December 2010 Archives

*cino needs YOU to vote each day in December to help us win a $50,000 grant to renovate the old kindergarten room at Huss School! Why vote? Read on...

Reason #31: Because today's the last day!

Dear friends of *cino,

December has been a busy month for us as we've focused on getting people to vote for our application for a $50,000 through the Refresh Everything project. Even though we didn't get in the top 10 to receive a grant, we are still very encouraged and hopeful!

We are encouraged that so many people -- both local and around the world, from old friends to people we've never met -- were willing to show support for the future projects at Huss School by voting each day (and sometimes more than once a day).

We are encouraged that, even though we're a tiny organization in a very small town, we finished as high as we did in a group of nearly 400 other projects!

We are hopeful that, even without a magical influx of $50,000, we will find ways to work together and resurrect the Huss School building as a thriving hub of service and imagination for college students and the local community.

A wise friend has told us that there's no such thing as failure when we dream such big, ridiculous dreams -- just changes of direction and opportunities for creativity. In that spirit, watch for news of other opportunities to get involved and support the project that are in the works for 2011, including a chili cook-off and and online art auction.

Another wise friend has said he's learned that believing in God's providence means trusting that we already have just what we need. We are grateful that our list of gifts includes you! Thank you for the many ways you've contributed to the work of *culture is not optional, on location in Three Rivers and around the world!

Peace,
Rob & Kirstin Vander Giessen-Reitsma

To make a financial gift before (or after!) the year turns to 2011, click here. Or go here to send us an update or word of encouragement.

*cino needs YOU to vote each day in December to help us win a $50,000 grant to renovate the old kindergarten room at Huss School! Why vote? Read on...

Reason #30: *culture is not optional has made good progress in the renovation work at Huss and building credibility in the community, but needs your help to continue moving forward.

At this point in the voting cycle, we're well aware that $50,000 from Pepsi is not in the cards for *cino at this time, but we're not discouraged! So many people have "showed up" to vote and we're proud that we've finished as well as we have. Since we purchased the building in June 2009, we've been working hard on a shoestring budget and a lot of prayers, and we'll continue to do so. The community garden will re-plant in the spring with renewed energy and new ideas. Service groups will continue to chip away at demolition and renovation as resources are available. The property at Broadway and 8th will continue to develop as a gathering space for neighborhood kids. And we'll continue to network with neighbors and other local organizations to see how our space can be of service. But we need YOU to keep moving forward. Please cast your vote today, but also consider making a financial gift or sending us a word of encouragement. Thank you for your faithful support of *cino's work!

*cino needs YOU to vote each day in December to help us win a $50,000 grant to renovate the old kindergarten room at Huss School! Why vote? Read on...

Reason #29: A small, professional quality venue can put Three Rivers on the map for national touring artists seeking grassroots house shows, with mutual benefits to the artist and the city.

As the music industry has been changing significantly over the past decade, some artists have been adapting by forming more personal relationships with their listeners. They're doing house shows or raising money to record through donations and pre-sales. In return for our response as listeners, they give us the gift of good art. We make it possible for them to do what they were created to do and they, in turn, change us with beauty.

Every once in a while, I get an e-mail from amazing musicians we know who are looking for spaces to put on small shows and every time, I wish we already had a place to accommodate them. I picture the film by the Icelandic band Sigur Ros, who took a break from world tours to embrace their own small country, playing wherever they could find space to rural, intergenerational audiences. It's easy to go after the major markets, but for artists and audiences who are longing for something more than just a commercial transaction, smaller is better and local has more heart. We hope that Huss School can provide a space for some of these kinds of interactions to take place, with a mutual benefit to the artist and to our small city.

*cino needs YOU to vote each day in December to help us win a $50,000 grant to renovate the old kindergarten room at Huss School! Why vote? Read on...

Reason #28: Collaborating on artistic events can cultivate skills to improve academic achievement, teaching Three Rivers youth about commitment, critical and creative thinking, problem-solving and conflict resolution.

