Gorton Remembers Arts Council Origins
from the Staples World, Thursday, April 18, 2013
By Mark Anderson, News Editor

The first organizational meeting of the Staples Fine Arts Council was July 10, 1969. But Duane Lund had already set the wheels in motion, because just ten days later, the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra played a concert at Dower Lake.

“We weren’t sure what it would be like or if anyone would come to the concert,” said Sally Gorton, an original member of the council. “But people did come, I was astonished how it happened.”

The concert was an evening of beautiful music by the lake. Gorton still remembers the feeling in the crowd when the orchestra played “Stars and Stripes Forever”, followed by fireworks shooting off over Dower Lake.

“I’m not sure any other small town ever did anything like that,” she said.

For more than 43 years, Gorton has been a board member of the Staples Motley Arts Council, the current name of the fine arts council. This year Gorton took a leave of absence from the full council but still serves on the programming committee.

Gorton recently looked back on the history of the organization that has brought in top quality music and arts performers to the Staples Motley community.

It all starts with that very first performance. Gorton had just arrived in Staples herself after her husband John opened a dental clinic.

“It was an interesting time in Staples, with a lot of new teachers and young adults here,” she said. “Duane Lund recognized that there was a lot of energy and he became the catalyst to put it all together.”

Gorton had lived in the Twin Cities area and enjoyed going to concerts, but it was a three hour drive at that time. So it was natural that she became interested in the arts council and a founding member when Lund asked her to help out.

It was a learning experience as Gorton was amazed at how quality performers were able to get booked for Staples. “Duane had connections at the state and national level,” said Gorton.

Within a few years, a young teacher named Stan Carlson came along and Gorton credited him with adding his own connections and the ability to coordinate schedules with touring musicians to get them to make a stop in Staples.

Carlson is also still with the arts council. He said Lund started the group partly for economic development outreach. “People look at the whole town, providing things for a whole family to enjoy is a big part of what makes town go,” said Carlson. “Different towns have different strengths, good towns have more of all those kinds of things. All of those components are important for well rounded life.”

Carlson said it takes a lot of work to promote arts in the community, writing news releases and brochures and keeping the mailing lists current. He and Gorton have filled virtually every leadership role in the arts council, sometimes more than once. “Like all organizations in a small town, people like that bring the glue that holds the organization together,” he said.

In the early days, the arts council would host three or four performances every year, with varied acts coming to town, including the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Minnesota Opera. They even had traveling plays from the Guthrie Theatre come to town. Gorton said every time there was a question of where the performance should be held. It was often in the school gym or cafeteria, but they all agreed that a better venue was needed.

So in the 1980s the arts council took a new direction when many of the members were involved in the Staples Comprehensive Arts Planning Program (CAPP), which culminated in the building of Centennial Auditorium at Staples Motley High School. Gorton said they went door to door asking for donations. “People worked so diligently and it gave a sense of community ownership of the auditorium.” The CAPP group also expanded the role of visiting artists to give concerts and presentations to students.

Carlson said the group felt it was “important for students to get a feel for what’s out in the world, which can be hard to do in a small town.”

Once the auditorium was completed in 1991, the arts council got back together and has sponsored no less than four concerts every year since then.  

“The mission is to offer diversified levels of arts and make it available to everyone,” said Gorton.  That mission will continue next year as they plan to host the first ever ballet troupe performance in Staples.

The concerts are popular with music and arts fans from all around Staples.  “People from all over come here,” said Gorton, “we don’t always have a full house but there is always a lot of interest.”

The Staples Fine Arts Council’s original goal was to bring top notch performers to this small town.  More than forty years later, the mission of the Staples Motley Arts Council is remarkably unchanged.

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