Posted: 8/2/05
By Aaron Vehling
After 20 years and $20,000 in scholarships to high school students pursuing university-level art, the St. Croix River Valley Arts Council is dissolving and will have its final meeting in September.
Rose Mason of Balsam Lake, Wisc., secretary and treasurer of the council, has run the organization from her home for much of the councilís operating life.
In addition to the scholarships, the council put on an arts and crafts show and published a newspaper to raise money to buy art supplies for schools and fund after-school art programs.
North Branch students have been recipients of scholarships, Mason said. The last scholarship recipient was Justin M. Johnson of Almelund, who received $1,000 in 2004, she said. The Post-Review was unable to locate Johnson.
At its peak, the council had 70 members, ten of which were active in organizing the events, Mason said.
Membership declined when Mason requested all members attend two meetings a year or donate one hour a year working at the art fair. ěMembership dropped like flies,î she said. ěThatís just about what happens to all organizations.î
In its last years, the council was down to four members, all in their golden years.
ěPeople just do not seem to get involved anymore,î Mason said.
Ethel Johnson, 88, a painter from Center City, is the president of the council. Johnson, who paints china, said the council is dissolving because it ěended up being a bunch of old ladies.î
ěWe can only do so much if we canít get the youngsters involved,î she said.
The council started in 1985 when painters, musicians, weavers, potters, writers, jewelers, woodcarvers, naturalists and teachers from both sides of the St. Croix River came together to create an organization in support of local artists.
The council sponsored an Arts and Crafts Fair twice a year for awhile, but was down to one a year before the fair was canceled in 2003.
Mason got involved with the council in 1986 when her husband, an artist, joined the organization. Mason, who is not an artist, was displeased that she could not speak up at the meetings as a nonmember and subsequently became the organizationís treasurer.
Mason and her husband were involved in the different offerings of the council. But after her husband died in 2002, it was a lot harder for her to be involved and by that point the membership was down to less than ten members.
Johnson said she feels bad about the dissolution, but it was necessary.
ěIt was to the point where it was too much work for old ladies,î she said. ěI would love to have someone paint with.î
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