Meet the CREATE Portage County Team

Hello and welcome fellow Awsomologists to Awsomology. I’m Sue.

And I’m Ben. And in this episode, we’re sitting down with Kristin Hubbard Dostel, executive director, Ryan Branwell, community engagement manager for Create Portage County.

And last, but certainly not least, not the one in our house.

Really first in our hearts. Yes.

Garrett Katerzynske, director of operations and digital marketing, all with create create Portage County. We’re so happy to be here.

Thank you for having us.

We’re excited.

And thank you for being live in our studio. It’s you’re the first people we’re hosting in our new homes. That’s lovely. Awesome. Really close.

Yeah. Nice. High five. Five. Closer to the mic. Okay.

We need a plaque or something to commemorate this.

Certainly.

We’ll three d print something next door to the next space.

Good. Good. Good. Good. Good.

Yes. So not only so this is a big deal for us because we’re welcoming three guests in one, and they’re hosting us in their podcast studio. So we have tons to be grateful for. So thank you for being with us. Thank you for having us in your space. Kristen, thank you for giving us that little mini tour.

We will we’ll pay you for that later. I’m sure that’s very affordable, whatever that was.

So we’re excited to be here with you.

Awesome. We are super excited to have you guys. And, we love showing everybody the space and little quick tours. And I’m sure we could give you a longer tour someday, but that’s just for next time when you guys save it and hang out some lot for a longer period of time.

I’ve had the honor and privilege to be here a few times in the new space from when you all first kinda started the construction process to now, and it’s been amazing to see it transform. It’s been so cool. So thanks for the brief tour. We’ll get to see all the nooks and crannies later, hopefully, for sure.

That’s what you have to look out for. Yeah. It’s the nooks and especially the crannies.

Crannies are gonna get you.

If we have to get the hard hat out, you know, then then then it’s a big deal.

It’s getting real. Yeah. Alright. Well, Create has been doing some really great work for some time. But for our listeners outside of the area, can you sum up the organization and tell us a little bit about your history?

Yeah. Absolutely. So Crepe Porters County started in, again, Porters County in two thousand four as the Art Alliance of Porters County. So really championing, you know, arts and culture, in the area, and continuing work for a very, you know, significant amount of years. And then in twenty fifteen, began the transition and rebranding into create Portage County.

At that time was also the incubation of the idea center. So our old space was referenced as the idea center, and kind of a test environment for this, this awesome space to of collaboration and really just going forward and moving our community into, you know, what it what it is now, and where we’re growing into even from here. And so that was so successful, that we’ve also been able to take this next leap of our new space, for the past five years ish, and for us to transition into now create Portage County and incorporating what we had at the idea center into our full model here at the new space.

Awesome.

Okay. So spoiler alert, maybe.

We’ll see because we got some questions ready for later that So this might not be a spoiler?

This might be a spoiler.

It might not.

K. Who knows?

Favorite thing that create does maybe the thing you’re most proud of or the thing you like to participate in the most, whatever?

My favorite thing, I love all things creative. I do lots of art and all things on my own and have for a really long time. And I think sharing that and have everybody sharing with me what their their niche is, like, what they really like to do, is my favorite part.

Yeah. Yeah.

And I think for me in particular, like, outside of individual events, what I’ve seen now that I’ve been working here, Chris and I were pretty much hired around the same time, so relatively new.

But within a short period of time of actually working at Create, it really has shown me the amount of community that exists in this area. I think, kind of being raised in this area, not necessarily, like, finding my own place. I think when you’re from an area, you always wanna get out, you wanna leave. So there was a certain aspect of me that really, like, detested Stevens Point. Like, I didn’t really have a place that fully encompassed, like, who I wanted to be. But since coming back and since joining Create, like, I’ve truly, like, understood what the Stevens Point excuse me, Stevens Point community actually is and the people that are involved in it, through, like, people wanting to be a part of Create or wanting to hear what Create does or people that knew who Create was and wanted to see where we were going. Like, it truly has brought in my horizons of understanding the people that live here in Stevens Point, and I think that’s my favorite part.

Yeah. Awesome.

Yeah. And, and I can sort of ditto Ryan in the sense that I didn’t grow up here or live in the area.

I moved here sort of as an established adult, kind of in my mid to late twenties or early thirties.

And it was nice to see some of the initiatives that Create was doing around town before even knowing who we were and then eventually working here. The murals, the music series, all those touch points that, make it a place you can see yourself in, make it a place that you can see yourself getting involved in. I remember it was sort of in the midst of the pandemic that I was working remote job out of my home office, and I started walking past on those long lonely walks, the idea center. And I went to their website and I said, alright.

Who who are the media people? Who are the people in the pictures? Who are the people posted on Create’s website? And I used it as sort of this meeting point.

And that’s what I’ve liked the most since I’ve joined here is both at the old space and our new established create Portage County hub here in the in the renovated convent is, the resurgence of the third space. A space you can be walking through the halls, check the membership calendar, see a guy’s working on an installation project next door. Hey. I used to do installation back in undergrad in Milwaukee.

