Meet some of our Instructors
| Barbara Anderson
My husband and I moved to the Longville area in 1997. We truly enjoy living our dream by the lake. Since moving here I have started teaching stained glass classes through the Walker-Akeley-Hackensack School District's Community Ed. program, as a guest artist in the Longville Elementary School, and through Mentoring Matters a program of the Northland Area Family Service Center. It is such fun watching a potential artist try cutting glass for the first time! Through these introduction classes I want to give everyone a chance to try something new.
I sell my stained glass pieces through my company, Northern White Pines Studios. I have pieces for sale in Longville at the Common Grounds Coffee Shop and at the Bridge Street Candle Shop in Crookston, MN. In the Crookston shop I make different candle holders and the owners of the Candle Shop make colored candles to compliment the pieces.
I enjoy all steps of creating a stained glass project; from talking to the client and designing an original piece form them, choosing the color and type of glass, to the finished project. I have been working in stained glass for over 20 years and each piece is still exciting and new! I hope I never lose that rush. | |  |
| Dar Brooks
Dar Brooks is an award winning multi-media artist and has been teaching watercolor and mixed media for 22 years. Her teaching style is enthusiastic, nurturing, and spontaneous. This helps students loosen up and have fun! Dar has a passion for teaching adult and children’s workshops and has enjoyed teaching art workshops all around Minnesota, and all over the United States, Mexico, and France. She is on the faculty of the Edina Art Center, the Owatonna Art Center, and teaches at many others. Dar enjoys the free spontaneity of using watercolor, inks, and acrylics with mixed media. She is an intuitive painter who thrives on experimentation. Dar is constantly aware of the power of color and uses it with her evolutionary techniques to create exciting, textural illusions and dramatic collages. Darlene’s formal education has included studying at the Minneapolis Collage of Art and Design, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Wisconsin. Her in-laws live in Longville and other family members in Brainerd. Dar has always felt a strong connection to the area and is thrilled to be teaching classes at the Longville Arts Center. |  |
| Jan Forbes
Jan fell in love with watercolor almost 40 years ago and was one of the original members of the Leach lake Art League. The group led by Olive George was very enthusiastic and employed many well known instructors such as: Robert E. Wood, Ed Whitney, Charles Reid, Nita Engles, Frank Webb and many more. These wonderful Artists had a great influence in developing Jan’s passion and dedication to the Arts. She owned and operated Gallery 3 in Longville for several years.
Jan lives between Longville and Minneapolis and teaches weekly classes and workshops. A spontaneous free spirit which is reflected in her paintings and her teaching. |  |
| Jeanette Brown
Jeanette Brown has been living in Longville for 13 years. She has always been involved in artistic and musical endeavors. Jeanette is well known in the area for being one-half of Iznette Productions (Jeanette Brown & Isabel Karon). Iznette Productions wrote and produced the two library benefit variety shows (“Black and White and Read All Over,” and “Safari, Far, Far, Far Out of Africa”), and Dinner theater (“Radio KLVL- Longville Through the Decades,” “Cabin Fever,” and “Seasonal Sensations”), among other things. She created much of the set for the Iznette shows, including a very realistic papier-mache “stone” fireplace.
In the summer, she can be found face-painting at Fire hall events and also face-painting and selling original hand made jewelry at local artisan fairs. Last year she was a part of the LLAA Mardi Gras Celebration, and helped design and create the 4th of July float for them as well. She sings for local events, sings in the Longville Community Choir, plays piano & several other instruments, and directs choir at Longville Community Church.
