Arts Garden was founded in 2012 by Jill Whitney-Birk. Its purpose was to provide arts opportunities for all ages and experience levels in Hugo, MN, and the surrounding area – a location that desperately needed the influence of local arts. Arts Garden believed that involvement and exposure to the arts facilitated personal growth, confidence-building, fulfillment, enjoyment, and a sense of community.
Arts Garden was about more that just theatre. While doing four theatrical productions a year, Jill supported Arts Garden’s work by providing the community with arts classes at local schools and assisted living centers, visiting craft fairs, and opening a pop-up art experience center called Art-4-All.
In the summer of 2014, Arts Garden began partnering with Calvary Church to produce summer musicals in Roseville, MN, as a part of Rosefest. These shows, directed by Jill Whitney-Birk, were supported by members of both the Calvary Church and Arts Garden communities. Their first production, Fiddler on the Roof, was a huge success. Every year since (except 2020), Arts Garden has partnered with the city of Roseville to continue bringing outdoor community theatre to Rosefest.
In 2021, Jill retired and left Arts Garden in the hands of Kati Hoehl, Shannon Johnson, and Amy Stauter. Together, the three of them turned Arts Garden from an art enrichment program to a fully fledged 501(c)(3) non-profit community theatre.
