In 2019 volunteers from the Cedar Lake Park Association and Kenwood Community School came together with a vision to designate part of the woods on the east side of Cedar Lake an official DNR School Forest. Active neighbors loved seeing this new initiative take root as in imersected nicely with other community engagement efforts at Cedar Lake East Beach, formerly Hidden Beach.
Unfortunately, spring of 2020 saw the world come to a standstill making any community-related activities nearly impossible to coordinate. However, times of struggle often cultivate sparks of creativity, and this was precisely how the ArtRocks! art installation in the woods on the east side of Cedar Lake was born.
Connecting Community Through Art
The idea of doing art installations in the vicinity of Cedar Lake East Beach was something that had been tossed around in Kenwood Neighborhood Organization brainstorming sessions for several years. However, it was the simple desire to bring families and children together during the COVID pandemic that brought this vision to be a reality.
Communication went out to Kenwood Community School families and through social media channels at the beginning of May 2020. Families were encouraged to pick up a rock and a paint kit outside of ARTrageous Adventures, just across the street from Kenwood School. Students were instructed to use nature as their inspiration to create an ArtRock! that would be placed in the woods on the east side of Cedar Lake for a community art installation.
Incredible Outpouring of Support
Over 150 rocks were painted and returned. Signs were made to formalize the project and to remind everyone walking through the woods to be respectful of the art and to social distance on the trails.
Although students were front and center in the motivation to establish this event, it was the outpouring of appreciation from the adult population that took the spotlight. In a time of unthinkable challenge and uncertainty, these painted rocks glimmered with hope and a promise that creativity and collaboration would prevail. People walking the woods in solitude stumbled across an unexpected outlet that connected them to their community.
ArtRocks! is now in its fourth year and has become formalized through Kenwood School.
Second and third graders from Kenwood School get the opportunity to paint a rock as part of their school curriculum, and many of the classes take walks to the school forest during the school day to see how all of the rocks have been displayed in the woods intersecting with nature.
This year the rocks were on display from May 26 - June 4 before being returned to Kenwood classrooms and taken home by students for summer break. Hill & Lake Press photographer Tim Sheridan captured these amazing images of the event that I hope you all enjoy.
For more information about the Kenwood DNR School Forest and how you can become involved, please contact Sierra DeMery at – sierra.demery@mpls.k12.mn.us.
