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Headwaters Spring Planting Event

Headwaters Music & Arts has been celebrating brighter days with recent lighting projects at their downtown Bemidji campus. Having been the recipient of a 2022 Clean Energy Resource Teams Seed Grant for community-based clean energy efforts Headwaters has been doing their part with automated light switches and more efficient LED lighting throughout their building. In this eleventh round of CERT’s Seed Grants the group says, “CERT’s awarded seed grants to 74 innovative energy efficiency and renewable energy projects — over twice as many as last round — in communities from Warren to Winona, Morton to Mountain Iron, Long Prairie to Lindstrom."

Headwaters Music & Arts has taken concrete steps to reduce their carbon footprint and be more efficient in the last few years, including the CERT’s funded lighting improvements and their freshly installed mini split pump in the art studios. Headwaters invites the community to celebrate and learn more about these achievements on Earth Day April, 22, 2022 with a public native flora planting event at 4-5:30 pm. The fun, free, and educational event is a collaboration between Headwaters and Mississippi Headwaters Audubon Society that will include equal parts art and planting. Attendees will have the chance to plant native wildflowers and grasses that will be incorporated into Headwaters’ existing non-native perennial flower beds with the goal of beautification while also enhancing food, shelter, and nesting habitat for birds, native pollinators, and other beneficial insects. Participants will also have the chance to take part in a small painting project that day. This event may sound familiar to some who took part in a similar planting event that Headwaters and the Mississippi Headwaters Audubon Society held a few years ago. That successful project created a shady woodland pollinator garden right outside Headwaters’ front door to prevent erosion and offer habitat. Headwaters is excited and happy to create more flora spaces for the local fauna community and are pleased to have the public take part.

Headwaters Music & Arts is an independent non-profit multidisciplinary organization whose mission is to provide opportunities for creativity through instruction and to inspire community through music and the arts. For more information on the planting event contact Headwaters Music & Arts at 218.444.5606.

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Headwaters Music & Arts Holds Monroe Crossing Fundraiser Event

Headwaters Music & Arts (HMA) is excited to welcome Monroe Crossing back to Bemidji! For HMA’s biggest fundraiser of the year, world-class bluegrass entertainers Monroe Crossing will perform in concert at the Historic Chief Theater in Bemidji on Saturday, May 7, 2022. The show begins at 7 pm with an opening performance by No Rest for the Pickers followed by Monroe Crossing at 7:30.

Named in honor of Bill Monroe, Monroe Crossing dazzles audiences with an electrifying blend of classic bluegrass, bluegrass gospel, and heartfelt originals. Their airtight harmonies, razor sharp arrangements, and on-stage rapport make them audience favorites across the United States and Canada. The concert will highlight their most recent CD, “Monroe Crossing Plays Classic Country” honoring country legends such as Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash and Hank Williams.

$25 tickets are available at Headwaters Music & Arts, 218.444.5606, online at HeadwatersMusicAndArts.org, or by stopping in at 519 Minnesota Ave NW, Bemidji. Admission is open seating, advance ticket purchase is recommended. Please consider becoming a sponsor for this fundraising event. Proceeds support our music scholarship fund and helps reduce student tuition based on financial need. Help us reach our goal to raise $5,000 to give the gift of creativity to kids in our community! Sponsors can expect VIP seating and recognition before and during the event.

“Everyone who came had the time of their life that evening. Your show was just incredible....one of the freshest and original groups I have experienced....I was just blown away.” — Bill Adams, Habitat For Humanity, Waldorf MD

Become a sponsor here.

Download or print the poster here.

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April 1 First Friday

We are excited to host TWO events this coming First Friday, April 1.  Join us for an opening reception for the Headwaters Art Program Art Exhibit on April 1, 4:30-6 pm. The exhibit will be a group show featuring a mix of 2D and sculptural work from our art clubs and group pottery classes created during the 2021-22 school year. The public is invited to stop by throughout the month of April to check out the art and ceramics on display throughout our building as well as the newly renovated art and pottery studios!

We'll follow that with the first live music of the spring! Headwaters Open Mic and CoffeeHouse reconvenes on the First Friday of April at 7pm. Held in downtown Bemidji at Headwaters Music & Arts (519 MN Ave NW), this monthly community gathering offers a friendly open mic opportunity and welcoming environment for folks to listen and perform. Expect to enjoy fabulous performances by community artists and warm cups of coffee as April’s featured performer, Antonio Arce takes the stage with his guitar.

Antonio Arce moved to Northern Minnesota about three and a half years ago with his wife and their seven rescued shih tzus. He says he began playing locally at Brigid’s Pubs open mics “to get away from all of them,” an activity that he has missed since COVID-19 and the ensuing pandemic shut down such events. Antonio learned to play guitar when he was 11 years old from his father. The oldest son of a professional musician, they always had guitars at home. He remembers his father’s performances in Salta, Argentina, the city where Antonio was born. Learning guitar started as a practice but quickly formed into an obsession. Although Antonio picked up the guitar very quickly he was not careful enough to learn the names of the chords. For that matter, he doesn’t know the names of the notes in Spanish or English either. So Antonio basically learned to play by ear not knowing the name of one cord or note from another.

Antonio’s main repertoire is Música Romantica (Romantic Music) in the genres of Boleros and Trova. He loves to explain his songs, so people might feel the message when he performs. You can hear Antonio’s love for his music and guitar paired with his thoughtful explanations on April 1.

Held on the first Friday of most months, the Headwaters Open Mic offers a welcoming and supportive community for musicians and spoken-word performers. All ages and skill levels are encouraged to sign up for a 10 to 15 minute set. Read more here.