Visitors may notice something different at the World’s Only Corn Palace: faces plastered on the walls and the words “In Mitchell, conservation is tradition. Protect it.”
Mitchell Mayor Jordan Hanson said a new addition to the Corn Palace offers locals a more personal experience.
“People used to walk around the Corn Palace and look up at all the murals, now they can look up and straight in front of them and see someone that they know, and, you know, a farmer, their neighbor, their friend, their family," Hanson said. "So, it’s just a really neat project for everybody.”
The project is part of an art piece sending a visual message about the importance of conservation farming practices. The art installation is up through this week.
Invest in Our Land is a conservation farming advocacy organization who put the message together, hoping to educate Americans about safeguarding the future of U.S. farmland.
Rebecca Bartels is the Executive Director of Invest in our land, as well as a Onida, South Dakota native. She said the group wants the focus on the people laying the groundwork for conservation practices, and not just policy.
“And in doing that we couldn’t think of a better way than to show their faces and make sure their stories get told, and so we partnered with the Inside Out Project in order to make that happen. Our spotlight is always going to stay on the farmers,” Bartels said. “They have the story to tell, they’re working the land day in and day out and know the real benefits of these programs and practices in a way that people that are not working the land can’t describe for themselves. And that’s why we do what we do to make sure that policy makers in D.C. and public that are just two steps separate from the farm can
understand their experiences.”
Bartels said Mitchell offered a perfect canvas for the group’s message.
“There are 10,000 reasons and there is only one Corn Palace in the world. But we are collecting portraits of farmers from across the country. South Dakota has real advocacy from people like Dusty Johnson and Rounds and Thune that are advocating both at the local level and in D.C.,” Bartels said. “And it seemed like a great place to kick off this program before we bring all of the portraits from the Heartland to the Hill in D.C.”
She said the goal is to spread the art movement—and support for conservation farming—nationwide.