Consider this scenario: a 16-year-old boy goes to school every day, but only because it's better than being at home. Pre-occupied with his family issues and jittery from too much soda and not enough calories at home, he can't focus on his classes and his grades show it. Music is the only thing that gives him a sense of escape and he starts a band with his friends, mostly performing for the array of tools in someone's garage. But after playing a song at the school talent show, the get booked by one of their classmates to play at the old Huss School. Intrigued by what's happening with the venue at the school, he starts showing up for weekly after-school planning meetings. As he gets to know the adult mentors who run the program, he begins to talk about how he's not sure he'll pass the year. He's encouraged to start showing up for the after-school tutoring sessions that happen in the same building and matched up with a mentor who keeps up with his progress, including making sure he's eating properly. By June, he's brought his grades up to a passing level and, with the skills he's learned by helping out with the music venue, his band goes on a mini-tour of ten Michigan towns. He even earns some studio time at the school by working shows and the band is able to sell 50 copies of their debut EP on the tour.

Sure, this is just a made-up story, but we don't think it's too far-fetched. Do you?

*cino needs YOU to vote each day in December to help us win a $50,000 grant to renovate the old kindergarten room at Huss School! Why vote? Read on...

Reason #27: Compared to urban areas, rural areas are often underserved in the areas of the arts and community gathering spaces.

One of our favorite stories lately has been that of a restaurant in a Maine tourist town that, when everything else in town shuts down for the winter, stays open on Fridays for soup lunches and live music. Locals make their way through the snow to share conversation and good food and for many, Friday becomes a bright spot in a long and lonely season. Customers can even take soup to-go for those who can't make it out of their homes. And the best part? It's all pay-what-you-can.

Like the folks who started this restaurant, we recognize that there's often a lack of third places (except bars) in rural areas, particularly late at night and in the winter. We hope the school can provide a place where there are intergenerational arts activities taking place at many times of day year-round, with special attention paid to filling the gaps. We also hope the school can be a place where our wonderful local established artists and organizations can collaborate to bring arts opportunities to the school's walkable, diverse neighborhood. Whether we're welcoming a senior citizen at risk for depression in the winter or a middle school kid who's dangerously bored in the summer, we hope the school can become a place that defies rural stereotypes and statistics.

*cino needs YOU to vote each day in December to help us win a $50,000 grant to renovate the old kindergarten room at Huss School! Why vote? Read on...

Reason #26: Three Rivers churches can collaborate to serve beyond the walls of their buildings through artistic expression.

We'll just say it: churches should not exist only for the benefit of those within their four walls. Sure, those are the folks who pay the bills to keep the lights on and a preacher in the pulpit, but the church is called to so much more than just maintaining an in-the-black institution with a nice building.

Imagine what might happen if a church decided to go where the needs are and serve, not out of an ulterior motive to put butts in their upholstered seats, but out of a genuine desire to be the love of Christ to others. What if the hand bells came out of their air-conditioned closet and became one of the activities that engaged middle-schoolers during the summer. Or what if the puppet stage the Sunday school program uses once a week started making an appearance on Saturday afternoons at the community garden to teach pre-schoolers and their parents about good nutrition. What if, in addition to learning about the philosophical connections between faith and popular music, a high school youth group learned the hands-on skills needed to produce a concert. Maybe you know a place where this is happening already. In fact, we hope you do! And may Huss School provide just one more venue for such missional, creative activity.

*cino needs YOU to vote each day in December to help us win a $50,000 grant to renovate the old kindergarten room at Huss School! Why vote? Read on...

Reason #25: Because it's Christmas!

We realize that many people won't even turn on their computers today and that's perfectly okay! We completely support unplugging on a holiday. But for those of you who are tuning in for today's reason and vote-vote-voting, we didn't want to let you down.

So what does Christmas have to do with voting for *cino to win $50,000 to renovate Huss School? Well, today is the day that Christians celebrate the incarnation of God as a newborn baby in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago. You might say that *culture is not optional represents just one expression of taking this incarnation seriously. In the birth of Christ, the spirit of God came into our world as a flesh-and-blood human being. We believe the incarnation is a challenge to followers of Christ--a challenge to put our deepest values into practice, to embody the spirit of God in our neighborhoods, to put our love into action.

Huss School represents a unique opportunity to put love into action in a specific time and place. We've been writing and teaching for some time about faith in a God of peace and justice as something that should shape our everyday activities and the school will provide a space to model what such an embodied faith might look like--not just for the benefit of Christians, but for the welfare of our whole city. Like the angels 2,000 years ago, we hope to proclaim the good news of God's love for all people, whether through the abundance of tomatoes from the garden or the delight of good music or the fun of a game of kickball. It's everyday incarnation!

*cino needs YOU to vote each day in December to help us win a $50,000 grant to renovate the old kindergarten room at Huss School! Why vote? Read on...

