Hovland Arts Festival (HAF)

One day only November 27th 10 to 4 pm

COOK COUNTY, MINNESOTA   ~~~  November 17, 2021  (LSNews)    The Hovland area is known for being a little quirky- a little far away from everything - and full of amazing artists. Come see the fun creations of the Hovlandtites

this November 27 10-4pm at the Hovland Arts Festival (HAF) and find out what we've been doing since this pandemic had us in lock down. As individual artists, alone time is usually the artist's dream but now we're ready to socialize and get back to our public. The creativity in the Hovland Town hall this summer was amazing, with over 25 artists at our summer show and it was our best public turnout since the show's inception.

Most of us are doing our art to keep busy and make some extra cash to make ends meet. Small town life is still expensive – but some of us can’t help but do art and have been doing art since we were kids, following in our parents’ creative footsteps. Two driven artists, Halle Bockovich and Meadow Adams started bringing their art to the Hovland festival when they were just teenagers. Halle is a careful sewist (sew+artist) of cute critters and fun stuffed items, like strawberries and gold fishes. She learned her skill from her aunt Wanda, who helped Halle make her new brother's baby blanket when Halle was just three. Later when Halle joined the Hovland Art festival she sold snow cones and bird feeders. Halle has participated in every festival since, honing her craft and expressing her unique artistic style with each passing year.

Meadow Adams started helping her mother, Julie Kean with the show when she was just a teenager. Julie creates beautiful birch bark ornaments and baskets and has passed this skill on to her daughters. Meadow is now an accomplished photographer in the Grand Marais area, but the mom and daughter team still share a booth along with Meadow’s sisters, Cedar and Nicki.

In addition to legacy artists, Halle and Meadow, we have a new team Claire and Kelly. This is their first year with the festival. Kelly is a teacher, and she helps Claire who is still preteen, with her crafts. Claire paints rocks and makes small craft items, she also is learning about talking to people in a sales setting and completing sales transactions.

Transplant to Hovland, this year’s coordinator of the HAF is a painter named Rachel Rae Klesser. She has been participating in the festival for the last 6 years when her mother Dr. Robin Penner moved to Hovland from Minneapolis. Rachel is standing in for Robin, the usual coordinator of HAF Shows, because Robin is in Georgia being a historical reenactor at the 1750s Fort Federica. This year Robin who is a historical researcher, also received a grant from the Arrowhead Regional Arts council and is creating an 1860’s womens’ historical costume, a project she has been trying to complete for years. 

The Hovland Arts Festival makes families stronger and the community united. The twice annual event makes it easy for parents to pass their talents to their children and keeps family traditions alive. While the winter edition of the festival is smaller than the summer festival (July 4^th weekend) it is inside, we're still full of energy and creative juice and many of the core artists have signed up to participate. For us Hovlandites, the time spent in the Hovland Hall gives us a reconnected feeling where we share our stories between and with our faithful customers and their families.

 Come visit the show and say hi - we're so excited to see you all!

By: Rachel Klesser 

#LSN_Arts  #LSN_CookCounty  #LSN_MNNews 

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