And now I’m talking with him, and we’re renting projectors to him. He’s working at some of our events, and there’s this sort of chance meeting, that has dis has started to disappear in the Internet age, and then since the pandemic that we’re hoping to reconnect to. Get people back in the mindset of the third space, back into a shared community, even when people are getting siloed.

And, yeah, what I love is it kinda brings me back to when I was an undergrad.

Some of the tools and things you miss from being on campus, living close to your friends, and people that are working on the same stuff. You can get that back in the middle of your life or even as a retiree living in the neighborhood, they can, find a new passion they didn’t know about, and have this sort of lifelong learning model.

Yeah.

That’s awesome. Could just let’s dwell for a second on this idea of the third space. I don’t know. I think there are a lot of few especially with people who do the kind of work that you all do are really familiar with that as an idea. I don’t know if that’s something that everyone knows about, the need for a third space. Can wonder if you sort of define that and tell us about the importance.

So just to speak on it a little bit too. So I’m kind of in charge of the events here. And I think, again, like, this concept of bringing I like to say we’re bringing, excuse me, bringing creative minds together. Right? So there are a lot of people within this community that have really cool, fun ideas of different things that they wanna bring to the community.

Things that they want to build, businesses that they wanna start, it then set they wanna throw. And I think a lot of times, they they end there. Right? They’re very conceptual.

So this idea of a third space is like, for lack of better term, like a breeding ground for them. Right? Like a place where different people who have different talents or assets to be able to, like, lean into if somebody has the passion to start something, but they don’t have the the talent to complete it. Maybe there’s someone in this third space that that that can take them there.

And these, in my opinion, can only happen over, like, organic and authentic communication. Right? Like, there’s not a Facebook page that says, like, come bust out your ideas or whatever and see kind of where it comes together. And if there would be, I’m sure it wouldn’t be facilitated properly.

But no, like it offers that space that gives you permission to be creative. Right? Like, and gives you that space where you can be free to express yourself in that regard. And I think that’s kind of what separates it from, like, this ambiguous concept of being creative and starting things. Right? Like, it gives you that permission to do it.

Yeah. Absolutely. I started a bit my first small business twenty years ago by myself. I was lonely.

I didn’t know anybody. I had to figure it out myself. And, yeah, I mean, it was Google or the library. We’re kind of those things.

And I didn’t feel like I had a a support system or place where I could go where people got it. You know, they get those things that are struggles or even wins. And and so if it’s for me, for sure that that piece too. Like, I’ve I’ve lived that of not having, like, wow, I’m really doing this for myself.

Like, I don’t have a community where people can do with me.

And so I I think we really are that place. It’s and you can it naturally happens here where somebody will walk in because they saw the sign out front, and then they somebody is painting a mural, and then they start talking about the story behind it and just all these natural things that start happening. And there’s talking about coaching football and then soccer, and then there’s the youth program that happens, you know, in addition with all those people. So it’s just a really natural place for that growth to happen. It’s pretty special.

Chris Ed? It’s pretty awesome that a, very traditional third space church for a lot of people. Right? And here we are in the convent and this whole space.

Maybe and actually for folks that don’t know, can you talk a little bit about that level or that aspect of the space that we’re Yes.

And I actually went to church here as a child. I on the property, I went to school across the street. So I very much have a long history of I’m from town. So I walked across the street and went to church on Wednesdays.

And so really, it was just it was really a special thing, you know, with the sisters that lived here. They wanted to continue their mission within, you know, Portage County. And I think one of the cool things is that the developer, the property owner that the part of their vision and mission of the idea of having the multi generational housing and then having a community serving organization on-site as well to really connect all of those pieces together, really fit. And they picked create to be the, you know, the organ create a farm shed to be the organizations that come in and get to, you know, further their, you know, that connection, with the community.

And so it’s really neat to I think there’s a lot. Well, I was telling you earlier, there’s some misconception that people think that we’ve completely changed the whole building, that it’s different, and it really isn’t. Yeah. That it still really visually looks very similar.

Obviously, it’s not a church anymore. It’s deconsecrated. Like, there isn’t the religious aspect of it anymore, but I think there still is that visual, remembrance of people can still see. And and they it brings them back that memory of, like, home.

You know, that piece of, like, wow. I belong here. I I have something here.

And then it’s it’s pretty special to see people share that, and sometimes they’re emotional about it. But Yeah. But, yeah, the sisters were here for a grand opening and for a ribbon cutting, and it’s really neat that they get to see it. And they hadn’t seen it since, you know, they they had moved. So they get to actually, one of them actually does still live on-site. So she rents an apartment Yeah.

Around town.

So very close. Yeah. It’s it’s really cool to to have our staff through the multi year historic preservation process, and then now our members and community coming in when we open the doors, really take in the high ceilings, the stained glass windows, the magic hour sun pouring through with splashes of color.

It really is a space of history, a space of inspiration, that really builds into the model of what we’re trying to make here. I know there was a lot going on here when it was a convent, but I know to the larger community, it was just this mysterious building sometimes.