Reason #24: An all-ages arts venue will provide space of radical inclusion, open to any and every member of our community.

One of the things we've noticed since we opened a fair trade store in downtown Three Rivers is that there are a lot of people in our town who just need a place to sit down. With limitations caused by mental illness or addiction (usually past), "the walkers," as we call them, walk the city every day. They have no money to spend, but like anyone, they need a kind word, a cup of coffee, a place to warm up or find shelter from the rain.

If you look around, the walkers aren't the only one looking for a place to belong. There are kids who have a hard time fitting in at school or at home. There are adults who are looking for meaningful places to serve the community and find companionship. There are senior citizens who have a lot to give, but can't make it very far from home on their own. Our hope is that the school can be a place where all people, regardless of their limitations or quirks, can discover a place where they are greeted and appreciated for who they are as beloved children of God. We don't harbor any utopian illusions about everybody "just getting along"--we know such radical inclusion will be difficult. But we believe that conflict is a worthwhile risk on the path to creating a community of embrace beyond just the usual suspects.

*cino needs YOU to vote each day in December to help us win a $50,000 grant to renovate the old kindergarten room at Huss School! Why vote? Read on...

Reason #23: This venue will provide a service for our local community's past, present and future as a space for storytelling.

Just in the year and a half that *cino has owned Huss School, innumerable stories have come out about people's experiences with the building--as teachers, as neighbors, as students, as mischief-makers, as musicians. A building that's been standing since 1919 is bound to gather a few memories and we hope the school can continue to be a venue for both the making and the recording of Three Rivers stories.

Our history project has already begun that process through audio recordings of interviews with past students and teachers and we hope to continue the interviews in addition to holding special events that gather people who have had connections to the school in the past. Last June, friends of *cino organized a storytelling night as a fundraiser and we hope to host more of these kinds of events. We also hope the school can be a place that changes people's stories in large and small ways--through new friendships, by discovering a hidden talent, by finding a place of acceptance and compassion in the midst of a hard life. Our stories are the artifacts of who we are as individuals and as a community. We hope to create new ones worth telling and uncover and preserve the ones that need desperately to be heard.

*cino needs YOU to vote each day in December to help us win a $50,000 grant to renovate the old kindergarten room at Huss School! Why vote? Read on...

Reason #22: Unlikely friendships can form around shared interests like music and crafting.

When I was 21, I took a master gardener class through my county extension office. I was the certainly the youngest person in the class, but I really enjoyed developing relationships with people of different ages and backgrounds than I. When it came time to complete my volunteer hours for the course, I discovered a diverse group of kindred spirits whose shared love of gardening and community service led to starting a program to landscape around new Habitat for Humanity homes and teach the homeowners how to care for their new plants and trees.

I can think of several other experiences in my life when a shared interest brought me into relationship with people outside of my "bubble": playing summer softball, working at a Chinese restaurant and for my town's parks department, starting a volunteer-run fair trade store. I count these experiences invaluable because of the ways they challenged my assumptions and broadened my horizons, teaching me what it means to respect different opinions and become friends with people I never would have encountered if I confined myself to a narrow comfort zone.

One of our hopes for the programs at Huss School is that they will become a medium for such unlikely friendships--friendships across the boundaries of age, race, religion, income level and more. The community garden has already begun this process and we look forward to seeing how craft times, live music and special events can continue to call a wide range of people into collaboration and community.

*cino needs YOU to vote each day in December to help us win a $50,000 grant to renovate the old kindergarten room at Huss School! Why vote? Read on...

Reason #21: The responsibility for community development falls into the hands of more than just a few individuals; it requires a group effort and help from folks such as you.

As a culture, we love stories about how the vision and commitment of one spectacular individual makes an amazing difference for a community. For example, how many different films chronicle the life of an outstanding teacher in a struggling school? We do love our heroes and many individuals are appropriately honored for their resilience against the odds.

However, on the ground, community development and lasting change are more often the work of a whole group of people struggling together in the same direction, whether the goal is a neighborhood that's safe for children of all colors or the establishment of a thriving local business district. When one person is working alone, projects tend to depend on that individual's well-being and commitment and fall apart when he or she inevitably becomes exhausted. But when many people from diverse backgrounds are working together, communities benefit from more ideas, greater inclusivity and a better shot at sustainability. Members of a group can hold each other up, hold each other accountable and pick up the slack when circumstances require it.

