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This is Inside M-Side, your favorite podcast for all things Morningside.
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Here's stories from students, alumni, faculty, and more about what makes the
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Morningside experience so special.
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Hello, and welcome back to Inside M-Side.
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I'm one of your hosts, Alice San, and today we'll be talking about arts for
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hearts. So Ryan, I'll kick it off for you to introduce yourself.
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Really appreciate it. My name's Ryan Allen.
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I'm the coordinator for collaborative research here at Morningside and one of
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the creators and co-developers of this Arts for Hearts event.
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Love it. And can you kind of give me an overview of what is Arts for Hearts?
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There is, we've talked about there's music involved.
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It's about mental health. So give me like a big picture overview.
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No, you hit the big things right there.
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It's all about mental health and wellness and the arts.
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And it's an event that's funded through the Iowa Arts Council.
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And the whole point of this partnership grant is to bring together different
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community providers, mental health providers, wellness providers, yoga
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teachers, other folks like that, and offer our community a chance to come
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together and just experience a sense of belonging and to connect with one another
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and to have a good time.
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Love it. Can you kind of highlight like the shout out some of the big standout
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performances? There's going to be a few different things going on that we'll get
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into, but like shout out what you're most excited for.
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Well, we've got folks coming from, believe it or not, all over the country to
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perform here. So we have the Brothers Druthers are kind of our headline act.
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And they come, one of the main performers is from Wyoming, the other from
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Kentucky, and they're meeting in Iowa to, to perform here.
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And so I'm really excited about that.
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Ultraviolet Fever, which is a great local act.
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They're going to be here. Sean and Angie Blomberg.
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And then Mike Langley and Morningside Staple was going to be here performing as
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well. Byron Keel and as well as a bunch of different cool wellness offerings.
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We have the Expansion Center is going to be here to do a sound bath.
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We have Evolve Yoga, teaching yoga.
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We have Rock Valley Physical Therapy, who's going to be here and all sorts of
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other folks as well to to offer services while there's music playing.
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But also we'll have a great vendor set up of different mental health organizations.
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We've got CASA and Siouxland Mental Health, Heartland Counseling, Healing
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Without Borders. LAMB Theater is going to be here as well.
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So arts organizations as well.
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And in addition, we'll have some different Morningside faculty, arts faculty, who
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will be kind of set up in stations so folks can kind of come and do different
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activities. And all sorts of other cool, cool things going on.
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I love it. It sounds I mean, we've talked about a little bit behind the scenes, like
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planning and everything. Can you walk me through like the planning process?
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How early did this start?
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And I mean, we're ramping up.
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So what's what's there left to do?
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Yeah, this has really been a long time coming.
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So we've been doing events in addition to this event on April 23rd.
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We've also been hosting two events on campus a month as a part of the grant.
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So we've been having music on campus and then also these wellness events.
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And so that's been going on since December.
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Each month we've had two of those events.
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And so it kind of all culminates here this month, this month coming up here in April.
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But going back even further than that, you know, the planning for it really came
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together when we identified the opportunity in the Office of Sponsor Programs for
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this Arts Council grant.
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It's powered by and funded through the National Endowment for the Arts.
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And so that's something we're really interested in being a part of.
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And especially when the opportunity came to for this particular initiative, which was
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a partnership grant, it's really designed to bring community entities together.
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And so Morningside's really pumped to be able to be kind of that anchor institution to
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bring together these different wellness organizations, these small businesses in our
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community, nonprofit organizations, different mental health organizations, and then all
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these really cool artists all to be here together for our students, but also because
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this is free and open to the public for our community as well.
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Yeah, I was just going to say it's open for students and people on campus.
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But we're we're really hoping that people from off campus come enjoy the day.
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It's from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
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Thank you. Yes.
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OK, so, yeah, there's like a wide range of if you're, you know, you get off some time
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for lunch or if you're just walking around campus.
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I mean, we have a million dog walkers come on campus.
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And just because we have a really nice campus to enjoy that, yeah, you're really hoping
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to have a lot of community members because there's also been a community effort as far
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as the planning and getting the sponsors.
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Talked about CASA, the Expansion Center, some of the like yoga places here in town.
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Kind of talk me through, like, how were you picking artists to perform?
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How were you deciding on like what the day was going to look like?
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All of that kind of like behind the scenes stuff.
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I think it's really just working connections.
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You know, I think that's one of my jobs in the Office of Sponsor Programs is
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collaborative research, which is really all about bringing the campus out in the
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community and the community to campus.
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And so I just really reached out to artists that I knew in town and folks that I was
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connected with. I'm a yoga teacher as well.
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And so I know some of these folks on the side and just wanted to reach out and see who was
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available. And the great thing is when the call went out, everybody wanted to be
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involved because they see the value of, again, coming together as a community and
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especially, you know, in the climate that we're in where we can it's we all we hear about
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is division. But there's really all these great opportunities to to show that we can
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build community and we can be collaborative and bring all these different walks of life
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together just to have fun in the name of like peace and love and music and all the good
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stuff. You know, yeah, it's not too complicated.
