The Paradise Center for the Arts in Faribault, Minnesota, is hosting an opening reception tonight for new gallery exhibitions featuring multiple artists. The displays include work by the Minnesota Mosaic Guild, painter Dana Lacina, assemblage artist Trudi Schaefer, oil painter Marissa Shackleford, acrylic painter Monica Wilder, and Northfield photographer Aramis Wells. Wells, an astro and landscape photographer, is showing a series of winter scenes from Lake Superior alongside his signature images of the Northern Lights and solar eclipses. The reception runs from 5pm to 7pm and is free to the public, with the galleries open through August 9th.
This event matters because it highlights the role of local community art centers in fostering regional artistic talent and providing accessible cultural programming. The inclusion of a diverse range of media—from mosaic guild work to photography and painting—demonstrates how small-town venues can support multiple artistic practices and bring together artists from across Minnesota. The personal connection between the reporter and his father, a featured artist, also underscores the intimate, community-driven nature of such exhibitions, which often go unnoticed by the broader art world but are vital to local cultural life.