Beautiful property with gates, kind of like what goes on in there. And it’s been cool to reintroduce or introduce for the first time the wider community to this secular space, that has a history that is more about the people rather than the beliefs. And that can be a, you know, an all inclusive welcoming environment for people to just create what’s next to create the new Stevens Point, their new selves here.

And then additionally, I love the intersectionality of where this can lead. We’ve got downtown to the south of us, the campus to the right of us.

These new this new construction with Century and the Green Circle Trail, running near and through our property on the lawn or the the green spaces.

And I think there’s just a really cool future for how we can bridge the communities together in this one hub.

Yeah. Mhmm.

And I think even to extend too.

So the building itself was, like, started build being built in nineteen o one. And then the part that we now occupy was, like, readded or added, I should say, in nineteen fifties about.

And I think it really just leads to who create is as an organization to not change the whole space, but to, like, utilize the space for what it is and just transfer it into a new thing. Right? Like, I think we’ve joked around so much since we moved here that so much of what we’ve been doing with this new space, both to be creative but also to save money, is just MacGyvering everything. Right?

It’s to, like, take this room that used to exist in this way and set it up in a way that now is more conducive to what will serve the community. Mhmm. And to speak back on the sisters. Right?

Like, they came to our our ribbon cutting, our grand opening. And for them to say, like, one of them said to me, they’re just so happy that they can walk in now, and it feels happy that there’s color there. You know? And it’s that it’s that thing where it’s like in the in the more figurative sense, we have that blessing, you know, where it’s like they as much wanted to see this become something, this cool building.

It’s so cool to be enjoyed by more people. And I think that’s what we’re doing here.

There’s a lot, I think, in history too, in thinking about, at one time, the university had so much enrollment in the seventies that students lived on-site.

So because they didn’t have enough student housing.

It was something and I ironically, my parents told me that when they were college students here. And so when they come back and see it now, they’re like, well, I remember that. Yeah. And so just to see those pieces still kind of come out, it’s super exciting.

Yeah. Awesome. So many great stories. I love it.

Yeah. And let’s talk about you all. Okay?

So beautiful history here in the building. Amazing building, but, you know, we need amazing leaders like you all to make create work. So where did you all come from? Kristen, we’ll start with you, and then I wanna hear from both of you guys.

Yeah. Well, I am relatively new to Create. Not new to Portage County or Savings Point. I’m a lifer. My I live a mile from the house I grew up in.

And so I am point through and through for sure. I’ve been involved in nonprofit for a very long time.

I had history of family nonprofit type of stuff.

I have a degree from mid state in accounting. Ironically, that’s very different than creative. Right? So those are my right left brains that are very satisfied on a daily basis.

And I I have a a daughter who’s fourteen, almost fifteen, and I was really wanting to focus more of my work life career in Forest County at home. I was traveling a lot. I was gone a lot, and I didn’t wanna miss so much of things that were going on with her because there’s gonna be a time when she’s not around as much.

And I kinda fell into the opportunity.

I knew some people that, you know, were on the board and involved in the organization, and I had been going to things that Create had been doing for a really long time, and loved it. And it just it felt like the perfect fit. Like, I absolutely love what I do. I’m blessed, obviously, with an amazing team and board, and I don’t think I could be any luckier.

So Yeah.

I’m gonna let them I wanna let them shine a little bit more. It’s not okay. It’s not just about me.

No. This isn’t the Kristen show.

Is that what you’re trying on?

It’s definitely not. K.

Sure.

So, yeah, we’ll save you for less since you’ve been here the longest.

So, yeah, kind of like what I was saying before that, from the area, again, didn’t necessarily have a space that I felt was for me.

I lived down in California for a couple years, moved back, met my now husband. We lived in, Madison for a couple years, came back. And but before all that or during all that, I should say, I’m a part of the queer community, and I really wanted to create a pride event, specifically in the Stevens Point area.

And when I was trying to figure out how to set that up, how to maintain in a way that I could continue year after year, to raise money and to get volunteers, all this good stuff. I was kind of pointed towards Create at the time. A huge aspect of what they were trying to do was help people with startups, whether it be businesses or creatives, kind of the same thing that we’re doing now.

We created this relationship where, Create acted as a fiduciary receiver for this idea of this event. Right? So I had been working alongside of, not hired by, but alongside of Create for, what, five, six years now, since when that that communication started. But again, like, also whilst running this event one time a year, I wasn’t living here.

Right? Like, I was living in, Madison, and I had all these different, changes. So when I when I moved back and this position opened up, I was like, well, duh. You know?

I I I was I was already doing a lot of that stuff, and it’s huge for me to be in a position within the community to, like, help these ideas, these narratives, this idea of, like, being in a position that I can help Stevens Point in the area that I grew up be fit for people like me or to improve certain aspects of the community. So So I think at the same time, I get to have fun. I like to tell everybody I’m a glorified party planner.

There’s a lot more work that goes into it.

Yeah. Right now, it’s very stressful. We’re heading into a very busy time of the year. But I digress.

