Art Uprising
How to best ensure another generation of captivating local artists in Sioux Falls? By passing on the knowledge, confidence and guidance inherently found in our local host of creative adults, of course! (At least that’s the way Lisa Conlin and Madeleine Titze approached the situation.)
In its inaugural year, the Rise Up Artist Mentorship Program did just that—paired area youth and young adults with incredible artistic potential with local grown-ups sporting the professional experience, training and backgrounds to empower them to best showcase their unique talents.
“When I lived in Minneapolis, I used to curate a showcase,” Rise Up co-founder Conlin said. “it was all dance and choreographers showing off their work, and I was really kind of missing that.”
She and Titze embarked on crafting a program by seeking out potential mentors with a variety of skillsets, from dance and music, to comedy, writing, acting and photography. The aim? For each adult/youth duo to put together a solo or duet piece in collaboration, and present said two- to five-minute piece in a public showcase at the end of the summer.
“We gave very little in terms of parameters,” Titze said. “We wanted to see their bold, creative expression.”
And that desired level of variety and depth was certainly achieved at the Sept. 12 showcase, which featured solo and duet dance performances, original songwriting, vocal performances, sketch comedy and scene work.
After starting to map out what the program would look like in fall 2020, Conlin and Titze themselves partook in the process, each mentoring a young performing artist in their chosen crafts.
“I think personally I entered into the relationship thinking, ‘I have so much to offer,’” Titze said, “but I was totally humbled by how much more I’ve learned from my mentee than she’s learned from me. It gives more tenured artists the chance to learn something new from someone younger with different perspectives.”
Mentees presenting in the showcase included elementary-age students, as well as students attending local universities. “Working with my mentee, a college junior, it was really great talking about what she wanted to get out of the experience,” Conlin said. “We did a lot of text work and acting, in addition to dancing, and it was such a collaborative experience for both of us.”
A dancer by trade, Conlin co-founded Sioux-Falls-based LiRa Dance Theatre Company, of which Titze has been a featured dancer for many seasons. The two of them found it particularly inspiring to see the broad depth of disciplines students were seeking to hone through Rise Up.
“We wanted to make sure it was interdisciplinary,” Titze said. “Great musicians, actors, photographers—that was a priority—making sure we represented diverse artforms.”
“We sought students who were looking to be a professional in their artform or to do it for a living,” Conlin said. “A student who maybe needs that extra boost of confidence and could use that extra coaching to take them to the next level. Or students who might be struggling at home or at school and could use a great outlet.”
After initially connecting, early in the summer, mentors and mentees were tasked with meeting throughout the ensuing months, putting together their pieces incrementally until the final work was ready to showcase at the McKennan Park bandshell on Sept. 12.
The success of the program’s inaugural year has inspired Titze and Conlin to continue expanding Rise Up in year two.
“Next up, we’d love to expand the mentee population beyond our own networks,” Titze said, “reaching into pockets of Sioux Falls we don’t know well and making sure we have representation across the city.”
“We want to keep it a well-rounded program—and super entertaining,” Conlin said of the season-ending showcase. “If someone doesn’t know somebody in the show, there might be a kid in the audience that says, ‘I want to learn how to play the ukulele or I might want to start taking photographs—to give somebody a passion that they didn’t know they had.”