
• Photographer Stefanie Motta
• Letterpress artist Jenni Undis
• Visual artist Alyssa Baguss
• Visual artist Krista Kelley Walsh
• Photographer Andy Mattern
• Painter Tara Costello
• Visual artist Steven Lang
• Ceramicist Alex Reed