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March 3, 2005
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| John Steffl stands between his own "Snake Dream" on the right, and a painting of Steffl by his friend, Sterling Rathsack. Both artists are donating their work for a sale to benefit a new artists' relief fund. (MPR Photo/Stephanie Hemphill) |
Duluth, Minn. — John Steffl carries a huge painting into the lobby of a downtown Duluth bank.
"This piece is called 'Snake Dream.' It's a large abstract work," Steffl says. "This has a lot to do with healing: I had another serious problem beside my cancer, about 17 years ago, and this painting helped me heal. To me, it has a lot of personal power in it."
Steffl is wearing a beret, which conveys "artist" like nothing else can. Under the beret, he's bald. A year ago he had a long black pony tail. He's fighting cancer.
Steffl's illness inspired the idea for an artists' relief fund. For many years, John Steffl ran the Duluth Art Institute, and helped a lot of local artists in the early stages of their careers.
But Steffl got laid off, and now he's a consultant. He helps artists mount shows, and does his own painting.
But that independence makes life risky.
"He was in the situation that a lot of artists are in," says Ann Klefstad, and artis and writer, and a friend of Steffl's. "They're self-employed, they don't have any safety net, they have no health insurance, they have very little savings. You're just a heartbeat away from disaster, and disaster arrived."
When they learned Steffl was sick, Klefstad and other artist friends asked what they could do to help. Together they realized they should set up a fund that would benefit not just Steffl -- who needed help at that time -- but others who would need it in the future.
"We really needed to take this solidarity that appeared in response to the misfortunes of one of us, and that solidarity should be for all of us," Klefstad says.
The Arrowhead Regional Arts Council is sponsoring the project for now. Bob DeArmond is executive director. He says when John Steffl got sick, it was a reminder of lots of other artists who'd had financial challenges.
"And it can be a fairly small thing, that maybe $1,000 or $2,000 could get them over that," DeArmond says. "Enough so they could get back working again, and keep contributing to the community."
DeArmond says once there's money in the fund, there'll be clear guidelines about how an artist can qualify for help. It could be anything from a medical emergency, to a fire, or having equipment stolen.
"I think we're going to be as open as possible to the needs the artists come up with," DeArmond says. "It's going to be incidents, crises, whatever you want to call it, that would probably stop their careers."
Saturday is the opening event in the effort to raise money for the fund. Six galleries will show work by more than 100 artists. All of it will be for sale, and all of the money will go to the fund.
The North Shore Bank of Commerce will show 50 works -- including that big abstract painting by John Steffl himself.
"I thought I should put in an important piece of work," Steffl says. "This whole artist relief trust fund, to me, is very important. It's something that, quite literally, on my deathbed, I asked my friends to put together for me. And certainly Larry Johnson was a major contributor to that thought."
Larry Johnson is president of North Shore Bank. He says not only will the bank buy Steffl's work to add to its collection, it'll also set aside a space permanently to display works that are on sale to benefit the fund.
"Hopefully forever," Johnson says. "Hopefully until this fund gets built up to a point where it's really beneficial to the artists in need."
The exhibit and sale is just the first of several planned fundraisers.
John Steffl is getting better now. And he says the way his friends and fellow artists came together to create the fund is part of his healing.
The works will be on display at six galleries and the bank for about a month. Organizers of the fund hope to be able to make grants as early as this summer.
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