Right? Like, there’s a lot of opportunities within this position that allow me to make a difference in the community. Yeah. Awesome.

Love it.

Yeah. And like my colleagues and so many of us, I did grow up, nearby in the town of Waupaca, not too far from here. But I was the only one in my family to not go to the University of Stevens Point.

I looked at it. I like the community, but I just wanted to get a little bit further from home. And I love the city of Milwaukee. I love the opportunity to study film there.

Since I’ve been growing up. Big family, lots of drama, lots of stories to tell.

I just figured that would be the best place to tell them and experience something new. So I went down there, got a degree in film production, advertising journalism, Did a bunch of internships, a bunch of different things. As you’re all aware, storytelling takes many forms.

Got a job out of school in Appleton. So kind of treading back up highway forty one back towards home. Lived there for a long time, worked at a university, so a campus community telling a bunch of stories. And around the pandemic, and around before then even, I met my wife and she grew up and went to UWSP and had has a whole history here.

So she brought me even further full circle to Stevens Point, where, as I said earlier, I was working out of my home office for a while, walking around town, kind of falling in love with the creative community, some in somewhat unexpected ways. It’s a smaller town. Appleton was smaller than Milwaukee. Stevens Point was smaller than Appleton.

But I found, an even greater depth of creative connection here than I have in the Fox Valley or even in Milwaukee at times, because everyone’s going to meet each other here. If you’re working on something, you’re gonna run into them at the bar, at the coffee shop. You’re gonna see them when you go out to the park. They’re they’re gonna end up being your neighbor.

And so it it Stevens Point is a place that might lack some of that breadth of a larger city and all the options, but it certainly has that creative depth of engagement where you won’t just see someone in passing and maybe never see them again or miss out on a project. You’re gonna meet them three, four times and then be like, okay. We’re gonna work on that project.

And yeah. And then that’s what led me to working at Create, and kinda brought everything full circle around our great state of Wisconsin, is, you know, kinda going out like, my colleagues and so many people have said and taking a little bit of what you learned, what you liked, what you didn’t like, and bringing it to this smaller close knit community so we can build something really big.

And you can get in on the ground floor, and everyone kinda has eyes on it and wants to be a part of it as opposed to kind of that that burnout you can feel. Again, it’s it’s counterintuitive, but a larger city can also be very lonely Mhmm. In some ways, even though there’s so much to do, you can it can be harder to find your people or your place. Right.

And And we found it here.

Well, I I mean, I know a little tongue in cheek there, but we shouldn’t, downplay the importance of finding your people.

Mhmm.

Creating a space where Mhmm. People can find each other and you guys do so much, between the creative atmosphere, the music series, the space, you know, like, all of these opportunities for people to come together. It’s crucial. Really important.

So okay. I like I said, kinda spoiler alert, spoiled it a little bit earlier by you all sharing your your favorite, thing that create does.

Anything new that you can share? Anything that you’re excited about?

Anything like that? Yeah.

Actually. So, so first off, diving into a lot of the things that create does. And I I I don’t know if this comes later. So if I’m reading it, please let me know.

But a lot of a lot of what Create was, and I think one of the big reasons that I’m excited to be a part of it now, is the the concept of Create was that. Right? More of a concept. And I think a lot of people within the Students’ Coin community, including myself, even before being hired and sometimes still, doesn’t or didn’t have a full idea of who Kria was, what they do, and why they do it.

Right? So I think now that we have a physical space and a stronger intention, it truly is like everything that we do is bringing people together. And I truly think that’s, like, overarching idea of all this kind of stuff with the new space. So, obviously, we still have our eleven AM music series that comes up every Thursday throughout the entire summer.

Really awesome opportunity for community members alike to come sit and enjoy music. And I think it it really isn’t much deeper than that. Right? But the idea of bringing all these people to the same space is just, again, like this idea of taking what we want to do with inside creates walls, but taking it outside.

Authentic conversations are starting in a lot of relationships, also kinda start in that area.

So that’s something that we always have done, but I think with this new space, it becomes something that’s kind of new. Right? Like, these conversations don’t just start, they can continue.

Another thing we’ve done in the past that again, like, are it’s getting revisited. Right? Like, things are growing is, a search competition is, search pitch competition.

It’s this concept of, small businesses, either startups or something like that, are pitching this idea of a new extension of their business or business all in gen new in general, and we have different partners and stuff. But it’s a competition where different people or groups that are a part of it can, pitch this idea of something that they wanna build in the community. And the winner gets a prize that can kind of help push them in that direction of making it happen.

There’s other events that we do here as well, but it was something that specifically excites me that I would say is very new, is we have an event space now. Right? Like, it isn’t just this idea that we’re going somewhere to put an event or, putting something on in our ceiling tile list previous location. Right? That we actually have a ceiling here and lights that work. I know. Well, most of the time.

But, like, we have a physical space where events, whether they’re ours or other people that wanna have them here, can have them. Something that’s really excited me, and we just actually had the first one, was we just had our first wedding here.

Wow.