Thank you to all of those who are dreaming, investing, waiting and working together with us as we imagine what's possible for Huss School, the well-being of Three Rivers and the future of the Church.

*cino needs YOU to vote each day in December to help us win a $50,000 grant to renovate the old kindergarten room at Huss School! Why vote? Read on...

Reason #20: Artistic opportunities will provide a means of learning and self-expression for creative students struggling at the margins of traditional schooling.

If you think back to your junior high and high school years, you can probably think of at least one student in your grade who seemed to have trouble in classes like science or math, but thrived when it came to art or cooking or shop. Maybe she created award-winning pottery or maybe he could make two pieces of wood fit together more tightly than anyone else in the class. Maybe you were that student.

While many students do just fine in school, there are others who could benefit significantly from even more creative opportunities, both as an alternative to destructive after-school behavior and as a positive outlet for imagination. Learning how to play music, work with wood, make paper or plan a concert can engage teenagers in a way that in-class lectures can't, teaching them skills and creative ways of thinking that will round them out as individuals and as members of our community. Every teenager has gifts to offer and it is our hope that we can create a space where students who may think they aren't worth much because they don't fit in in school will discover a space of welcome with the resources they need to thrive in their own creative, unique ways.

*cino needs YOU to vote each day in December to help us win a $50,000 grant to renovate the old kindergarten room at Huss School! Why vote? Read on...

Reason #19: The private sector of Three Rivers, including local businesses, banks and corporations, can support local artists while benefiting from increased tourism and business.

Our best guess is that, since *culture is not optional purchased Huss School in 2009, around 60 people have come to visit Three Rivers who probably wouldn't have otherwise. Those visitors have sought out places to stay, food to eat, beverages to drink and shops to peruse, producing a significant investment in our local business community. Additionally, nine individuals have made Three Rivers their home for short and long term service opportunities. Even though these folks are sacrificing larger incomes in order to serve in our community, they're still contributing to the local economy through grocery shopping, entertainment, gifts, transportation and other transactions.

We believe Three Rivers is a worthwhile destination for visitors and a lovely place to live and we hope our projects at Huss School will continue to grow this conviction in more and more people throughout Michigan and around the world. Confident in this potential, we'll encourage local businesses to give back by supporting arts programming, the community garden and other projects as part of Imagining Space at Huss School.

*cino needs YOU to vote each day in December to help us win a $50,000 grant to renovate the old kindergarten room at Huss School! Why vote? Read on...

Reason #18: Public institutions in Three Rivers such as non-profit organizations and libraries can contribute to the support of local artists while benefiting from an arts venue drawing people into the community.

In the past year, nine former Calvin students have moved to Three Rivers for short and long terms to get to know our community and work with *cino. One of the first things many of them did was get a library card. And Stephanie is working part-time at the library now. Many valued public institutions, like the library, already exist that are dedicated to learning, creativity and the well-being of our youth and families. We hope that *cino's presence in Three Rivers through Huss School will be a benefit to those institutions by introducing new people to the community and cultivating a sense of community ownership and investment in local young people. We also hope to provide an opportunity for those institutions to collaborate in a focused way in the neighborhood of the school, which would benefit from their presence in a walkable location, particularly for those who don't drive or have access to a vehicle.

*cino needs YOU to vote each day in December to help us win a $50,000 grant to renovate the old kindergarten room at Huss School! Why vote? Read on...

Reason #17: Arts programming for youth will build on the work of the Triple Ripple Community Gardens at Huss School, appealing to some of the same participants, but also bringing in kids with different gifts and interests.

During the 2010 growing season, Triple Ripple Community Gardens raised over 1,000 pounds of produce on the property at Huss School to donate to the county homeless shelter, the domestic assault shelter and local families in need. We think that's pretty amazing, and we're very excited to see what changes and improvements make next year's community garden experiment an even bigger success. Already, plans are in the works to connect with even more neighborhood kids to teach them how to grow food.

Though there's a lot of overlap between gardening and making art, not every kid is into sticking their bare hands into the soil, enduring mosquitoes or sweating it out in the Michigan humidity to get that whole row weeded. And that's okay. Our hope would be that being able to provide arts programming at the school in addition to the garden will draw kids with a wide range of skills and interests. There's also excellent potential for overlapping arts and garden projects--pressing flowers and herbs, painting murals on signs and sheds, drawing and photographing and filming the garden and its caretakers throughout the season. But also, if we get one heated, plumbed space up and running inside the school building, arts programming can continue even while the garden is enjoying its winter solitude in preparation for the next season. Continuity and stability will be critical for growing healthy relationships with neighborhood kids and indoor arts activities will provide that opportunity.

