Mainspring

Mainspring is a community organization with the goal of celebrating and cultivating local culture in Houston County, Minnesota.

Our vision is to provide meaningful opportunities for Houston County residents to connect, inspire, and be inspired.

06/18/2026

Mainspring joins the 2026 – 2028 Activate Rural Learning Lab!

Ten projects were recently selected for the 2026 – 2028 Activate Rural Learning Lab. We appreciate everyone who applied. Each week we’re highlighting one project from the new cohort.

Mainspring is an organization that is activating a historic church building in Caledonia, MN. Their mission is to support artists in the essential work of rural future-building, radical healing, and intentional justice-oriented work.

"One of the most common building types we saw in Activate Rural Learning Lab applications were church buildings ready for a new purpose. Mainspring has been working diligently with their community to re-activate a former Presbyterian church building into a vibrant community arts space, and we are so excited to see what they do in this next chapter." – Activate Rural team

Congratulations to the entire team at Mainspring, we're excited to have you in the Activate Rural Learning Lab Cohort!

Stay tuned as we share more about the selected projects throughout the next several weeks!

06/11/2026

Please join us in giving a heartfelt congrats to our inaugural cohort of the Houston County Artist Mentorship Program: Sarah Jane Babinski, Sammi Boyd, Heather Larson, and Rachel Von Arx!! 🎉 Thank you to everyone who came out to support these local artists on opening night of their group art exhibition, "Art Grown Here". What a night to remember!

These four worked so hard over the last eight months, learning about building an art career and new art forms from our generous mentors. In addition to the workshops and mentor sessions attended, these four artists created new work that culminated in this beautiful exhibition.

If you missed opening night, you have three more chances to see the show: stop by any of the remaining three Saturdays in June from 10 am - 2 pm.

Thank you to for supporting this program, and to for these beautiful photos! Thanks to the wonderful mentor artists as well: TiAnna DeGarmo, Jovy Rockey, Miranda Lomeli-O’Reilly, Sharon Mansur, Kathryn Savage, Moheb Soliman, and Dana Sikkila! 💙

Photos credit: Jacquelline VanRavenhorst

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This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

06/09/2026

Join SEMAC staff at our upcoming free in-person grant workshop for individual artists and culture bearers at Mainspring.

📅 June 16, 2026 | 6-8pm
📍 Mainspring | 404 E Main St, Caledonia, MN

Learn About
🎨 SEMAC's grant programs
🎨 Skill building workshops
🎨Helpful grant writing tips
🎨Additional resources
🎨 Applying for upcoming grant for individual (deadline: July 28)

Pre-registration is encouraged: semac.org/calendar/workshops/

Light refreshments will be provided, as well as time for conversation and connection.

Accessibility accommodations are available upon request via SEMAC's workshop registration forms, or contact Sharon Mansur, Outreach & Accessibility Manager, directly at [email protected], 507.322.1088, 711 TTY.

*SEMAC activities are made possible by the voters of Minnesota through grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

06/02/2026

Join us this Saturday for the opening reception for ART GROWN HERE: a group exhibition featuring the inaugural cohort of Houston County Artist Mentorship participants Sarah Jane Babinski, Sammi Boyd, Heather Larson, & Rachel Von Arx!! Let's celebrate each of these local artists and experience the variety of incredible art each will be sharing through this exhibit. Reception will be from 5-7 pm, and will including a conversation with the artists, refreshments, and more!

Art Grown Here: Houston County Artist Mentorship Exhibition Opening

05/11/2026

DEADLINE EXTENDED: If you've been thinking about applying for our Houston County Artist Mentorship Program but missed the initial deadline, good news! We've extended it until Wed, May 20th at midnight. Reach out with any questions either via direct message here or by emailing info (at) mainspringmn.org.

Participants receive a $500 unrestricted stipend plus free access to art workshops, mentorship sessions with established artists, and inclusion in a group exhibition!

