The Cedar Cultural Center has been serving the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood since 1989, providing live folk and world music, free shows and a place for community members to hold events. Its executive director, Michelle Woster, has been guiding it for three years after serving as managing director of theaters Theater Latté Da and Ten Thousand Things. She has a master’s of public administration from University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of St. Thomas. Woster discussed the significance of the Cedar Cultural Center for the community as well as its challenges and its future. 

This interview has been edited and condensed for publication.

HRE: What brought you to your position at the Cedar Cultural Center? 

Woster: “One of my favorite things about Minneapolis is its strong arts and culture community. There are just so many talented performers and visual artists, so it's definitely one of the things that distinguishes us, I think, nationally,  internationally. I've worked for several arts organizations in an administrative role, so when this opportunity came along, I thought that my skills would be the right skills at that moment. I was excited about the idea of doing my part to create a space to bring artists, dancers, musicians and audiences all together and have that connection that happens when we do events.”

HRE: What distinguishes the Cedar Cultural Center from other venues in the Twin Cities?

Woster: “First of all, we really truly are a community organization. We're a nonprofit, so nobody is getting rich off of it, and we're run by the community. We have 300 volunteers who work there every year. I think commitment to our audiences and our artists. Our three stakeholders would be our audiences, our artists and our neighbors. That's one of the things that I hope shines through when people come here — that they feel that and they see that in our programming. And that's why we exist. We don't exist for any one person to get wealthy.”

HRE: How did the pandemic affect the center? 

Woster: It caused some disconnection between our organization and audiences.

I know the people who were working here tried really hard to do virtual content and digital content to the best of their ability, but it definitely disrupted our relationships with our audiences. The creativity never stopped. In fact, if anything, people were making more music and creating more content to survive and stay sane, and they had that time and that space to do that sort of thing. It was just the audience part of it that I think got disrupted. So we've really been working hard to rebuild those relationships with folks who were coming before and also build new relationships with people who may have never heard of us before.

HRE: How has the Trump administration’s cuts to nonprofit and DEI funding impacted the center, if at all? And how has the center responded to any impacts?

Woster: The two biggest direct effects of these choices that the Trump administration has made? One is challenges with visas for international artists. Before, when it was still Biden, we had artists representing 53 different countries on our stage. And this year so far, we've already had four artists who have had to cancel their tour or reschedule their tour coming from other countries because of visa problems, so that is a big concern for us. We're hearing from artists who feel uncertain if they want to travel here from other countries. They aren't sure if they're going to be safe. They aren't sure if they're going to be welcome, which is kind of a heartbreaker for us. Our mission is to use global music to promote intercultural appreciation, so being able to have artists come here from other countries easily and safely and be excited to come visit us is really critical. Also, for more than 20 years, the Cedar has gotten an annual grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and this is the first year we're not going to have one of those grants. That's a loss of $30,000. So those are the two main things. (HRE’s review shows the NEA contribution equals nearly 18% of the center’s government grants, according to its 2023 federal tax filing, the latest available.)

HRE: What are your most important revenue sources? 

Woster: Individual supporters. They buy tickets, they buy concessions when they come, and they invite their friends to buy tickets. They tell them they amplify the work that we're doing on their social media, and they tell people why it's important. And then, if they're able to, they donate. This year, we're definitely trying to lean into individuals to make up that $30,000 gap that we have to fill without NEA [National Endowment for the Arts] funding. So individuals are really the way we're trying to close that gap.

HRE: Have individual and institutional donations matched your goals over the past three years? If not, what strategies are you using to mobilize donors? 

Woster: Institutional funding is down, but our individual donors, we've been really working and focused on that. We've seen some growth in that, and we're excited about that. We did a survey a year ago of all of our ticket buyers, and we asked all the ticket buyers “Do you know that the Cedar's a nonprofit?” And some did not, so we have work to do there. And then we said: “Do you donate? And if not, why don't you donate?” The number one reason was that nobody asked them. So we've been really trying to tell the story of our mission more and let people understand where their contributions would go. There's a lot of growth opportunity because audiences come and they have a really great time and they're excited. So we just want to make sure that we create opportunities for them to give if they're inclined.

HRE: What do you see as the Cedar’s priorities and key goals for the future?

Woster: No matter what's happening in the United States, we cannot deviate from our mission. Our mission in some ways is more important than it's ever been.  Again, to use global music to promote intercultural appreciation and understanding in this really divisive time just has never felt more important. Leaning into our mission as much as we possibly can, despite those obstacles, feels more critical than ever.