Tofte Lake Center at Norm's Fish Camp

06/05/2026

Today we kick things off our 18th season with the curated MN BIPOC Artist Residency, our first cohort of the season! Join us in welcoming Brenda Cardenas, Nyuttu Chongo, Roberto Harrison, Michael Kleber-Diggs, Sharon Mansur, Soliman Moheb, and Sun Yung Shin to the Lake!
Here's to a residency filled with play, creative focus, and rest in nature!

06/04/2026

TLC is 18 years old today!

When I founded Tofte Lake Center in 2008, I wanted to create an artistic home where artists of all career stages and disciplines not only survive, but thrive. I believe supporting an artist's individual creative potential and self-expression has a direct and essential impact on the world at large. If you share that belief I hope you’ll support us with a gift today.

We're hoping to raise $1,800 to celebrate our 18th birthday and we are almost there! Can you pitch in to help us reach our goal?

https://www.toftelake.org/donate

In celebration of this big milestone, we wanted to share a few of the highlights from the past few years of TLC's last 18 with you.

Your contribution, of any amount, helps ensure that this unique organization will continue to thrive for another 18 years….and beyond! Thank you for being a part of our family!

XO
Liz

06/02/2026

We can hardly believe it – TLC is turning 18 years old on June 4th! We’re finally all grown up and ready to go to college!

The last 18 years truly could not have happened without all of you – our incredible community of artists and art lovers! What started as a dream and a vision and a fish camp all those years ago has turned into a vibrant, thriving artistic home to over 1,000 artists… and counting!

To celebrate our birthday, we’re reaching out to our community to help provide sustaining support for our programming. Please celebrate with us by giving the gift of a recurring or one-time donation! Your gift provides essential support to our artists, programs, and staff. Help us reach our goal of $1,800 for our 18th birthday – a hundred bucks for each year we’ve been around!

https://www.toftelake.org/donate

Thank you for being a part of the community that has made this journey possible and joyful!. Here’s to another 18 years of Tofte Lake Center… and many more!

06/01/2026

Look who's setting up lake furniture and dusting off the kayaks! There's still a lot to do as we prepare for our 18th season at Tofte Lake Center, and we are grateful for our alumni Ritika Ganguly, Nadia Haar, Tatiana Riabokin, Paula Gudmundson, and Courtney Yasmineh who are prepping the grounds, organizing supplies, and stacking wood by the sauna. We can't thank you enough for giving back to our community of artists and caring for our Ely community with our fifth annual adopt-a-highway clean up!

05/29/2026

05/28/2026

Our favorite time of the year is here - yoga time! We're excited to share with you that our lovely local yoga instructors Therese Walls, Cindi Rahn-Kloehn, Carol Magie, Sudha Lundeen will be returning to lead us through weekly yoga classes starting Thursday, June 11th! We are also eager to introduce you to the newest addition to our yogi team, Jennifer Toddie.

This season, classes will be Thursdays and some Tuesdays from 8:30-9:45 AM. You are welcome to take classes at your own pace for $12 per class OR purchase a season pass and save!

https://www.toftelake.org/yoga

05/15/2026

The selections have been made and we couldn't be more excited! Join us in welcoming our 2026 Artists to the Lake!
Stay tuned--our season starts June 5th with our MN BIPOC Residency!

04/30/2026

We are beyond excited to woot and toot our amazing alumni, Juan Diego Perez La Cruz!! In addition to all the amazing things Juan has accomplished this year, he was recently honored as a recipient of the 2026 Paul F. Goldberg Champion for Children with Disabilities Award at the 2026 PACER Gala! This award recognizes someone who is a visionary leader, role model, and tenacious advocate for the rights of children and youth with disabilities and comes with a $5,000 prize to support the recipient's work. Join us is in congratulating Juan in this marvelous accomplishment!

03/17/2026

What an amazing weekend at the Ely Film Festival! Ely's bright community spirit welcomed over 80 independant, local and regional films--all in one weekend!. We were so proud to be a sponser and are beyond excited to host the Filmmakers Residency with selected film makers September 18th-24th. If you missed it, there is still time to catch a film or two at the Ely State Theater this week!

03/09/2026

The Ely Film Festival is finally here!! Tofte Lake Center is the proud sponsor of Her/Mine, a feature-length film showing on Sunday, March 15 at 11:00am. Join us for the story of a powerful journey of connection, creation, loss, and life.

You can get your tickets here: https://elystatetheater.org/event/eff26-her-mine-534954/

As a part of our sponership, TLC is offering an artist residency to a selection of 2026 Ely Film Festival filmmakers--let's continue the fun at the Lake!