Her classes this summer include “Making a Memory-Wire Bracelet,” “Designing One-of-a-Kind Jewelry,” a two-session class- “Creating a Cloth and Papier-Mache Puppet,” and “Making Beaded Ornaments or Bookmarks. | |  |
| Julee Ford Young
In 1985, I graduated from the University of Minnesota, General College with my self-designed four-year degree having completed the Aging Studies and Human Services Generalist Certificate program. That summer, I found the Minnesota Women’s Press in St. Paul and joined a Book Group reading autobiographies and biographies. It was through reading those stories and discussions in that group that I began to realize my dream of moving up-north could become a reality sooner than retirement. Living in the Longville area, pioneered by my paternal grandparents, Grace and Riley Ford in the early 1900’s, is my dream come true… In the fall of 1989, Donnie Young and I moved to Longville to raise our family in a more pristine environment than the Cities had to offer. I have always loved to write, sew, and paint and have an innate sensitivity to the serene beauty of northern Minnesota. In the spring of 1999, we bought our home on Lake Trillium, Hackensack and I began teaching quilt classes at Silbaugh’s Department Store, Pine River. In the Cities, I enjoyed completing several writing classes at the Loft. In the summer of 2007, I answered an ad for Lutheran Social Service (LSS) to serve as Volunteer Leader for the Older Adults Team in Cass County. For three years, I have been writing the “Volunteering in Cass County” column in collaboration with LSS and the Pilot Independent, Walker. April, 2011 my personal story, “The Diary of a Volunteer” was printed in the Pilot in recognition of National Volunteers’ Month. This past year, I’ve especially enjoyed participating in writer’s retreats and workshops in Bemidji and look forward to bringing this opportunity to the Longville community at the Longville Arts Center. ‘See you there! |  |
| Julia Jones
Julia started her watercolor adventure in 1989. She joined Leech Lake Arts League of Walker, Minnesota where she eventually found her niche: The Birch Landscape. She has now painted so many birch landscapes that she is referred to as the "Birch Lady".
During her membership with the League she participated in many workshops, demonstrations and the annual Northern Reflections Fine Arts Show. After moving to Longville in 1996 she continued her painting and started her business, “Watercolors, etc”. Part of the etcetera is doing her own matting and framing using barn board and birch bark as well as her fascination with birch crafts.
Julia has exhibited and sold her artwork in galleries in Walker, Remer, Hackensack and is currently in the Gallery of New Creations in Longville. She also does commission work. Her most challenging commission was a 24" x 48" summer scene that now hangs in a private home in Sacramento, CA. Julia usually likes to paint for the smaller rooms in the house.
Julla has demonstrated her painting technique to many organizations and age groups including Deep Portage, Ah Gwah Ching, the Northern Reflections Show, and Longville Elementary School and has donated countless paintings for fundraisers for local organizations. Julia maintains she will always be a beginner as there is always a new magical effect or technique to discover when water-coloring. |  |
| Linda Paulsen
Linda began Crop Art (creating pictures with seeds) by entering in competition at The Minnesota State Fair. She has entered her pictures there for 41 years winning many top awards during that time. Linda has demonstrated the art at the State Fair daily for the past four years. She has conducted hands on for kids there for several years and at the Plaines Art Museum in Fargo ND. She has given classes to adults at Northland Camp, a recreational laboratory, in Amery WI for the past 3 years. Her passion is Crop Art. |  |
| Therese Kunz
Therese Kunz has been a visual artist for the past twenty-five years working in the mediums of oil painting, watercolor, pastel, found-object assemblage, collage and sculpture installation. Her artwork has been exhibited in numerous juried art shows and art galleries in Minnesota including the Duluth Art Institute, the Tweed Museum of Art and a solo show at the MacRostie Art Center in Grand Rapids. Therese was awarded the 2009 individual Artist Grant from FORECAST Public Artworks for the creation of, The Rooms of Your House, a large-room artwork installed at the historic train depot in Remer for three weeks.
Therese has developed and taught visual and performing arts programs, classes and workshops for over 14 years. She created and implemented the highly successful in-school Fine Arts Program at local elementary schools. Therese is currently the creative director for the Longville Arts Center using her leadership skills to help launch the Center’s first two seasons of accessible arts classes for the area community. Therese knows art transforms lives and strives to be a part of that. In 2000 she founded Screen Porch Productions, Inc., a 501(c) 3 community arts organization, dedicated to providing education and opportunity in the visual, performing and literary arts. Therese is 2009 graduate of The Blandin Leadership Training Program. | |  |
| Tom Kutschied
Tom Kutschied is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin - River Falls. He started his career as an Art Teacher in a Junior High School in Tomah, Wisconsin. Then after a 4 year term in the US Air Force as a graphic illustrator, he opened an Art Studio in Mesa, Arizona, where he taught oil painting and did custom picture framing for 32 years. Tom is a professional Wildlife Artist, doing art for such conservation groups as Ducks Unlimited, The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, The National Wild Turkey Foundation, Pheasants Forever, as well as various local organizations. Retired and living in the Longville area, he is currently pursuing his career as a practicing artist. |  |
| |