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I was going to say, you talked about like coming together and like also a sense of
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togetherness. Can you kind of talk to me about like the mental health aspect of this and
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like the importance that has on our campus and, you know, just like in culture right
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now? Absolutely.
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Walk me through that.
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You know, this is you know, I'm I'm just an English teacher, really.
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So I can't really say this is my area of expertise, but I know I can see it firsthand
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and as we're living it in the world today, just the need to promote mental health and
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especially amongst our young people, we see it.
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There's too much stress, too much anxiety and too much folks working way too hard for
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way too little. And so as much as we can, we it's easy to blame social media, this
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factor, that factor, whatever are the causes.
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We know that folks feel isolated and that we need to bring people, find ways to bring
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people together, to bring people out of their dorms, out of their houses, out of their
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apartments, out of the classrooms and into these shared spaces where we can talk
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together, dance together, laugh together, move together and even just share space, share
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a meal. I think that's we need it now more than ever.
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And on a college campus, you know, we're not immune here.
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And so like our students is when we look around and like everything looks great, but
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like it's it's what's on the inside, you know, and folks are struggling and we need to
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acknowledge that and just assume it and not wait for people to ask for help.
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Their their behaviors, you know, like the way their isolation is is the is the is the
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asking for it. And so we need to answer the call.
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And, you know, the issues are big and they're profound and our response to them needs to
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be even bigger. So that's our role as educators, as providers, caregivers, as people who
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want to see young people succeed.
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Like we need to create spaces for that to happen for them.
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Yeah. And it's like a perfect time of year.
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Like, I always love like April starts getting warmer and this is like things start
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looking a little bit more green.
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So I'm like I'm like so excited for especially the end of April on a college campus is
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like the time I'm with you.
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It's like the best time ever that in like late September, early October when you get to
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like homecomings, those are the best time to be on a college campus.
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So especially bringing like something as lively as this, you know, I talk about all the
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time with students that like I love when I go on a walk and I see students like on picnic
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blankets or at the picnic tables and they're sitting with friends and they're outside.
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I love that. I think this is like a great like bringing some zest back to campus as it
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gets a little warmer and the grass is a little bit greener now.
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I love it.
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And this will be outside. So and the weather is going to be great.
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The sun is going to be shining.
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It's going to be wonderful. We're going to have some food trucks here as well.
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So folks have a chance to come and get, like you said, have a share a meal, sit in the
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grass, listen to some music, do some yoga, go meditate where it hasn't happened yet.
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But we're working on some baby goats.
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So we got some baby goats.
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I mean, this is us like speaking it into existence.
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That's right. We're going to make it happen.
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I love it. And can you kind of talk me through like any challenging parts of planning or
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anything? I mean, I know we talked about getting securing food trucks, all of that.
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Like there's so many logistics that I'd be interested if there's anything that like has
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been a little bit challenging, but it's like come to fruition that you're like very excited
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about. One of the things that's been challenging, you know, initially, we really wanted
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to reach to connect with as many young people as we could.
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So we've tried to reach out to high schools and we still hope that our folks will come
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here, you know, like to bring classes to to experience the event.
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So that's something we're still really hopeful for.
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The thing that's, you know, as you know, I'm just the grant writer.
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And so like usually this is always behind the scenes.
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Like the fact that I'm here talking to you is seems so like I want to be just typing on a
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computer where no one can see.
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But it is really one of the most fulfilling things to be involved in something like this.
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Like we know that this is going to produce something that is good.
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It's tangible. It's concrete.
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It's it's going to make people feel good.
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And to just know that to be a part of that feels really, really awesome.
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And so that's whatever the challenges are.
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You're right. There's a ton of logistics more than it can ever really comprehend going into
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it. But it's worth it because it's going to be a really like you're right.
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We're speaking it into existence.
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It's going to be an awesome day.
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And we're going to look around, you know, staring from amidst it all in the middle of the
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day and realize that we've done something special.
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So I'm excited for that.
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I love it. And show off this awesome poster that you got here.
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This is our hot off the press here.
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You can find it in a variety of places on campus, but as well as in Sioux land.
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Can you tell me some of the places you can find this poster that has a little bit more of
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the detailed information?
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They will be in different coffee shops and bars and all the you know, all the different
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places in the community and then also as well in all our different partner organizations.
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So we're going to reach out to all our different yoga organizations and mental health
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groups and arts center and and so on to get it up and about all over here that we have
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it everywhere, everywhere.
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Yeah, we are really hoping to see people on campus April 23rd between 9 and 2 p.m.
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Any like last information that you want to quick share before we close out today?
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Just, you know, no experience necessary.
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It's free. It's open to the public.
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It's it's all here to have fun.
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So just come bring a friend, bring a blanket, bring and bring your your party pants and
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ready to dance and have some fun.
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I love it. Well, thank you so much, Ryan.
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It's been awesome having you on to talk about this is going to be such a fun day.
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I'm so excited and make sure listeners that you are also going to be on campus.
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It's going to be amazing to hear all the music, have the food.
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Everything is going to be super awesome for Arts for the Hearts on April 23rd from 9 a.m.
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to 2 p.m. That is it for this episode of Inside M-Side and we'll see you guys in a few weeks.
