Duluth’s On the Record Nurtures Art Connections

Transcript

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HOST: You're listening to North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live. Today in Minnesota…

ANCHOR: …the state releases new information about hemp licensing for next year. Then, an artist community using unique ways to connect to new audiences, and the Minnesota Zoo has a new permanent resident.

I'm Gracie J.

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture is now accepting applications for 2026 hemp growing and processing licenses. Licenses apply only to industrial hemp, not cannabis or hemp-derived products. This year's process includes new license fees, added costs per location, and all hemp lots must undergo pre-harvest THC testing, the primary psychoactive compound found in the cannabis plant. More information is available on the department's website.

In today's main story, a grassroots publication in Northern Minnesota is making it easier for artists to find new audiences. It all starts with a simple question: Where's the show? Lydia Moran has more.

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Lydia Moran: In a world of music streaming algorithms and oversaturated social media, a grassroots resource is connecting artists and audiences the old-fashioned way. Kristi Olson started a paper zine called On the Record in 2023. She wanted to make it easier for people to attend events in the Twin Ports area, also known as Duluth, Minnesota and Superior, Wisconsin.

Kristi Olson: On the Record is a comprehensive calendar of arts events in the area. There's also career development resources, reviews, audition notices, poetry and articles by local artists about the challenges facing creatives in 2025. I have my handy dandy spreadsheet.

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Lydia Moran: Kristi spends about 30 hours a week compiling the zine.

Kristi Olson: In addition to working as a sound engineer at a local venue, I sift through the Facebook events, pull up any snapshots of posters.

Lydia Moran: She says most calendars rely on artists to submit their shows, a task that can easily be forgotten about. But On the Record makes sure no one falls through the cracks.

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Kristi Olson: And I also started this project a few months after my mom died of cancer. So partially with that manic energy that grief gives you, but also in honor of her as well. She was a multi-disciplinary artist.

Lydia Moran: Every other week, a team of volunteers distributes nearly 600 copies across the Twin Ports.

Elsa Krantz: With media being defunded in the world right now, it's so valuable to have a physical, tangible thing you can pick up and take with you and keep in your purse.

Lydia Moran: When singer-songwriter Elsa Krantz moved to Duluth about two years ago, On the Record was their door into the arts community.

Elsa Krantz; You can learn about something that's happening around the block. This really hyper-localized resource.

Lydia Moran: Elsa helped the zine obtain grant funding to cover printing costs in the future. Kristi hopes local arts-related businesses will sponsor the publication. She said grant money is drying up due to federal changes.

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Ross Thorn: We inch closer and closer to dead internet theory every day.

Lydia Moran: Musician Ross Thorne is a founding member of the Twin Ports Artist Collective.

Ross Thorn: Where it's really just bots commenting on bots, posts liking bots, music, you know, all this stuff. Nothing can take you away from the real world. Like, once you have that piece of paper in your hand, you're just engaging in so many aspects of like real community.

Lydia Moran: Ross said real community is key to sustaining the region's cultural resources.

Ross Thorn: We'll have a lot of up-and-coming artists that like find some success, and then they move away. And what I hope is that Duluth becomes a place where we pay very well. We uplift them so well that they want to come back, or they just stay here. You know that we're creating this arts hot spot.

Lydia Moran: For North Star stories. I'm Lydia Moran.

Anchor: listening to North Star Stories.

A 310-pound loggerhead sea turtle named Snooki is settling into her new home at the Minnesota Zoo. Stranded on the New Jersey shoreline in 2016, Snooki could not be released back into the wild due to a medical condition. Now, she'll make her permanent home in the Zoo's 250,000-gallon Atlantic Reef habitat. Zoo officials say that the exhibit offers Snooki room to explore and swim, providing a dynamic environment for her continued care and recovery.

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HOST: North Star Stories is produced by AMPERS, diverse radio for Minnesota's communities, with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota. Online at ampers dot org.