By Taya Banjac
For the Murphy News Service
Just below the vibrant Riverside Plaza apartments, in the heart of Minneapolis’ Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, a little nonprofit organization does big work for the surrounding community that is home to the most dense population of Somalis and other East-African immigrants in the Twin Cities.
Adrienne Dorn, the director of development at The Cedar Cultural Center on the city’s West Bank, has been a key figure in the rejuvenation of the nonprofit that attracts musicians and other artists from around the world to promote inter-cultural understanding through music.
She has worked with the Somali community there for four years, developing community outreach programs that invite the surround residents to enjoy music, dance, and other events from a global perspective. She also oversees grant-funded initiatives to engage and celebrate the local Somali community.
The path to success was not a smooth one for Dorn or The Cedar. Eight years ago, it was on the verge of closing down after running a 9-year deficit. Financial and organizational troubles left The Cedar tucked away beneath the shadow of Riverside Plaza, unnoticed by much of the community until its rise under new management in 2006.
Dorn’s arrival was a big part of the resurgence. She had no idea what she wanted to do after graduating from Macalester College in St. Paul in 2003, so she “applied to every job posting I saw, and one of those jobs was a part-time volunteer coordinator at The Cedar,” Dorn said.
Initially, Dorn didn’t hear back, but while she was working in development at Macalester, she was called about a part-time house manager position working with volunteers at The Cedar. She took the job. After a couple of years, she was promoted to director of development and was one of only four peopled working there full-time.
“I just really fell in love with the community and with the work we are doing here. The organization was really struggling at the time, but I saw a lot of potential,” Dorn said.
The first year was a bit overwhelming, but by the time Robert Simonds was hired as executive director a year later in 2007, Dorn had raised more than $80,000 and erased the deficit.
“She is very self-motivated, and you can tell she is an incredibly hard-worker, and not easily deterred from her goals,” Simonds said, adding that when he came on board, Dorn already had The Cedar on the path to recovery.
Since then, The Cedar has doubled its budget and added to its already robust programming to include projects that exclusively engage and serve various groups and communities. The Cedar’s mission of intercultural appreciation drives one-third of the approximately 200 concerts a year. Artists come from all over the world to teach audiences about their culture through music. They host speeches, guest speakers, fundraisers, workshops for daytime programs for children, and let Somali community members rent the space out for free.
Even though Dorn grew up in small-town Neenah, Wis., she has always had a passion for intercultural appreciation.
“Ever since I was a little kid, I always wanted to host exchange students, or if there was an opportunity to go abroad, I wanted to do that,” Dorn said.
Dorn has traveled to parts of Europe and South America. Soon she will fly to the Nordic countries in Europe to learn about how the arts communities are thriving within the Somali population there, hoping to find lessons she can bring back to The Cedar.
Dorn is the director of a project called Midnimo: Music for Unity, Campus, and Community. Midnimo, the Somali word for unity, is a two-year project that aims to engage different generations, change public opinion about Islam, and celebrate Muslim culture.
The project would bring well-established Somali and East-African musicians to Minneapolis, where they will stay for about a week while working with classes at Augsburg College from different disciplines such as music, religion, English and women’s studies to teach students about their culture.
Dorn worked for close to a year on the proposal for the nationally competitive “Building Bridges: Campus Community Engagement” grant. The Cedar, along with Augsburg College, was awarded the grant last December. This $200,000 grant, the biggest in Cedar history, will help fund the project.
“We were pretty happy to receive the grant. It was a really significant amount of work to prepare the proposal,” Dorn said. “The Cedar has come up from being a rinky-dink arts organization, and so receiving a grant that is nationally competitive put us on a new level and puts us in a good position to be eligible for other grants.”
Fadumo Ibrahim, The Cedar’s Somali community liaison and development assistant, has worked with Dorn on the Midnimo grant proposal since the beginning, recalling the many planning meetings, brain-storming sessions and one-on-one discussions with partners it took to compile the necessary information for the proposal.
“She wouldn’t sleep until it was right,” Ibrahim said.
The Somali residents are excited at the opportunity to see musicians who are well-known in the community, Ibrahim said.
Mohamed Keynan, 46, a local storeowner, said that he appreciates all the work The Cedar does to engage the community, from fundraising to offering Somali residents use of the facility for free
“It’s a wonderful, multi-cultural neighborhood, and [The Cedar] can play a big role in bringing people together,” Keynan said.
Keynan immigrated to Minneapolis 17 years ago. He spent time in San Diego but eventually came back to Minnesota to be closer to his family. A strong sense of community and ties to Somali culture are important to him and his family, he said.
“Minnesota is home,” Keynan said.
Cultural barriers can still be tough to work through, Dorn said, and everyday is a learning process, but the continual learning is what makes it enjoyable.
“Our mission isn’t the art,” Dorn said. “I think it’s more important to effectively serve your community.”
Adrienne Dorn
Age: 32
Hometown: Neenah, Wis.
Education: BA in Cultural Media Studies from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn.
Employment: Director of development at The Cedar Cultural Center
Family: Single with no children
Interesting facts: She has a tattoo of Riverside Plaza on her arm. When she was 5 years old, she wanted to be the first female player on the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team.