History of the Preston Area Arts Council:
In 2004 Preston's resident sculptor, retired engineer Benjamin (Ben) Love, had a dream, "a build it and they will come" kind of dream. Ben envisioned a beautiful sculpture park winding along the Root River and the bicycle trail in Preston, a park created to enrich our quality of life and attract more visitors to our area. He talked with friends, community
leaders, local and county officials, and he visited with artists in Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin to promote and garner support for his idea. Dick thought the park's success depended upon establishing a local mechanism that could help develop the park idea into a concrete plan and project proposal. He began promoting a local Preston Area Arts Council as that mechanism. In the spring of 2005 Dick held two public meetings that addressed the arts needs in Preston and the creation of an arts council. A local steering committee was formed to organize the council and the members of that committee included Preston residents, Father Francis Galles, Benjamin Love, Richard Nelson, and part-time resident Kay Spangler. Sadly in the fall of 2005 Dick Nelson passed away suddenly and in early 2006 Ben Love suffered a debilitating stroke that left him in need of institutional care for several months and ultimately resulted in his death. In the Spring of 2006 Father Galles and Kay Spangler invited interested Preston residents to attend an Arts Council organizational meeting. At that meeting a volunteer Board of Directors was appointed and in September 2007 the Preston Area Arts Council celebrated its first year as a Minnesota non-profit organization. The charter arts council board members included Eric Corson, Tara Corson, Father Francis Galles, Sally Gibson, Amy Luhmann, Erik Paulson, LaVerne Paulson, Dr. Robert Sauer, Joe Schladweiler, Mariella TerBeest-Schladweiler, and Kay Spangler. At a Preston town meeting held in August, 2006, a community project proposal to create and build a 30 ft. tall metal trout sculpture became one of two winning proposals to receive funding from the SE Minnesota Initiative Foundation. The dream of both Ben Love and Dick Nelson remain alive and well in 2011.
