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ABOUT US
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OUR MISSION
The mission of the Minnesota Folk Festival, Inc. is to present, teach and promote traditional and contemporary music and dance and to introduce these arts to new audiences. This organization is about presenting festivals, building community, living our cultural expressions, and enriching our quality of life.
WHO ARE WE?
Deborah Martin
Executive/Artistic Director
Minnesota Folk Festival, Inc.
Job History:
As our Executive Director, Deborah brings over 25 years of organizational development experience, concert, dance and festival production experience, and is the founder of the Cedar Cultural Centre. The 2002 Minnesota Folk Festival was her 14th festival. She has managed arts organizations, producing concerts, dances, and festivals, as well as maintaining all day-to-day organizational business requirements such as accounting, board development, and day-to-day office management. She has used various halls in the Twin City area for concerts and dances from the mid 1970s until 1999. At that time, the old Cedar Theater on the West Bank was donated to her organization and she spent the next four years focusing on the development of the Cedar Cultural Centre -- thus the hiatus in festival production. In setting up the Cedar Cultural Centre she set up the office structure, organized the board of directors, was in charge of three phases of construction, in charge of organizing all artistic events such as concerts of internationally acclaimed performers and concerts featuring locally renowned artists, organized dances, children's events, and special events such as the New Years Eve benefits. She developed rental policies so that other arts organizations, non-profit organizations, individuals and businesses could use the center for their own special events. She set up a volunteer program which eventually had over a hundred volunteers before hiring a full-time volunteer coordinator. She was the editor of the Cedar's monthly newsletter and organized the database which eventually had over 4,000 active clients. She also set up a restaurant in the Cedar's lobby and was in charge of menu development, business set up and hiring employees. After leaving the Cedar, she worked for the Federal Government in an auditing department. She also worked as a Realtor, an accountant, and as the Business Manager for Deva House, a hospice for children. In 1998 she founded the Folk Song and Dance Society aka Kaposia S.T.A.R, (Society of Traditional Arts & Resources) which was set up to sponsor major annual festivals of traditional music and dance. The name of the Folk Song & Dance Society was changed back to the Minnesota Folk Festival in January of 2000. The organization has sponsored the 1999 Midway Folk Festival, the 2000 Minnesota Folk Festival in Mear's Park, and the 2001 and 2002 Minnesota Folk Festival in Mounds Park. The organization has also produced the Saint Paul Celtic Connection in 2001 and will be hosting this event again in 2003 at the Fitzgerald Theater.
The Minnesota Folk Festival sponsors 2 festivals a year in the City of St. Paul: The St. Paul Celtic Connections and the Minnesota Folk Festival. We also sponsor occasional special concerts and events throughout the year. We are a non-profit tax exempt corporation and we rely on your support to exist.
Please consider making a donation and helping to ensure that traditional music and dance will continue to be available to your community.
donation form
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