Spread the word to any artist or creative in the County! (Visual artists, musicians, writers, quilters, woodworkers, jewelry makers, and more!)

Application link is in our bio. 🌱

05/06/2026

Hello spring! We have some exciting application deadlines & events coming up that we don't want you to miss - read on, friends!

🌻Join us this Sat from 10-11:30 am for Bread & Poetry: Writing About Food workshop with visiting author !
🌸 Applications for the Houston County Artist Mentorship progran are due midnight this Sun, May 10th! Participants receive a $500 stipend, free art workshops, art career consultations, & inclusion in a group art exhibition!
🌼 On Wed, May 13, artists can learn how to make thier own Portfolio Kit in a FREE online workshop with Dana Sikkila &

Links for all this & more in our bio. 👀 See you around, folks!

04/30/2026

We can't wait for our next workshop, "Bread and Poetry: Writing About Food" with incredible visiting author Kathryn Savage on Sat, May 9 from 10-11:30 am at Mainspring! Registration is $15: https://tinyurl.com/4hustwtj

With food as our inspiration, this creative writing workshop will focus on writing sensory rich poetry and prose. To write about food is to also write about agriculture, family, culture, and place. In this class, open to beginning and experienced writers, we will turn our attention to poems about food by reading works by celebrated poets and then generating our own writing from prompts. Come ready to read and write and get hungry!

About the author: Kathryn Savage’s Groundglass: An Essay (Coffee House Press), explores topics of environmental justice and links between pollution and public health. Groundglass was named a best read of the year by the Sydney Morning Herald, a Yale Review Favorite Cultural Artifact, and was showcased in Orion Magazine, Lit Hub, and selected by EcoLit Books as a Best Environmental Book of 2022. Other writing has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Artforum, Ecotone, Guernica, VQR, and she is a frequent book review contributor to World Literature Today. She received a 2025 McKnight Fellowship in Writing and her work has been supported by the Minnesota State Arts Board, Jerome Foundation, and Tulsa Artist Fellowship. Savage is an assistant professor of creative writing at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

Kathryn Savage is a fiscal year 2025 recipient of a Creative Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

04/23/2026

Calling southeast Minnesota artists! We are thrilled to share an exciting and FREE opportunity to take two virtual workshops through Springboard for the Arts Work of Art workshop series. First up on Thu, Apr 30th is Career Planning for artists; then on Wed, May 13th is Portfolio Kit. Both workshops are with the wonderful Dana Sikkila, and are from 5-7:30 pm through Zoom.

Registration is required:
https://springboardforthearts.org/event/work-of-art-career-planning-2/

https://springboardforthearts.org/event/work-of-art-portfolio-kit-3/

These workshops are open to any southeast Minnesota resident in the SEMAC region. These workshops are made possible through the Houston County Artist Mentorship Program. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts & cultural heritage fund.

04/21/2026

Join us this Saturday for the Houston County High School Art Show opening reception from 4-6 pm at Mainspring! Light refreshments will be provided.

Support young artists in our County and view the creative artwork they've made over the course of the school year. The show features work from students from Caledonia, Houston, and Spring Grove High Schools.

The show will also be open for viewing on Sunday, April 26 from 10 am - 2 pm.

04/02/2026

Exciting News: applications are now open for the Houston County Artist Mentorship Program!

Going into it's second round, this is a stipend-paid program providing artistic mentorship for six Houston County emerging and/or early career artists. The Houston County Artist Mentorship Program will train six mentee artists over the course of eight months through 1) art workshops taught by regional mentor artists; 2) tailored art career mentor sessions; 3) artist career training courses taught by leading Midwest arts organization Springboard for the Arts; and 4) a culminating art exhibit at Mainspring.

Applications are due May 10th. Apply here: https://forms.gle/ysGdHXgSXZSaK1qd6

Address

404 Main Street E
Caledonia, MN
55921

Website

http://www.mainspringmn.org/cookbook

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