So it’s really and something that I’m very passionate about in that regard too is, yes, it it used to be a church, but like we said, it was deconsecrated. So this couple that just got married here, they are religious, great, but of separate religions.

So in order for them to be married, they would have to go to one of the churches and pay for counseling for x amount of time, and that might not be fiscally available to those people or the time might not be there. So for us to offer a space that might have that more visual religious motif to kinda lean into that, but not have those different hurdles that people have to jump over. Or even to extend, like I said, to the queer community, a lot of times, like the queer community are ostracized from religion. Right? So to now have a space where people can feel as though they can get married and steal the deal in that regard, but not not be so secluded from a a space that they would want to is like super cool to us. And like I said, it acts as a wedding venue, bar mitzvah, galas if you wanted to have them here. So now, in addition, Halloween, we really wanna, like, take over Halloween in this area.

So it’s this, again, this idea of create, in my mind, was conceptual before, but now everything kinda gets to change because we have a physical space for it.

Yeah. Really cool. It’s it’s interesting how much of it like, that’s a significant change, but also pre this space, I thought that was one of the coolest things about Create was, like, you made everything happen elsewhere. I mean, you had your space, the Mhmm. Center and everything. I’m on a disk. Know, those were some walls.

And there were and some walls. At least frames of the ceiling tiles.

Right? There was a lot of ceiling esque things happening.

You did so much with that.

And that was amazing in and of itself. But, of course, now with, you know, what’s available to you here, it’s it’ll be pretty cool to see, you know, kind of the hockey stick curve of the impact and everything else that you can do just because you have this here.

It’s Yes. Yeah. Well, and I would think that that you have this new opportunity for people to see create as something other than a co working space and sort of what that what the idea center maybe became before you all became a part of this Mhmm. Which is what are they even doing there in that weird janky little building then?

So question on that. How because, I mean, everything from the music series to the co working space and your memberships and stuff like that, do you have some sense of, the community’s awareness of the variety of stuff that you do? I mean, I imagine that there’s people that interact with you as members or they use the co working space and maybe they don’t even know about the eleven AM series. I don’t know.

And then other way around. Right? Absolutely. What’s your understanding on where you’re at as far as, like, the the community’s understanding of the variety that you offer?

Yeah. I think there, you know, there was a lot of, you know, misunderstanding of maybe we do all of that. Oh, create does Levitt. I I thought you just did that.

Yeah. And I think now because we’ve been talking about this space for a long time. Right? And so, like, there’s been a lot of excitement around this space and about the opportunity to be here, and so people are listening.

And then in our work, we want to talk about create brand, create as a whole, and make sure that you recognize what who we are and what we’re doing. And so what people see now going forward is that that is create. Like, I know create does love it. I know create does, you know, trash canvas.

I know that they’re the ones that put those murals up. And so in really looking to, as an organization, to bring those things that we do as programs to stay. So we want them to be sustainable. We want them to happen every year.

We want them I mean, this is year nine of Levitt, which is incredible.

Yeah.

And so those things are happening, and people want them to stay, and they look forward to them. Like, I can’t wait to be out on the grass at Levitt.

And then and now we can come in, hopefully, and have a mini Levitt ish type of thing on the grass here at the at the new space.

So, yeah, I I am excited about just the potential of how much is coming, and really sharing our brand and what we’ve done. We’ve done a lot.

Yeah.

And now we get to bring a lot of that back because we have a bigger space to do it. Right.

Yeah.

Oh, I was just gonna say, and from a marketing perspective, it’s a common pitfall of our predecessors.

Create’s internal model is to support people to take a step back. And while that’s great operationally, we kind of became private label accidentally where all these things were happening. Create in this traditional even Midwest sense was maybe a little too humble or shy to take a forefront in some of these things. So again, as Kristen and Ryan said, we have this new space, even some new staff, some new energy surrounding all these initiatives, and this new era of create as we branded it.

We’re really starting to, you know, take a step and, promote ourselves in a way that gives us more visibility and more, more of a uniform nature to everything we do. So it’s not it doesn’t seem like we’re popping up out of the woodwork. We’re more, cohesive now, and we have a better sense of bringing it all home, connecting all of these dots that we put out into the community.

We might still pop out of the woodwork.

Yeah. Hey, guys. Don’t get a twist. Yeah.

You’ll never know where we’ll be coming from.

Well, so speaking speaking of connection and popping out of the woodwork, and do all that for sure.

What are some things that you all have planned or things that happened in the past that are the best kept secrets that for you’ve been working really hard. But I know in, having done events and, all of the different things we’ve done, there are things that you go, a thousand people should wanna do that, and I don’t know why we can’t get people connected to it. What are those things that it’s time like? Let’s get people doing these cool activities.

Well, so this kind of really excites me. So we had we had our grand opening.

And throughout our grand opening, we had different whiteboards in different rooms asking people what they what they wanna see happen here. Mhmm. And right now, you are sitting in a room with the entirety of the Create staff.

You know what I mean?

There’s three of us.

