Art Center prepares for Art and Garden Tour in Albert Lea, Alden this weekend – Albert Lea Tribune

The Albert Lea Art Center on Friday and Saturday will hold its biggest fundraiser of the year, the annual Art and Garden Tour. The tour has been going on for decades, and is an event the community looks forward to every year, said Beth Tostenson, one of the event’s organizers.

The tour must be planned months in advance, she said, as the Art Center needs to find people willing to be part of the event. They also need to find artists who would like to participate and pair them up with each participating garden.

Many of the gardens in Albert Lea have been used in past tours, and the owners preferred not to be part of the event this year, Tostenson said. There will be two Albert Lea gardens participating this year, one home garden on Lakeview Boulevard and the garden at Three Oak Vineyards and Winery. Both locations have been part of the Art and Garden Tour in the past. The other three gardens this year will be in Alden.

The event is always held in July as that is when gardens are at their full peak, Tostenson explained. The tour is held rain or shine, but she added the hope is always for favorable conditions.

“Like everything else, you pray for good weather,” she said.

Tickets are $15 per person. The event typically makes around $3,000, Tostenson said.

While it is a fundraiser, she said, it is also a service the Art Center enjoys doing for the community. It is also a good opportunity to raise awareness about the Art Center and get volunteers.

“We have a lot of volunteers doing a lot of work,” Tostenson said, adding the event needs dozens of people to take tickets at the gardens and show people around.

The Art and Garden Tour will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.

The Art and Garden Tour this year will include the following locations:

• Terry Fox and Dennis Johnson, 409 Lakeview Blvd., Albert Lea
• Three Oak Vineyards and Winery, owned by Jay Enderson and Dan Sorenson, 73505 225 St., Albert Lea
• Lori and Gary Nelson, 148 2nd Ave. W, Alden
• Colleen and Ron Jahnke, 118 W. Main St., Alden
• Anne and Jon Jahnke, 125 Morin Road, Alden

At the request of the homeowner, Tostenson said instructions for Anne and Jon Jahnke’s garden have been changed slightly from the tickets that have been printed and distributed. Those participating in the tour should take the back route to Anne and Jon Jahnke’s home after visiting Colleen and Ron Jahnke. They should park by the old creamery and enter through the backyard.

Artists participating this year are the following:

• Brenda Bartness and Patty Jo Sanderson: Bartness and Sanderson are sisters who share a creative spirit. They started refurbishing discarded furniture and eventually moved on to working on canvases, jewelry and other materials. Bartness enjoys making garden decorations out of bowling balls covered in epoxy resin. The sisters also enjoy recycling whenever they can by purchasing paint from garage sales, re-stores and “oopsy” colors from Home Depot and Menards.
• Darin Ingalls: Ingalls graduated from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design with a major in fine art. He works with wood, metal, concrete, print making, painting and mixed media. He enjoys creating art from found objects and wood using a variety of techniques. He sees the process as a constant exploration that allows the imagery to evolve.
• Sue Enderson-Geiken: Enderson-Geiken was a self-taught artist. Her Mayo portrait collage and “Famous Minnesotans” portrait was displayed in the state Capitol and has been on loan to the Hubble House in Mantorville for the past 20 years. Her hundreds of other pieces of artwork are in businesses and homes all over the country. Enderson-Geiken passed away in November 2020, but she lives on through the artwork she left for people to enjoy.
• Trent and Lori Nelson: Lori makes barn quilts, welcome signs and house number signs. Lori and her son, Trent, will have signage and smaller items on display during the garden tour.
• Beth Tostenson: Tostenson will display her watercolor paintings of houses, gardens and businesses during the garden tour.
• Anne Jahnke: Jahnke creates botanical art mainly with watercolor. She also works with acrylic paint and inks. Her art pieces include plants that she has collected, grown or encountered on her travels around the world. Each piece celebrates the beauty of the plant and becomes a scientific record of natural flora.
• Aaron Zogg: Zogg’s art consists of many different fields. He discovered metal art and thought of many projects that would be fun to build. He looked for materials and came up with fun ways to build his projects. Some of the smaller pieces that he is most proud of include silverware birds, creatures made from tools and railroad spike human replicas.