Editor's note: This article originally appeared in Southwest Connector

The Center for People and Craft announces its launch this fall as an emerging urban folk school, supported by a $100,000 Vibrant Storefronts award from the City of Minneapolis Department of Arts and Cultural Affairs. The award helped accelerate the center’s opening. As one of eight recipients, it joins a citywide effort to transform underutilized spaces into creative, vibrant community destinations.

Located adjacent to Loring Park, in the education building of St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral at 519 Oak Grove Street, the center will be a hub for hands-on, inter-generational learning in craft, ritual, cultural exchange, and ecological connection. Drawing from the Danish folk school model – reimagined for a diverse urban context – the center celebrates the rich cultural traditions of the Twin Cities. Ultimately classes will be offered in craft, music, dance, storytelling, foraging, and more. Rooted in a deep connection to land and place, its programs will emphasize cross-cultural sharing and the healing power of folk traditions to foster belonging and resilience during a time of social division.

Founding director and south Minneaplis resident Anna Lindall said, “Folk learning has always been about more than skills – it’s about strengthening communities. This grant affirms the importance of folk learning in building stronger, more connected communities at a time when divisiveness can feel overwhelming. We believe the center can be a place of healing and creativity where people come together across differences. The time is right to bring this vision to life.”

Lindall is an educator, cultural organizer, and teaching artist with more than 20 years of experience. She founded Free Forest School, a grassroots idea that has grown into a national nonprofit serving over 70,000 families, and she continues to teach Scandinavian handcraft in settings for both youth and adults.

The founding team includes two other artist/educators. One is Liesl Chatman, a nationally recognized folk artist and organizational strategist who revived the Nordic art of kolrosing and advanced equity-driven initiatives at the Science Museum of Minnesota. The other is Sarah Nassif, a social practice artist and educator whose participatory projects, such as the Weaving Water Workshop, engage communities through fiber art and environmental storytelling. Together, the team brings deep expertise in folk arts, community organizing, creative education, ecological connection, and collective healing.

Why here?

When asked about how this all came to pass, Lindall said, “I learned about the Vibrant Storefronts Program this spring, that the city of Minneapolis had identified parts of the town where they wanted to ‘seed’ artists. They had compiled a list of available vacant spaces. If your vision was picked, you would get a substantial rent reduction for two years. There were only three weeks left to apply, and the official tour of spaces had already happened.”

But one of the spaces was already familiar to Lindall; she had gone to pre-school at St. Mark’s in the 1980’s – and their preschool space was on the list. With its five classrooms, she thought it would be ideal for this type of learning.

Lindall continued, “The St. Mark’s site is right on the historic Dakotah footpath between St. Anthony Falls and Bde Mka Ska. This particular piece of land has such human history on it. When we look at who lives in the neighborhood there, we see a diverse and dynamic community. There are a lot of apartment buildings on one side of Hennepin Avenue, and a lot of single family homes on the other. It’s a big mix of incomes. With Loring Park, three huge churches, the Walker Art Center, and the Sculpture Garden nearby, we hope to become a hub for people to share and transmit culture.”

Why now?

For centuries, people have transmitted culture, one person to the next, in social circles and through informal teaching. While the Folk School concept came out of a particular time in a faraway place (Denmark), it can be applied to any cultural tradition.
In the 1850s when the concept was developed by NFS Grundtvig, Denmark was transitioning from a monarchy to a democracy. The Folk School model rejected nationalism, instead promoting folkelighed or “peopleness”– a pride in one’s own culture, language and stories, absent of a sense of cultural superiority.
The other big reason to do this right now, according to Lindall, is the arrival of AI. She said, “We need to keep working with our hands; we need to keep our cultural traditions alive. We need person-to-person connection; we need to keep thinking for ourselves.

Join the team

Response to the announcement of an urban folk school has been in Lindall’s words, “Hugely enthusiastic.” She said, “I made an Instagram account in September, after the mayor announced the grant recipients. Within 48 hours, we had more than 500 followers. We have 30+ volunteers signed up already helping with program design, admin systems, finance, social media, building furniture, painting and cleaning. A lot of people are interested in teaching, but we’re not quite there yet. We’re looking for instructors, but won’t begin offering classes until early 2026.”

The center will open its doors with two events this fall. There will be an open House on Oct. 25 from 1–4 p.m. and a Skill Share/Potluck on Nov. 15 from 5–8 p.m., where community members can try a craft or bring a handwork project. Each quarter, the center will host at least one free public event as part of the Vibrant Storefronts program. The center is currently welcoming community partners, artisan instructors, and volunteers to help move this project forward. For more information, visit the website at www.peopleandcraft.org  or @centerforpeopleandcraft on Instagram.

‍