And I think what Create offers and what I think we want to give people the agency to do or encourage them to do is get a membership and do it. My god. Like, the our our space with all these ideas of different like, people wanna have a a roller skating party upstairs.

People wanna have a Halloween party here. People wanna, like, have, concerts up in our space. You know, like, there are all these ideas and we want to give people the agency to do them here. Right?

Like between the three of our our staff here, we can we can manage that. Right? Like we can we can do the events that we’ve been doing. We can add here or there.

But to a certain extent, we have to be able to say, yes, you can, but you can do it and we will support you in that way. So I think that’s like the biggest untapped potential of creative. It’s like, it’s a playground for adults for the most part. Well, even kids, we have Lego night here every once a month or something like that.

But it it it truly gives you that potential to throw the party that you’ve always wanted to, or to have a paint night, or meet up with an artist to do these things. And our old space didn’t really have the the razzle dazzle to to encourage people to be there. But now I would think that’s, like, the biggest thing that we really wanna encourage people is, like, help us help you.

Bring your ideas here, but then run with it.

Right.

Yeah.

We want people to have a shared identity here. And we did that a lot through the multiyear build out. But even more recently, the pictures on the wall are artists that work here or work alongside of us. A mural in the wall is a former board member who works across town. We want people to literally make their mark, on this space and see themselves here, going forward and build upon it.

Oh, and also please volunteer. We have a lot of events that are happening throughout all the, throughout the the area and stuff like that.

And I think people can truly get a sense of who create is and, again, lean into beyond that who Stevens Point is and what Stevens Point has to offer and the different people, if you come and volunteer for things like Levitt or the other events that we have going on.

Yeah.

I think one of the special things about Stevens Point, I’ve you know, just from my history here is I love it here, and I think it’s easy to love Stevens Point, and it’s easy to show excitement for where, you know, those types of things. And we want people to come to Stevens Point. Right? Like, we I mean, it’s right in the middle of the state.

You drive past it all the time, and we want people to wanna stay here. Right? We have one of the biggest high schools in the in the state. We have an amazing campus.

They’re right here. And how do we get those people to wanna stay here? It is a small town. Right?

There isn’t a lot always going on that people think of. So let’s have more of that. Let’s get them let’s get those people to stay and be our next generation of community and help them grow. So that’s kind of a being close to the university, and I know they don’t have a library right now.

But so they’re, you know, they’re coming in and they’re taking tours in these things, and they’re talking about wanting to stay or doing internships here. And so it’s just it’s getting to see that those roots grow too Yeah. And get to stay. So it’s kind of one of the I get excited about that kind of stuff.

Exciting time. Yeah. Yeah.

Alright. We are getting close to wrapping up here. You’ve already shared so much great stuff with us.

Seems like a great time to, make a pitch right to potential donors and volunteers.

What’s something you hope people take away from our conversation today that would motivate them to connect with you right now or soon?

I think everybody can see themselves here in some capacity, whether it’s they they want to they they heard about it or they remember it or just in passing, it’s somebody just mentioned it, that we’re still in the middle of a capital project. We’re still, you know, paying for the space and making it, you know, have walls.

And so we are gonna our capital campaign is happening.

And so when we are a nonprofit, we that’s how we thrive, you know. Yeah. And so we can’t do without support of our community. We have a great community, and they do support us amazing, in amazing ways. And with the project of the you know, where we are in this space, people can still donate. You can sponsor a window in the great hall. It’s a twenty foot stained glass window that you could have your name on it for twenty years, and for three thousand dollars.

It’s it’s incredible. I mean, people come in there and they’re just taken back by just the beauty of it. Mhmm.

And so I think that’s a big thing that everybody can be involved in some way, in any denomination. It’s pretty easy.

Sure.

Yeah. In my regard, come to our events. You know? I think, as Kristen was saying, being a part of this town, sometimes you feel as though, like, oh my god.

The only thing that we can do is eat, drink, and go bowling. You know? Like, there’s not much one could think there’s not much that the the city has to offer, but truly, if you just look, you can find it. So Yeah.

We have our eleven concert series, like I said, that comes up, every Thursday throughout the entire summer. We have point pride. We have Juneteenth. We have make music day.

So I would say just just get involved in that regard. And I think through that, outside of having, like, a really awesome time, it it truly does build that sense of community, and you can meet people that can be your friends.

Yeah.

And in addition to, you know, these formal events, a lot of the things we put on are interactive, especially our monthly meetups open our doors free for the public to come in, to a poetry night, to a filmmaker meetup, to a retro vintage game night.

And so a lot of it is, you know, come enjoy the people around you, listen to some local poets, but then get up, write some of your own poems, step up to the mic, come into our recording studio, become a member, and put it into action.

It sort of invites people to come in and then make something they might just have whittling away in their cabinet brain or in an old scraggly notebook.

You know, there’s no better time than now, no better place than here.

Yeah. And ask. Right? Ask those questions. I mean, there’s I I think, yes, we are a very small staff, but we are very, very wide range of talent. Yeah.