*cino needs YOU to vote each day in December to help us win a $50,000 grant to renovate the old kindergarten room at Huss School! Why vote? Read on...

Reason #16: When local artists are encouraged to take pride in their work, it contributes to the artist's sense of self-esteem as well as the community's positive recognition of its own unique character and value.

Young artists with gifts in music, painting, film and other forms tend to emigrate from rural and suburban areas into cities for a variety of reasons. Cities contain a wide range of possibilities for inspiration and collaboration. Neighborhoods within cities become known as places where artists gather. As a natural result, cities often flourish artistically while rural and suburban areas languish.

However, imagine what could happen if a small rural city committed intentionally to encouraging the gifts of young artists, involving them in works of public art, giving them opportunities to display their work and teaching them the skills they need to transform what they see in their community into compelling work to which audiences respond. In fact, this is already happening in Three Rivers, both for youth and adult artists. We hope the projects at Huss School will join this stream of community development to make it even stronger, bridging age and income gaps. Over time, we hope to change self-perceptions about our community, from a struggling Midwestern town that's being gutted by industrial trends to a beautiful, thriving center of opportunity for all people with a creative collaborative vision. We want our artists and our city to have a strong sense of self-worth.

*cino needs YOU to vote each day in December to help us win a $50,000 grant to renovate the old kindergarten room at Huss School! Why vote? Read on...

Reason #15: Local artists need venues and encouragement to develop their skills and artistic voices.

In October 2010, painter Makoto Fujimura published "A Letter to North American Churches," offering an artist's perspective on the sense of alienation many artists feel in the Church. Not just in the Church, but in contemporary Western society as a whole, the artist's vocation has not always been esteemed. Productive members of society are seen as those who make functional objects and who generate money, not those who create beautiful, challenging art out of sound, paint, metals, clay, scripts, words and other media. We're seeing the effects of the devaluing of artists as art programs get slashed from school budgets and both we adults and our children are poorer for it. Art is an important teacher, both to the artist and to the society the artist seeks to communicate with. Artists challenge our prejudices, wake us up to extraordinary beauty, take us places we've never been, help us identify with the oppressed, record our community's stories and so much more. We believe art is necessary and we hope Huss School can be a place that encourages artists of all ages, ethnicities, income levels and abilities to develop their gifts...for the good of the whole community!

Thank you to River Country Journal and Three Rivers Commercial-News for publishing stories about *cino's Refresh Everything campaign, as well as the countless individuals who have been voting and spreading the word! We have been holding steady around 150. If we can get into the top 100, we'll automatically get another chance to gather votes in January to win a $50,000 grant for renovation at Huss School!

*cino needs YOU to vote each day in December to help us win a $50,000 grant to renovate the old kindergarten room at Huss School! Why vote? Read on...

Reason #14: Creative collaboration among our neighbors and members of the community will increase social cohesion and help dispel myths of rural "voicelessness" and apathy.

One of the first questions I often hear when I tell people where I live is, "Why Three Rivers?" Even though rural areas are responsible for most of the food people eat, there's a general bias toward urban areas as centers of learning and culture where people who are smart and sophisticated choose to live. Rural towns are perceived as backwards, places where change is resisted and where fierce independence trumps the common good and people in their twenties and thirties leave rural areas in droves. If you can, you get out.

To be sure, Three Rivers has some problems that are related to these general perceptions of rural areas, as generations have been taught not to expect much from our rural city. However, mixed in with the self-deprecation is an intense optimism and longing. We recognize that there might be more resources and opportunities to develop the kind of place we hope Huss will become in a more densely populated area. Realizing these dreams might be easier in a city. But here's the question we always come back to: why shouldn't Three Rivers have access to the same benefits of community development and arts programming as other places? The people of this city have so much to offer and our kids deserve as much energy and imagination as we can muster. Getting there is like putting together a million-piece puzzle, but we have faith that the picture we create will be one of such beauty that it will melt the hearts of the nay-sayers and transform the lives of the young in our small town.

*cino needs YOU to vote each day in December to help us win a $50,000 grant to renovate the old kindergarten room at Huss School! Why vote? Read on...

Reason #13: Individual artistic gifts are an important part of a community's assets and both the artist and the community flourish when these gifts are shared.

