Hope Anderson, left, Amy Larson, center, and Chelsey Mickelson, right, gather at Prairie Sky Breads to work on their contributions to the community sun sail.

Jazmine Schultz, local artist, business owner, musician and community organizer, is reactivating art downtown with a colorful art installment she has dubbed the “Magic City Sun Sail.” She received a $1,000 grant from Minot Artists on Main Street, a partnership of Visit Minot, Minot Area Council of the Arts, Rethos and Springboard for the Arts, with support from North Dakota Commerce.

The sun sail will be comprised of numerous handmade crochet pieces inside of hula hoops that will be connected and raised as a colorful canopy above the alley behind Margie’s Art Glass Studio and Magic City Hoagies in downtown Minot. Schultz has invited community members to show their personal flare by contributing to the canopy with their own yarn art. In addition to contributing fiber art, Schultz has requested participants submit a special story on how they learned to crochet or where their yarn came from.

“I’ve been simmering on a project like this for some time, and then I saw that grant applications were open for it and that made it a little more accessible. This grant has helped me find the resources that I would need in order to do that. There’s a part of me that just really loves community activities and doing things together,” Schultz said.

Over the years Schultz has received gifts of yarn collections and half-finished crochet projects from friends with crafty relatives who have passed away. She hopes that by giving life to this project with the donated supplies that she’ll be able to create a community quilt filled with stories from locals about their crocheting journeys.

“I think crocheting and knitting and all of that is just such a part of North Dakota culture. In the olden days, it was very necessary in order to stay warm and (to) have something to do. And so, I sort of do love the idea of it also having a story element,” Schultz said. “So, my hope is that, yes, I will be able to collect stories. I think that also makes the yarn that’s being gifted sort of meaningful — something fun is happening with these things that people cherish.”

The deadline for community hoops to be submitted is Sunday, June 4, so that the hoops can be fixed together in time for a “yarn-raising” in early July. The art installment will be on display all summer and is set to come down in October. If the canopy is in salvageable condition after being exposed to a summer’s worth of outdoor elements, Schultz hopes to save the sun sail and hang it in the alley behind Prairie Sky Breads.

“I think art can be powerful,” Schultz said. “I think the more people that are participating in it just creates opportunities to commune over art and hang out together. That’s kind of the vision behind the project.”