NYM Cultural Center Give to the Max Day 2020

What feeds your soul, fuels your creativity, and connects you to your community?

Like all of you, we are doing our best to adapt to the changes due to COVID-19. During times of crisis, art and creativity play an important role in helping people think differently, create connections, and build community in new ways.  

Here at the Cultural Center, this means a renewed focus on how to best support each other, provide access to art, celebrate our local culture, provide opportunities to learn about the world, offer chances for new experiences and connections, and embrace a creative, artistic and joyful life, all in new | different | safe | creative ways.

We are celebrating 30 years of cultivating the arts and community in 2020. We are so grateful to our community of supporters for joining us in these efforts for 3 decades. Now more than ever, we are looking to the future and thinking creatively about how to best connect and serve our community.

This COVID crisis has forced us to think differently. Early on, we provided virtual "Daily Doses of Kulcher" on our Facebook page, and we hope you enjoyed those tidbits of creativity, art, culture, poetry, history, and joy. More recently, we have articulated a new 3-pronged approach to programming: all of our events will be offered virtually, outdoors, and/or adapted/in-person. We will continue to work to focus on the health and safety of all.

As COVID numbers surge in Otter Tail County, we continue to embrace a renewed sense of gratitude for the essential workers in our community, region and around the world.  We are also grateful for the educators who are embracing flexibility in distance learning and remaining positive in encouraging and motivating our students. Please remember to thank the essential workers in your life and support them in whatever ways you can.

As we move forward, even as COVID-fatigue is a real issue, we encourage the following:

• Give yourself (and others) some grace. This is a difficult time, and everyone is struggling in one way or another. Take a break, take a breath, take a walk, read a book, support a friend, create some art, and do your best to embrace this unexpected gift of time.
• Support each other. Make a phone call, leave something on your neighbor's doorstep, enjoy a virtual happy hour, write a letter, send a package, connect in whatever creative and safe way works for you.
• Shop local. Spend your money with the businesses that are available for you now during this crisis and every day, and whose workers are risking their health to provide essential supplies to you. Many small businesses are working hard to offer the same conveniences (like curbside pickup) that the big box stores are--choose local whenever you can!
• Share generously. Many are struggling financially during this crisis, and we are very cognizant of that fact. If you’re able, help a friend who needs it. Give to organizations doing essential work to respond to COVID-19.  Support your local school and library.  Give again to nonprofits that you believe in. Organizations like the Cultural Center depend on donations both in good times and especially now, in difficult times. 
• Find the silver lining. Before the pandemic, many of us used to wish for more time, a slower pace of life, fewer obligations. Take this crisis and flip it on its head! Embrace the time with your family. Take a walk in the woods. Tackle your project list. Send that card you've been meaning to send. Learn a new skill. Take an online yoga class. Pull out your old cookbooks and try a new recipe or make an old favorite.  Make the best of this time we have, and before you know it, we'll be back together again.

Humans are meant to be together, and it is just plain hard to live through this time of isolation and physical distancing. As we think of those who are unable to work, living alone, feeling isolated, and struggling financially, mentally, and emotionally due to this crisis, we know that as we move forward, the arts can help us heal.

Thank you for considering a gift to the Cultural Center during Give to the Max Day 2020! We appreciate your efforts to help us not only survive but thrive during this time of COVID-19 and beyond.

Be well, be safe, stay healthy, stay CREATIVE!

P.S. Sustaining memberships are particularly helpful, and easier on your budget too. Regular, dependable, sustaining support is especially invaluable now when regular programming and income-earning events are not possible. Committing to a monthly, quarterly, or annual donation provides stable support that allows us to continue our work now and into the future. CLICK HERE to set up a sustaining membership online, or contact us at 218-385-3339 or betsy@kulcher.org to learn more about giving options.