Performers sing, play instruments, and dance at Belwin Conservancy's 2024 Music in the Trees event. Performers from left to right: Shinjan Sengupta, Ritika Ganguly, Samsoche and Lumhe "Micco" Sampson (also known as the Sampson brothers), Laura Harada, Nathan Hanson. Left photo by Lainey Charlsen; center and right photos by Nancy Klinger.
Belwin Conservancy in Afton offers many amenities one would expect from a conservancy: hiking trails, public events and educational programs with naturalists. In addition to their work of restoring native ecosystems in the St. Croix Valley, Belwin is also known for its educational partnerships with St. Paul Public Schools and Anishinabe Academy, welcoming 10,000 students to its trails and education center every year.
But toward the end of summer, Belwin’s red pine grove becomes a most unlikely outdoor venue for its annual, multi-day music festival – Music in the Trees.
Music in the Trees is funded in part by SCVF’s Valley Arts Grant – a collaborative grant in which SCVF matches funds from the Wisconsin State Arts Board and welcomes additional funding from partners like the Hugh J. Andersen Foundation. Started with a generous, anonymous donation in 2008, the Valley Arts Grant Program has awarded over $625,000 to date, including $60,000 in 2024.
The Valley Arts Fund is an endowed field of interest fund that will forever support the region’s vibrant arts community. Anyone can donate to the fund. Grantees represent a diverse array of organizations, including those with arts at the core of their mission, and those with strong arts programming, like Belwin.
“I was hired in 2015 to bring the arts to Belwin as a way of reaching new audiences and reaching people’s hearts, connecting them to our earth,” said Belwin’s Program Director Susan Haugh, who is also a composer and multi-instrumentalist. “Now we have several programs, like Music in the Trees, where we ask all these awesome musicians to get up in deer stands about 16 feet up in these red pines and make music.”
"It's a way we can deepen the experience for frequent Belwin visitors and bring people out to experience nature who might not come otherwise,” said Belwin’s Executive Director Katie Bloome, noting that roughly half of attendees are new to Belwin each year. “Music in the Trees is potentially bringing a different audience because they’re being drawn in by the arts, and then maybe they can learn about and connect to nature, too.”
As Susan explains, the impetus for the music festival was to shed light on the red pines themselves, which were planted unsustainably.
“They were planted to stop erosion,” she said, “but they are a monoculture so they’re getting infected and starting to die. We want to both celebrate them and what they did for the land and nurture a new and healthy ecology of white pines, burr oaks and native plants.”
For Belwin, the arts have become an important vehicle for connecting hundreds of Music in the Trees participants to local ecosystems, while providing high-quality musical experiences to attendees and artists alike. Among this year’s lineup were cellists, a zither player, hoop dancers accompanied by drums and Native flutes, and a wide variety of vocal and instrumental styles.
“We have been intentional about the diversity of music styles and cultures and bringing
music that maybe people don’t hear in the St. Croix Valley very often,” said Katie.
“It’s curating so that we show the diversity of people that live in the region,” Susan agreed.
Susan’s long-term goal for Music in the Trees is surprising: she hopes it will end. When the native ecosystem is restored and educating the public about the red pines is no longer necessary, Susan will consider new artistic forms in new spaces, like the woodlands, prairies and oak savannas that comprise Belwin’s 1,500 acres. In the meantime, Music in the Trees will continue to connect and inspire through the arts.
“The arts connect people,” Susan said. “No matter what language you speak, where you’re coming from, your age... Music, color, dance – all the arts connect us and open new avenues of perception, connecting us with each other and the earth in new ways.”
Comments