One of the things we've been watching develop over the past couple of years is the Three Rivers Artists Guild. We knew there were a lot of really talented artists in our community, but it's been delightful to see the new activities and venues that have grown out of their collaboration. They've launched a monthly art in the park event during the warmer months and, as I type, they're selling their creations at a holiday gallery and art market down the street. The guild has been a win-win development--the community has greater access to art and the artists have greater access to income generation. One of our hopes for art programming at Huss School is that it would create a space where adult artists can share their gifts with neighborhood kids who would benefit from exposure to works of art and to their own capacity to create beautiful things. We also hope that the adult artists would be energized and renewed in their creativity by spending time with children whose imaginations are so young and fresh.

*cino needs YOU to vote each day in December to help us win a $50,000 grant to renovate the old kindergarten room at Huss School! Why vote? Read on...

Reason #12: Event planning is a transferrable skill that young people will be able to apply in many other settings.

If you've ever planned an event for a large group of people, you know all of the skills and abilities required. Think about planning a wedding. In the process, couples learn how to communicate their preferences and identities, how to resolve conflicts, how to focus on what's important in the middle of stress, where to find the resources they need, how to work within limitations, and so much more. When young people are given responsibility to plan events and develop a series of activities, they're challenged to consider issues of mission, resources, audience, promotion and hospitality. They learn to evaluate the past and dream for the future, to develop specialties and adapt on the fly. Learning how to plan events cultivates skills that are transferrable to a wide variety of vocations and event planning itself is useful for many professions and life events.

*cino needs YOU to vote each day in December to help us win a $50,000 grant to renovate the old kindergarten room at Huss School! Why vote? Read on...

Reason #11: Kids with unstable home lives need safe places to be encouraged, express their needs and build life-giving relationships with adults.

From spending time at the school over the past year and a half, we've noticed that kids are everywhere--riding their bikes, jumping on trampolines, swimming in kiddie pools, hanging out on the steps of the church. We've witnessed the presence of some very strong, stable families in the surrounding neighborhood. Some kids, however, seem to be experiencing instability beyond their control. For that matter, some adults are experiencing instability beyond their control. Over and over again, we were surprised at how willing kids are to trust and how resilient they are in the face of difficult circumstances. We want the school to be a safe haven where local children can find support and encouragement on a daily basis, as well as activities that challenge them to grow. We also hope to impress upon them that they have something to give, even in the midst of enormous need.

*cino needs YOU to vote each day in December to help us win a $50,000 grant to renovate the old kindergarten room at Huss School! Why vote? Read on...

Reason #10: An all-ages art venue will make it possible for community members to use personal strengths in meaningful ways.

One of the most wonderful and challenging aspects of an all-ages arts venue is the diverse array of gifts it requires to pull off a successful event or programming. Having worked with several non-profits on concert production and other large-scale community events, I've witnessed it firsthand. What's good about this reality is that it's impossible for anyone to work alone and take all of the credit. We'll need people who are equipped to clean, greet, organize ticket sales, select musicians, show hospitality to artists, raise funds, gather sponsors, design posters, run sound, set up lighting, create Facebook events and so, so much more. Such a list might seem daunting, but the necessity of a committed group strengthens the overall project. More people have a sense of ownership and the whole enterprise doesn't fall apart when one person drops the ball because of carelessness or crisis. People of widely varying abilities can have a place where they are needed for the sake of the common good.

*cino needs YOU to vote each day in December to help us win a $50,000 grant to renovate the old kindergarten room at Huss School! Why vote? Read on...

Reason #9: An all-ages art venue will create new memories at Huss School, a historic part of our beloved community.

As a 90-year-old building that hosted multiple generations of students, Huss School houses a lot of memories. Some of those memories come with a warm fondness, while others come with pain. For many, a shadow of economic and racial injustice surrounds the closing of the building as an elementary school. As a center for creativity, compassion and reconciliation, we hope that future generations will remember the building with fondness as a place that changed their lives for the better. We would love to see people bringing their families back twenty years from now to see the place where someone first invited them to play their music in public. We would love to hear stories from adults whose awkward teenaged selves discovered a place where they were accepted with all of their eccentricities and also challenged to give and serve. And who knows? Maybe the magnetism of memory will be so powerful for some, they'll decide to stay in our community or move back after having some adventures elsewhere. If home is where the heart is, in some ways, this project is all about home-making, isn't it?

