Values in a Rural Town

I’m an arts-based community builder in rural New London, Minnesota (population 1,304). I practice a process of learning multiple perspectives of history, people, and places where I live. I seek to understand the motivations, aspirations, and meanings behind organizations, businesses, and local governments. This also means mapping how these are connected. For me, there has been no better place to practice this work than in the place where I grew up.

For six years, I’ve run a nonprofit arts venue called Little Theatre Auditorium. It’s a 103-year-old building full of layers. I’ve also served on the board of the New London Food Co-op. In a small town, you’ll often see the same people serving their community in intersecting ways. For several years, we’ve regularly communicated, coordinated, and pooled resources to do what we are all passionate about: bringing people together.

Through food, art, and music, we have steadily built an infrastructure that enables the creation of seasonal and cultural community gatherings: New London Porchfest, Little Show on the Crow, Harvest Star, and the Autumn Equinox Parade. Our joint efforts help support local food producers, makers, musicians, and artists, while deepening community knowledge about where our food comes from, energy sources, nature, and each other.

As we grow together, we’re co-creating a mini economy that builds the basis for an emerging value system — one that doesn’t have to rest on ever-increasing consumption or outward expansion, but rather depends on a more comprehensive, deeper understanding of how we are connected.

From my perspective, we’re building a value system in which sharing what we each have to offer helps to meet collective needs. This leads to richer relationships, meaning, shared memories, and a lifelong sense of belonging.

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Bethany Lacktorin (she/her) is a Korean adoptee raised in rural Minnesota across the highway from Ordway Prairie, a nature conservancy. Fourth in a generational line of women caretakers of a home that once included a general store, she follows in her mom’s footsteps as steward of the property.