Katie Marshall sits in front of a wall of art books covering everything from Frida Kahlo to Bauhaus design.
It is the small art book library of the MacRostie Art Center in downtown Grand Rapids, where Marshall has been executive director for 13 years.
Marshall is from Grand Rapids, but as a child he never visited the art center, which has existed in various incarnations since the 1960s.
Mural at the MacRostie Art Center, an art space in Grand Rapids, Minnesota that hosts over 20 exhibitions annually.
Courtesy of MacRostie Art Center
“It seemed kind of intimidating or something,” Marshall recalls. “It was an art gallery and I don’t have an art background, so it wasn’t something I discovered on my own.”
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Today, that fact plays a role in Marshall’s leadership of MacRostie, an art space that serves much of northern Minnesota.
“We always try to have music or other things playing so it feels inviting and not like a place where you have to come in and whisper or tiptoe around,” Marshall says. “It’s a community arts center, not an elitist art gallery.”
The MacRostie hosts more than 20 exhibitions each year. Currently on view at the Giinawind Gallery is “Stories Between the Earth and Sky,” featuring prismatic paintings by Madison-based artist Sarah McRae, a member of the Red Lake Band of Ojibwe.
The painting “I Told the Moon About You” is one of several paintings by artist Sarah McRae on display at the MacRostie Art Center.
Courtesy of MacRostie Art Center
The center opened the gallery space Giinawind (Ojibwe for “we/us together”) in 2022.
“We’re in the midst of a lot of Indigenous communities,” says Marshall. “That’s one of the reasons we opened the Giinawind space. We felt like the Indigenous artist community wasn’t really visibly represented in Grand Rapids, and we wanted to create some space and a platform for that.”
In the gallery next door is “The Rocks Are Strange Here” by Pono Asuncion, a Minneapolis-based illustrator.
A butterfly installation by Grand Rapids artist Dan Root on the third floor of the Old Central School, home of the Artists in the Attic residency program.
Alex V. Cipolle | MPR News
Then there’s the 32nd annual juried exhibition curated by Minneapolis artist Gordon Coons in the main gallery, on view through September 27.
“Our juried show is open to artists from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and the Dakotas, so we cover kind of the spectrum of the Upper Midwest,” Marshall says.
They received 160 submissions, of which about 30 are on display.
“It’s a great show. It’s one of our most popular shows every year because there’s so much variety of work,” says Marshall. “It’s a really good combination of local artists, people we know, and then a lot of new names.”
“Alisha” by Mark Christy won the People’s Choice Award at the MacRostie Art Center’s 32nd Annual Juried Show.
Courtesy of MacRostie Art Center
Marshall says the arts scene in Grand Rapids has grown significantly in the last decade, pointing to the Reif Performing Arts Center, the Itasca Orchestra and Strings Program and the Grand Rapids Players Theater. MacRostie also partners with the city on “Artists in the Attic,” six-month artist residencies on the top floor of the historic 20th-century Old Central School building across the street.
“We see ourselves as a kind of hub of the art scene,” says Marshall. “We want to be a place where people can come together and experience art, make art, teach art, see exhibitions and just be together in the community.”