*cino needs YOU to vote each day in December to help us win a $50,000 grant to renovate the old kindergarten room at Huss School! Why vote? Read on...

Reason #8: Local works of art and personal expression can become the basis for various cottage industries that will bring new sources of revenue into the community.

The current economic situation in the U.S. is highlighting a sea change with very local effects: we cannot depend on lifelong positions with large corporations to sustain us and our families anymore. Indeed, many younger people are seeing the detrimental effects of a lifetime of less-than-fulfilling work on their parents and grandparents. They're also watching their communities suffer as factories close and move to countries with lower wages and industrial standards. Much more than generations who came of age during the twentieth century, twenty-first century citizens are feeling compelled to carve out niches on a local level and seek greater satisfaction in their work--more than just putting bread on the table. We hope the resources at Huss School, beginning with an arts venue and extending to such projects as a community kitchen and a woodshop, can open up people's imaginations about their own potential for earning income. Offering access to new skills and an entrepreneurial spirit, the space at Huss School has the potential to be an incubator for small-scale businesses in the arts and beyond!

*cino needs YOU to vote each day in December to help us win a $50,000 grant to renovate the old kindergarten room at Huss School! Why vote? Read on...

Reason #7: An all-ages art venue will provide an opportunity to empower the youth of Three Rivers through youth-led events and concerts.

I went to college for two years in a small rural town in Iowa, so I know what it's like to dredge up places to hang out in a place that shuts down after 8:00 pm. Many evenings, we ended up driving a half hour to a truck stop in Le Mars, self-described ice cream capital of the world, to drink bad coffee and eat rubbery fried eggs. In Three Rivers, teen-agers often end up hanging out at Meijer, a 24-hour branch of a local superstore chain. Not unrelated to the poor selection of hangout spots is the fact that St. Joseph County, where Three Rivers is located, has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the state.

How might this reality change if local teen-agers had the opportunity to work alongside adult mentors to plan and organize their own weekend events? What if the adult mentors weren't just planning activities to distract teens from reckless behavior, but instead empowered teens with the skills and vision to create their own series with local bands? We seek to operate from the premise that teenagers are intelligent human beings with creative ideas and the capacity to develop skills and build community alongside their elders. We also believe that instilling an appreciation and sense of ownership for the arts at a young age will have long-term mutual benefits for teenagers and existing arts institutions in our community, like the Riviera Theatre and the Carnegie Center. Let the shows begin!

*cino needs YOU to vote each day in December to help us win a $50,000 grant to renovate the old kindergarten room at Huss School! Why vote? Read on...

Reason #6: Local art can preserve traditions that provide a community with its particular character and identity.

In 2003, Rob and I helped start a fair trade store in downtown Three Rivers called World Fare. One of the things we've really enjoyed about the store has been witnessing the great creativity and character of artisan groups around the world. Fair trade has created a market for traditional crafts that would die out otherwise; for example, it's hard to scrape together money for a set of onyx candleholders when food is scarce and starvation is a very real threat. By introducing traditional pieces of art into countries where people can afford luxury items, an income stream is created that helps economically disadvantaged villages perpetuate the skills that give their communities character. Stone sculptures symbolizing families of various sizes reflect the local resources and collective values of villages in Kenya. Banana leaves become nativities, reflecting the landscape and religious practices of Ecuador.

In our Three Rivers context, we hope that Huss School can be a space where people can begin experimenting at the intersection of local materials and their own imaginations and values. What does it mean to be people living at the intersection of three waterways? How can artifacts scavenged from the woods be reassembled into art? What qualities of our neighborhood make us feel angry or make us fall in love and how can we convey those feelings in images or songs?

*cino needs YOU to vote each day in December to help us win a $50,000 grant to renovate the old kindergarten room at Huss School! Why vote? Read on...

Reason #5: This renovation will provide a space to show hospitality to service groups who come to work at the school.

In the past year, approximately 112 people have served over 1,400 hours at the school, some of them braving temperatures so cold they could see their breath...inside the building! We managed to pull together some seating, drinking containers, fans, space heaters and other supplies to make our volunteers as comfortable as possible, but we look forward to have a space for them that will more accurately convey our deep gratitude for their service. The renovated kindergarten room will serve a variety of functions for volunteers. It will be a space to hear the story of the school so they understand why and whom and where they're serving. It will be a space to gather for homemade meals, provided and prepared by *cino staff as a way of saying thanks. It will be a space to warm up or cool off between tasks, with the as-yet-unrealized "luxury" of running water and functional bathrooms. With creative and unexpected touches, it will be a space that tangibly demonstrates the future vision for the building in form, function and green building techniques.