And we know, by extension, a a wide range of talent where, like, you might not know somebody that knows how to do something, but we do. So, like, come bring your idea here so we can help facilitate those connections.

We wanna be that we wanna be that place that what’s happening on Friday night, let’s go to create. Yeah. Let’s go do something. Like yeah.

Love it.

I just have to say one. I wanna give Ryan a little bit of, extra exposure here. Love it free. Right? Totally free.

Are you?

Legit music from all over.

All over. Yeah. So actually, by nature so Levitt and this is the other thing. People are like Levitt. What is that? Yeah.

So it’s actually a foundation based out of California where their big thing is, like, bringing music to free music to communities. Right. And a huge aspect of what they are is they’re, like, it’s quality talent. Right? That we actually have to submit the artist to get it approved in their regard. Like, they have to hit a certain capacity of either, for lack of better term, talent or anything like that. Yeah.

But in addition to that, like, we’re encouraged to have everything be so diverse. So we have funk music to reggae to, like, Latin music. Like, it truly is a full eclectic experience, free. We’re actually expanding this thing called the creative market too.

So we have in the past, it’s only been, like, three or four. We have sixteen different, like, organizations and small businesses within the area that are having, like, their booth set up. So come buy food, come buy drinks responsibly, and come, like, check out the market and, like, support some small businesses in the area. There’s a whole bunch of nonprofits that are gonna be coming too.

And what I would really hope for Lovett is for it to extend past what it’s been, just like a place where people can, like, park their lawn chair and come listen to music, but truly become this hub where if somebody is new to Stevens Point or needs to know more about what’s going on, that they could go to any Levitt Yeah.

And see all that Stevens Point has to offer. And that’s my dream for it. So we’re starting this year, and I just hope to keep growing from there.

Yeah. Love it.

Cool. So glad I gave him an extra two.

Way to go. Way to go.

Never enough.

He’s just a man looking for an opportunity to take the spotlight.

Talk.

So That’s a let me do an hour.

I gotta talk fast.

Alright. Well, we’re gonna transition to our wrap up segment where we share something awesome, and this can be anything, a cool book, a fun new podcast, a cool experience.

Whatever you’ve got, hopefully, you’re prepared. If not, you’ve got about thirty five seconds to think of something really cool. I’ll kick it off with an article that I’m sharing from The Guardian.

And this is very timely because our industry as marketers is really being disrupted by AI and stuff right now, and enhanced, I should say, by AI.

And, you know, of course, when you hear AI, usually the first thing people think of is chat GPT. Of course, it’s so much more than that.

Proof of that is this article that apparently I just learned this.

We’re close to translating animal languages.

We’re closer to translating animal languages than we pick.

Exciting and terrifying. Yeah.

Like a lot of AI, exciting and terrifying.

But, they’ve used, like, four decades of data to attempt, like, real time translation of dolphin language, which, I mean, if there’s an animal we’re gonna start with, it might as well be dolphins. Right?

Well, yeah.

Yeah. But, of course, this comes again. Recurring theme here with a lot of questions, like, so many other aspects of AI, like animal rights, ethical concerns, lots of, stuff. But it is kind of fun to imagine the good, that might come from it, like learning when an animal might be in pain or, you know, something like that.

So we’ll see. I I don’t know how close we are on this. You’ll have to read the article to get your sense of how close we actually are on it, but it’s pretty interesting. And I think with so many things related to AI, I can’t help but, like, think of the positive future that’s gonna come because of what we get to do because of the power that we, you know, gain from it. And and it’s scary and terrifying now all at the same time.

I I just don’t I don’t wanna know what my cat thinks of me. Oh, yeah. I don’t want that conversation.

Just make a rule now.

Like, we’ll never translate that.

Judgey that guy. And I can’t there were enough people judging me.

Yeah.

Don’t also need the cat doing it.

Because cats are jerks.

Right?

As much as we love.

Mine especially Mine’s the biggest.

Just Can we do we have a bleep about none?

I love them.

But Yeah.

I don’t know if you’re listening.

Surreal.

Anyway We’ll see what’s coming with an animal translation via AI in the future.

I’m keeping away from cats. That’s the important thing.

Yeah. That’s it.

K. Alright. Create friends. Who wants to go first? What’s yours? I I go last. I go last.

I’m sorry.

I won’t disrupt the flow. And the closer.

Per the sheet that was given to us. You are at the bottom.

Oh, got it.

So, Kristen, you are next.

Okay. So any awesome. Alright. So I love spring. I love spring. Right? Like, it’s the season of growth.

It’s all these it’s I it’s beautiful outside. There’s flowers growing. It’s such a happy time of year, I think, for me. Yeah.

But in general, I’m create too. And so I’m just it just feels really bubbly and blessed and just a really cool season for us.

And so Yeah.

That’s my awesome And that’s plenty In general.

Okay. Very cool.

We’ll take it.

I was telling the team this morning we did Nomo May this year.

It’s like the third year in a row that we’ve done it, but this was the first year that I kinda hated it because the mower broke.

Oh, no.

After, like, one strip. I don’t know. Yeah. Uh-oh. Yeah. But we made it work. It’s all good.

