2020 Lanesboro Area Guide

“When art is everywhere, it changes the feeling of the downtown area.”

-ERIK PEARSON, ARTIST

DISCOVER THE STORY

OF L ANESBORO’S NEW THEATER DISTRICT MURAL! Big cities have big theater districts. In New York, it’s Broadway. Chicago has one, too. Minneapolis? The Hennepin Theater District. All are venues for great shows and fun entertainment and very popular with lots of people.

Did you know that Lanesboro has a theater district, too?

Smaller, for sure, but offering wonderful theatre and entertainment in two historic downtown theaters, the Commonweal and the St. Mane. Both are very popular, with lots of people attending from Lanesboro and beyond.

In the spring of 2020, a beautifully-crafted, communitypainted mural will be installed to celebrate our town’s theater district. Located on the north end of Parkway Avenue, the mural is the result of a partnership between the Commonweal Theatre and Lanesboro Arts. Funding for the paint was provided by the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation’s “Paint the Town” grant program. Ideas came

from Lanesboro residents (of all ages), and the person who created it is Erik Pearson, a St. Paul artist. Erik is known locally as Lanesboro Arts' first artist-in-residence in 2001, for his work in the Lanesboro Schools and for his large panel paintings for the Commonweal’s “construction zone” in 2005, which later graced the interior walls of the former Intermission Restaurant.

Pearson designed the new Lanesboro mural as a work that tells a story (see page 11). More than 200 people (both local residents and visitors) helped paint it last October.

The mural—created on parachute-like material—will be permanently attached to the south corner wall of the Manion Law Office Building in the spring of 2020.

Maybe you’ve enjoyed plays and concerts in New York, Chicago or Minneapolis. You may be a regular patron of the arts in Lanesboro’s Theater District, too. If not, come by soon. You won’t want to miss what’s going on here!

ADAM WILTGEN ERIK PEARSON KARA MALONEY Lanesboro Arts

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