*cino needs YOU to vote each day in December to help us win a $50,000 grant to renovate the old kindergarten room at Huss School! Why vote? Read on...

Reason #4: This renovation will provide an income stream through facility rental.

At 27,000 square feet with no functioning heating system, Huss School is going to take a ton of money, time and resources to fully renovate. The well-built, historic building is definitely worth saving, but money is scarce and the needs, which include a new roof, are great. We are taking the tortoise's advice that slow-and-steady wins the race. The volunteers who have helped out so far have gotten a long way on a bit of muscle and a shoestring budget. With an infusion of capital like the $50,000 grant, we can take a big leap forward by creating a room with revenue potential. The income from programs and facility rental in the finished kindergarten room can in turn provide capital for other improvements and revenue-generating portions of the big picture, like an apartment, a wood shop and a community kitchen. Our plan is to make the kindergarten room functional and sturdy enough to handle a group of rambunctious pre-schoolers, but whimsically beautiful enough to host a small wedding. So who's going to be the first couple to get married there?

*cino needs YOU to vote each day in December to help us win a $50,000 grant to renovate the old kindergarten room at Huss School! Why vote? Read on...

Reason #3: An all-ages art venue will help unite members of our community across racial, economic, age and other social barriers.

Kindness trumps greed: it asks for sharing. Kindness trumps fear: it calls forth gratefulness and love. Kindness trumps even stupidity, for with sharing and love, one learns. 



Marc Estrin 
qtd. in Prayers for a Thousand Years

Every day that we go about our routine habits without pushing beyond our comfort zones, we miss out on the potential fullness of life. Children are segregated by age in their schools and the elderly are relegated to nursing homes where they are cared for by paid staff. The poor patronize the only grocery store accessible by walking or public transportation, while the wealthy exercise their freedom of movement by driving to the upscale establishment of choice. Skin color funnels us into certain churches, neighborhoods and social gathering spaces.

What might happen in a small, diverse rural city if a new inclusive space opened up right in the heart of an under-served neighborhood? What might a struggling single mother and a wealthy widow learn from one another? What might a respected elder of the black community be able to teach a rebellious white teenager? We dream that the activities at Huss School might provide foundations for bridge-building by appealing to participants of various ages, races and economic backgrounds. We dream that interactions in the space will be guided by kindness and compassion, so that we might all overcome our fears of the "other" to reach a place of mutual respect and seek justice for all side by side.

*cino needs YOU to vote each day in December to help us win a $50,000 grant to renovate the old kindergarten room at Huss School! Why vote? Read on...

Reason #2: Huss School is a meaningful, historic space for Three Rivers; renovating the space and bringing it back to life is important to the community.

On the same day we made our offer on the school, the local paper announced that the city had plans to tear the 90-year-old building down. Since *cino purchased the school, many local citizens have expressed how disheartened they were to hear of the demolition plans and how glad they are that we're preserving the building. We've had dozens of visitors walk through the building with us, sharing memories of their time as students, teachers and administrators. When we removed the carpeting from the kindergarten room, an elderly mother and her daughter stood by with tears in their eyes to see if the circle was still painted on the wood floor. There are many deep, meaningful memories connected to the building--some good, some awful and many mixed. The school is an important artifact and we hope to take good care of it, continuing its legacy as a place of learning and love.

*cino needs YOU to vote each day in December to help us win a $50,000 grant to renovate the old kindergarten room at Huss School! Why vote? Read on...

Reason #1: This project will be a big step toward a thriving community center that will empower young people and community members to imagine new possibilities for our rural city.

Since Rob and I moved to Three Rivers, we've heard some awfully negative comments about the community we've come to love. Our interns have experienced it, too. This summer, we hosted a group of cross country bikers who were told to keep on riding to another town, because it wasn't safe here for people who look like outsiders. We respectfully disagree! There's a time to ignore negative attitudes and a time to transform them. With the help of the community, we hope to create a space that makes more and more people say, "Our city has its share of problems, but it's a good place where I feel like I can belong." Naysayers, beware! We all share the responsibility to make Three Rivers a great place and we hope the creative transformation of Huss School will become part of our community's legacy, turning the most practiced frowns into hopeful smiles.