Fashion Week Minnesota is a media platform created in 2015 that celebrates, connects and inspires the local fashion community. Our flagship event series, Spring Fashion Week and Fall Fashion Week, take place every April and September with a lineup of diverse, engaging events that include fashion shows, presentations, panel events and shopping events. Fashion Week Minnesota’s year-round programming includes educational panel events, shopping events, and social media content that spotlights local fashion designers, makers and retailers.

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Vision

• Arts and culture are central to Minnesota's educational system and lifelong learning opportunities. The arts develop creative minds that maximize new opportunities and find solutions to life's challenges.

• Minnesota is a recognized national arts leader. It attracts, nurtures, and sustains creative people and organizations and recognizes them as assets. It is a magnet for arts enthusiasts and a destination for tourists. Residents and visitors are assured a world-class, quality arts experience.

• Every Minnesotan appreciates, creates, attends, participates and invests in the arts. Minnesota's effective, innovative, vibrant, public-private support for the arts is the strongest in the country. Universal support and appreciation for the arts help ensure the state's exceptional quality of life.

Responding to the Call – Keeping Our Eyes on the Pies!

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FERGUSON, MISSOURI

AUGUST 9, 2014 … another bloody hot day. There I sat in the comfort of my air-conditioned home watching media coverage of another Black mother’s son lying lifeless on a scorching asphalt street—this time in Ferguson, Missouri. Like others prior, the news of Michael Brown’s death tore at my heart as I thought, that could have been my son. I ached for the unknown mother who would never again hear a response to her call, “Come on inside baby, it’s time to eat!”

And so I wept.

Escalating hotter than the weather was the tremendous tension of the protests. As I viewed eyes filled with anger and fear flash across my television screen, I asked myself, what can I do? There came a soft yet clear response (I believe from God): “Go into your kitchen, make some sweet potato pies, pack your car, and deliver them down to Ferguson.” And so I did.

On Friday, August 29, 2014, at the crack of dawn, my son Adam and I hit the road with thirty freshly baked sweet potato pies in the trunk of my car. My pastor daughter, Roslyn, created a poem to accompany each pie (see The Pie) Upon arrival, first I asked permission of each person as I offered them a gift of a pie and soon discovered that each one had something to share about how the pie had come at just the right time. And so I listened.

~Rose McGee

Minneapolis parks encompass the city’s defining lakes and the riverbanks at the core of the city’s development. Acquired by purchase and donation, the parks include features of astonishing beauty, historical significance and ecological wonder, all within a thriving urban setting. More than this, the parks are imbued with personal meaning—the playgrounds that live in the memories of generations of people, are the soul of our communities. Today, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) is an independently elected, semi-autonomous body responsible for governing, maintaining and developing the Minneapolis Park System. The 6,817-acre system consists of local and regional parks, playgrounds, golf courses, gardens, biking and walking paths, nature sanctuaries, lakes and a 55-mile parkway system. Take a step back in time to discover how our world-renowned park system got its start.

Soon after Minneapolis was born on the Mississippi's west bank, the city's flour milling industry skyrocketed. Powered by the mighty river and fed by boxcars of grain rolling in from the plains, the industry gave Minneapolis bragging rights as the “Flour Milling Capital of the World.”

Propel Nonprofits is an intermediary organization and federally certified community development financial institution (CDFI). We provide capacity-building services and access to capital to support nonprofits in achieving their missions including the ability to link strategy, governance, and finance and to support nonprofits throughout their organizational lifecycle. Propel Nonprofits was created from the 2017 merger of Nonprofits Assistance Fund and MAP for Nonprofits.

A dreamer of fashion is born. A young girl age six, sits at the kitchen table many nights and sketches out women in beautiful garments. This dreamer of fashion later in life obtains her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Savannah College of Art & Design in May of 2003. In Mid-August of 2004 the dreamer, Keiona L. Cook (Day) envisions Qe' Bella Couture, in Minneapolis, MN.​

Keiona makes dreams come true by bringing client sketches from paper to life.​ Qe' Bella specializes in women and little girl's custom garments. Qe' Bella Couture designs garments to capture the unique characteristics of each individual's lifestyle. Emphasis is placed on the eminence materials used to produce garments that are high in quality. ​

Qe' Bella appeals to different impulses by diversifying lines and accommodating the ready-to-wear street savvy to high-end couture. Keiona designs everything from a simple pair of jeans to extravagant wedding dresses with hand embroidery and embellishments.​