It took me, like, twice as long.

My front yard is like my zen garden. You know, like, people have that rake in the sand. Right? Because it makes a nice pretty lines. No. My front yard is like my Zen garden.

The pollinators. I I love our pollinators, but they have taken over my backyard.

It’s been a very wet April and May, and, it’s been hard to see it through.

Yeah. No problem.

Right? To your point though, Kristen, as frustrated as it as it was and as angry as I was that this was taking as long as it was. It was just awesome to be outside.

I was just Oh, yeah.

It’s that that spring, like, rejuvenation. I’m so happy to be outside.

So it was all good.

Very cool.

My turn.

No. So, like, by extension, it’s pride month. I don’t know when this is gonna get released.

But yeah. In June? Great. So June and pride month is, like, my favorite time of the year. Obviously, point pride is huge for me, so I’m really excited that that’s coming up. But just that idea of, like, community bringing people together.

I remember, like, my first pride and how much that meant to me And to know, like, I hear stories every single year of how, like, point pride is somebody’s first. Mhmm. And by giving that, like, that permission to be yourself more than permission, that encouragement to be yourself, and then, like, getting and receiving that, like, encouragement and praise and love back is something that, like, I’ll die happy knowing that I had something a part of that. But, like, beyond that, a huge aspect of how it, like, comes to be is through community, support and stuff like that. And it’s really weird now. Like, Levitt, we get a decent amount of money from larger supporters to make that happen.

But, like so there’s this small indie bookstore at downtown Stevens Point called Bound to Happen Books. I just think they’re stunning first off. Go check them out anyway. That’s, like, a shameless plug that they did not pay me for I think it’s great.

But beyond that, they really support these these small events that happen within the community. So, like, so one thing, pride. Second thing, bound to happen books are, like, my two favorite things right now. Yeah. Awesome.

Well, and I know we’ve been talking a lot about this large, great hall, this new venue we’re hoping to, platform a lot of local bands. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention, some of my first trips up from Milwaukee to Stevens Point were both to see a local band I discovered or a national band that Stevens Point were both to see a local band I discovered or a national band that was passing through Chicago to the Twin Cities. And there are a number of branded, house and basement shows in this town, mostly on campus, but some by middle aged dudes with kids like me. There’s one called Hell’s Disco, that some people are like, oh, are we too old to go to a house show?

I’m like, no. The guy that runs this is a dad. Yeah. Let’s the band stay here when they’re traveling through town.

So recently, what we’ve been building here, check out the Instagram page at points punks, and it’s a culmination of the flyers you see around town, all tagged promoting DM for an address, this scene, this show happening here. And it brings together this to separate, underground and an indie music scene that you can find around Stevens Point. So, yeah. They’re it’s just great.

They’re all in one spot now. You don’t have to find a flyer or a scene tucked under some some barstool. You can just go to their Instagram page.

Very cool. K. Let me bring the whole room down now.

Okay. Good.

Drum roll.

Let’s try together.

Yeah. Please. No. Well, okay. So I wanted to share as I mentioned the last time we did one of these, I have been really cranking through some books.

And I you. I listened to another book, and it was so good, but it’s such a depressing title. It’s Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green. But it is so interesting because it’s an examination of the history the world history with tuberculosis and how that connects across time and history, how the the conditions, you know, from the sixteen and seventeen hundreds Mhmm.

In Europe are so similar to areas in Africa now with tuberculosis and how and really and, like and I just love John Green because he has this way of making these connections to, you know, what what does this mean for us as human beings? And how are we dealing with the fact that, you know, we’ve basically in in some parts of the world, we’ve completely eradicated tuberculosis. In other parts of the world, we can’t get the, we can’t get the medical care and the things that we have had here since the forties to the people that need it. And it just is it is yes.

It’s a little depressing to think about. But it’s a really excellent book. Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green is my recommendation if you want to. I mean, I think you should read the book and then definitely get to a pride event or something.

Get to a drag show.

Bring yourself Immediately.

Let’s dance. Get down there and see you a death drop.

Just make sure you have something planned.

Right.

You need to get up out of that space. Yeah.

Well, thank you, everybody. This was so much fun. Oh my god.

We’re gonna do this again, like, tomorrow.

Right. Right? Right? We’re gonna be right back.

We have more. I’m sure.

We think so. We could just not leave. Could we hang out?

You can hang out. There’s some really comfortable couches upstairs.

Yeah. Awesome.

The space is yours.

Take a load out.

Perfect. Perfect.

Thank you for being with us. Thank you, listeners, as always, for joining us. You can catch up on all of our episodes on your favorite podcast app or by finding them on our blog at exclamation q so dot com slash blog.

Thanks, Thanks, friends, for tuning in. Be awesome, and see you next time.

The Osmology podcast is a production of exclamation services. Executive producers are myself, Ben Bauer, and my friend, Suzanne Campbell.

Thanks to Kyla Ganther for our show artwork, Scott Seager for booking our guests, and Alex Westerhausen for social media support.