Overview

Winona is a city with two universities and one technical college, with significant opportunity and responsibility for the education of our students and our community. Together with In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre of Minneapolis, we are launching a year-long project to inspire stewardship of our public local water and to promote a broader understanding of regional, national and international water issues. We are also working together to refurbish local drinking fountains in Winona as a public art initiative—one that is enacted and celebrated along with the public education component. The public drinking fountains will serve as an emblematic manifestation of a community committed to the honor, protection, and celebration of clean water as central to the health and wealth of our city. 

How to Become Involved

Community members are invited to attend presentations and films offered throughout the year, create your own projects around water, and participate in the Drinking Fountain Projects.

Faculty at our educational institutions are specifically encouraged to design curricular components that will engage their students in specific service-learning activities, relevant projects, or related topic discussions around water themes throughout the academic year.

For further information on how you or your group can participate in the project, please contact Joan Francioni at Winona State University (jfrancioni at winona dot edu). 

Partners

This project is a collaboration among the City of Winona, Southeast Minnesota Water Resources Board, In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre of Minneapolis, and the three higher-education institutions in Winona: Winona State University (WSU), Saint Mary’s University (SMU), and Minnesota State College Southeast Technical (S.E. Tech). 

Since 1973, In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre (http://www.hobt.org) has been using water, flour, newspaper, paint, and unlimited imagination to tell stories that explore the struggles and celebrations of human existence. Each year, they produce a season of original plays; tour productions and create specially commissioned pageants throughout Minnesota and beyond; and teach puppetry and pageantry through residencies and workshops to youth, students and teachers, and communities. In addition, each spring HOBT creates and wholly produces the fantastical MayDay Parade and Pageant, celebrated by tens of thousands in Powderhorn Park.