A few days ago, I returned from spending almost two weeks in the Twin Cities (mainly St. Paul) and its surrounds.  This was my second visit to the area, and I once again found the community to be compellingly different than anything else I’ve experienced (in a good way!).  Minnesotans have a loyalty and passion for their region that is above and beyond anything I have previously witnessed — and they aren’t shy about telling you about it!  One of my closest friends, a St. Paul resident and Minnesota native, never hesitated to inform me what his state was ranked #1 for (eg, most bicycle commuters) and/or what Minnesotans were first to do (eg, build a mall).   Apparently, it’s not uncommon for Minnesotans to be up on their statistics.  Another example: there are more theater seats per capita in the Twin Cities than anywhere else in the nation (though, now its unclear if New York or Los Angeles has usurped that spot).  In any case, it’s clear that Minnesotans are proud of their state.

As many of us already know, Minnesotans are big into nature and the environment — it’s a very green state.  And, in an incredible coup (a coup de theatre, you might say), while the state’s budget is in as much of a mess as any other states’, the arts have been awarded a large chunk of money through what’s called the Legacy Amendment.  How was this finagled?  By partnering with the environmentalists, of course!  It was shown that Minnesota has a significant history of and dedication to both culture/arts and the environment.  To ensure Minnesota’s “legacy” (hence the name), more money was pushed in the general direction of those sectors.  In a time of economic recession, many people (including myself) are amazed that the passing of this bill occurred, so congrats to all who made it happen!

Why were we in Minnesota, you ask?  First, we have numerous Open Arts Network partners who call The Star of the North home, including Springboard for the Arts, Minnesota Theater Alliance, the Minnesota Fringe, and The Playwrights’ Center.  I had the pleasure of catching a few shows at the tail end of the Fringe (including a tremendously funny play by Fractured Atlas members Shelby Company) and, following that, our other three partner organizations graciously hosted a workshop for me to present to local artists at The Playwrights’ Center’s lovely home in Minneapolis.  If you check out the organization’s Twitter feed here, you can read tweets with information from the session, which took place on 8/17.  I was then able to meet with staff from a variety of arts organizations, including MN Artists, Arts Midwest, and Forecast Public Art (the organization that helped us create our Public Art Insurance program), among others.

All of this helped me gear up for our big ATHENA Tix community design session, which was basically a day-long focus group with over forty participants from the Minnesota performing arts community.  (We were very excited that this marked the first event of the brand new Minnesota Theater Alliance and we are very grateful for their help!)  Having already held two of these sessions (one in New York, one in the San Francisco Bay Area), we thought that we might have already heard everything people would want in the open source ticketing software we’re developing.  Fortunately, there were a lot of new ideas and interesting anecdotes that populated the conversation.  My personal favorite was the story of how a theater in a rural area of Minnesota keeps a handwritten ticketing list (for sales purposes) at a gas station in the daytime and then, the gas station faxes it to the local bar at night.  The list goes back and forth until the performance occurs or the tickets sell out, whichever happens first.  Talk about a theater that absolutely gets its community and knows how to market to them!  The ATHENA Tix design steering group took these user stories back with us and we’re excited about continuing to work on the software, which we expect to launch during the first quarter of 2011.  (Keep in mind, this will be version 1.0, but we’re still excited about it!)  If you’re interested in joining the discussion regarding ATHENA Tix, you can join our planners listserv here.

The rest of my time in Minnesota was filled with things that many native Minnesotans have never even taken advantage of — I visited the beautiful lake city of Duluth (and was able to see the new Zeitgeist Arts Center), finally got to the gorgeous Walker Art Center (and saw a great Guillermo Kuitca exhibit), ate awesome Scandinavian food from Ingebretsen’s, and even marched in a community parade in Lino Lakes.  No, I wasn’t Grand Marshall or anything, but it was still a grand ole time!