Festival of Belonging at Wild River State Park
Festival of Belonging; Photo credit: JG Everest
Collaborating Partner:
MN DNR, Wavelets Creative, Friends of Wild River State Park, Fire In The Village, Walking Into the Woods, Met Council, East Central Regional Arts Council (ECRAC)
Artist:
JG Everest
Time & Place:
July 28-Sept 21, 2025 at at Wild River State Park, Center City, MN
Project Description:
For the culminating project of his yearlong MNPAiR Artist Residency at Wild River State Park, composer / director JG Everest organized a large-scale interdisciplinary "Festival of Belonging" that took place over four weekends from Aug 23-Sept 21 2025, with free onsite community "Art in Nature" workshops offered beginning July 28, providing community members the opportunity to contribute their own creative gifts through poetry, music, and visual art to the Festival.
The Festival featured the world premieres of several new site-specific performance installations, created for different areas of the park, including Everest's new 90-min spatial "symphony", the Wild River Sound Garden, a self-guided 30-channel immersive sound installation embedded in the wooded area near the visitor center. (see visitor comments below)
Goals or Outcomes Achieved:
Fostering a sense of curiosity, discovery, and Belonging at Wild River State Park through interactive, site-specific transdisciplinary collaborations.
Using spatial sound and composition and design to create a welcoming, healing and transformative experience for visitors. (see visitor comments below)
What did you learn? Artistically? Administratively? About the community?
We learned that there is incredible enthusiasm and support for these kinds of projects from those visitors who attended. We received overwhelmingly positive feedback.
Working within government bureaucracy can be a challenge, especially when agency or park staff don't understand or trust artists' process or don't feel enough support from their agency to be flexible or take chances in areas where they are out of their depth, wading into new territory (which is what artists do!). Beware the culture clash between "Risk-Averse" cultures (government agencies) and "Risk Dependent" cultures (artists) because they are diametrically opposed, and one side's oxygen is the other's suffocation. Make sure that operators from both sides are given the tools and leeway to experiment and compromise and learn new approaches, and process these challenges in a supportive and patient workplace. (Something increasingly rare in these times of short-staffed downsizing and overworked staff).
Links
https://waveletscreative.org/festival-of-belonging/
Quotes from the project:
"I came to Wild River on a whim to do a hike and stumbled across this odd symphony in the forest. I felt the serendipity guiding me to this place at this time, and I felt the strong urge to come back later on to bask in the sounds again. Thank you for this blessed experience."
"The music drew us in before we knew what this was. My muscles relaxed, breathing slowed. Without thinking, we all drifted to different corners of the garden. I sit here now, willing the buzzers around me to visit my ears and add to the symphony. A perfect addition to a meandering Saturday. Thank you."
"I think this is amazing. My words can't even express how at peace I am. I feel more connected to the earth and nature and I feel like a weight has been lifted off my chest. My hope is that everyone else who is reading this enjoys and appreciates this as well."
"The 9 to 5 desk sitting in air conditioning
programmed by the clock and computer
puts me into a forgetful trance-
separated out little me
separate
alone
individual.
Disconnected from the wind- waving prairie grasses.
the pollinating bees
the blue jays on the branch of the oak.
a dangerous, pernicious myth
this is separate from me
this human self separate from earth.
But here- the songs of bugs
the sounds of hidden speaker
the muscles in these legs
the cloudy sky above
all stir me from trance
all remind me of what is
and I rest." — written feedback from a visitor to the Wild River Sound Garden at the Festival Of Belonging.
Signage for the Mitigwaki Sound Garden; Photo credit: JG Everest
felt speaker vessel in the Mitigwaki Sound Garden; Photo credit: JG Everest
Swampling performance; Photo credit: JG Everest
Mitigwaki Sound Garden performance; Photo credit: JG Everest
