Upcoming exhibit at the SMAC ART GALLERY: Staff & Board Group Exhibit-Marshall

Southwest Minnesota Arts Council announces

Gallery Exhibit & Two Artist Receptions

featuring the artwork of

SMAC Staff & Board:

Anna Johannsen (past board)

Caroline Koska (staff)

Eunice Woodberry (board)

John White (past board)

Krystl Louwagie (staff)

ME Fuller (past board)

Mark Thode (board)

Nicole DeBoer (staff)

Exhibit runs July 17 – August 29, 2025

Check out this exhibit either in-person or virtually*

The SMAC GALLERY is located at 509 West Main Street, Marshall

Regular office hours: Monday – Friday 9am-12pm and 1pm-4pm

Meet Anna

I am a self-taught quilter and fiber artist. As a retired teacher of Art and Home Economics, I have more time to experiment with fibers, techniques, colors, and textures. I started the art program and the food program at the Alternative Learning Center. My students won in the Student Art Show in the Remick Gallery almost every year that I taught there. I retired from there in 2015. Now I experiment with hand dyeing cloth and see what the fabric tells me what IT wants to be. I create 3D quilting using 3D glasses and certain colors. ~ Anna Johannsen, Windom, MN

Meet Caroline

Caroline Koska is a musician with a current focus on traditional Celtic music for harp and voice. She has been enjoying learning old tunes from other musicians through experiences like the Ohio Scottish Arts School, composing new tunes in traditional styles, and finding and arranging songs with interesting melodies and storytelling. With a degree in vocal performance, Caroline loves to sing and also plays piano and flute. She has taught piano lessons, provided music for church and community theater, and also acted in community theater productions. Caroline lives in Marshall with her husband and spends her free time sewing and reading. ~ Caroline Koska, Marshall, MN

Meet Eunice

Eunice began sewing at age 9 making clothing until she was an adult. She and friends decided to take a quilting class so the Dad’s would have to take care of the kids. Over the last 35 years she has created many traditional quilts but now is focusing on artistic wall hangings including fabric collage and creating her own designs. She also dabbles with crochet and watercolor painting. ~ Eunice Woodberry, Jackson, MN Meet John Somewhat retired after a long award-winning career in newspapers (Wisconsin State Journal, Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, Denver Post and a country weekly, the Clara City Herald). Free lance photographer and writer with credits in more than 70 magazines. Editor with various Webb Publishing magazines in St. Paul, and a five year stint as editorial director at Miller Meester Advertising. ~ John White, Ortonville, MN

Meet Krystl

Krystl Louwagie graduated with a liberal arts degree in Studio Art (minor in Art History) from Hamline University in Saint Paul in 2009. She received two separate scholarships to study art abroad (the Genevieve Rust Ehlers Scholarship) in 2008 and 2009. In 2019 and 2023 she received an employee grant from Southwest Minnesota Arts Council to go towards art supplies and framing her artworks. In 2021 she received a Minnesota State Arts Board Creative Support for Individuals grant to create a new series chronicling the pandemic through mask portraits, to establish an artist website to share her work, and to showcase her auto-biographical short comics about her day-to-day life. In 2024 she was featured in season 15 of the PBS Postcards show. Louwagie works full time as the Accessibility & Marketing Coordinator for the nonprofit Southwest Minnesota Arts Council in Marshall, MN. She works part-time as an artist taking commissions, a professional face painter, a petting zoo assistant and pet sitter, and as a Fitness Instructor at the Marshall Area YMCA. Her interest in art began early in life through illustrated fairy tale books, super-hero comics and animated cartoons. She’s also very enthusiastic about reading (especially graphic novels), exercising, hiking and snowshoeing, theatre (especially musicals), music, scary movies, and animals (especially cats)! ~ Krystl Louwagie, Marshall, MN

Meet Maggie

M E Fuller is a self-taught practicing author, visual artist, and workshop facilitator living in rural SW Minnesota. After early retirement, Fuller restarted her creative career, encouraging others to do the same. At 70, she successfully transitioned from traditional and illustrative art to abstract forms, exhibiting her work in galleries, juried group shows, and solo shows throughout the state. In December 2023, she organized the first fine arts market event in Montevideo after bringing 17 local artists out of the shadows. Fuller’s solo exhibits include K. K. Berge Gallery, Watermark Art Center, The Smallest Art Gallery, Crossing Arts Alliance, Owatonna Art Center, and Pump House Art Gallery (WI). She is the featured artist in the Summer 2022 edition of Shark Reef (online), Fall 2023 Blue Earth Review, and The Scop: Literary and Fine Arts Magazine for King’s College, as well as the cover artist for The Passionfruit Review, August 2024. In 2021 Fuller received an emerging artist support grant from the Southwest Minnesota Arts Council (SMAC) funds. Thank you to the Minnesota state legislature for its support of the arts in our state. Fuller facilitates both painting and writing workshops and is available for one-on-one mentoring. She is a self-taught artist and writer. ~ ME Fuller, Montevideo, MN

Meet Mark

Mark Thode is a print identity designer / photographer with an introverted disposition and a love of the theatre. Long before getting his degree in Graphic Design from Bemidji State University, he began his career in theatre working behind the scenes in community theater productions. Fast-forward to the present, he’s worked for a newspaper, owned a portrait photography studio for 12 years, has collaborated as a freelance graphic artist on many projects, and has been the director of a performing arts venue for many years. In his spare time, he loves learning and experiencing with theatrical light design, serves on the board of two different non-profit arts organizations, and loves spending time with his two Cocker Spaniels: Bailey & Sheldon. He’s fluent in Lorem Ipsum. ~ Mark Thode, Pipestone, MN

Meet Nicole

Nicole describes herself as a doer and a dreamer: an out of practice visual artist who believes everything can be renovated – including people. As the Executive Director of the Southwest Minnesota Arts Council, DeBoer enjoys meeting and helping artists and organizations who produce and support the arts. She has been at the arts council, which serves 18-counties and 2 sovereign nations, for over 15 years. There isn’t an artform she won’t try – but most of all prefers to see others succeed in sharing their art. This series of photography and watercolor were made during a week-long Boundary Waters Canoe Area trip in 2024. [Day 1 included brushing past a black bear on a trail!] The views are astounding and inspired both digital photo captures and the more personal watercolors. Painted sitting on the shoreline, the liquid used for the watercolors came right out of the local waters. Profits from the sale of these artwork combinations will be donated to “Save the Boundary Waters”. When not promoting the arts in rural MN, she enjoys DIY projects around her 1880s house and working on rescuing old buildings, artifacts and native prairies on her ancestral property along Cetan Wakpadan. If she had a tattoo it would either say “If 2 Be/Up 2 Me” or “Stick to the Plan!” ~ Nicole DeBoer, Marshall, MN

Join an IN-PERSON artist reception on Thursday, July 17, 2025 from 5-7pm at the SMAC Gallery, 509 West Main Street, Marshall

~ Enjoy the harp music of Caroline Koska during the reception ~

Join a VIRTUAL artist talk via Zoom on Thursday, August 14, 2025 at 5:30 pm.

Please email SMAC staff [info@swmnarts.org] for the ZOOM link to join this Artist Talk.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund. Funding provided by the McKnight Foundation. Minnesota thrives when its artists thrive. The McKnight Foundation supports working artists to create and contribute to vibrant communities.

Southwest Minnesota Arts Council 509 West Main Street, Marshall, MN 56258 507-537-1471