LOVE MPLS PARKS

Nearly 20 years ago, Dan Woychick learned Minneapolis’ perennially acclaimed parks were in a precarious position. Woychick, then a board member for his East Harriet neighborhood’s organization, became aware the city’s parks were in need of millions of dollars to complete vital maintenance projects.

“I’ve done everything from coach and run and propose marriage in our neighborhood parks – they’ve meant a lot to me and I was kind of discouraged that they were sort of threatened and I think a lot of people didn’t know about that,” Woychick said.

Woychick realized there wasn’t any organized branding for Minneapolis parks. He came up with the idea to design branded merchandise and sell it to create a new revenue stream to support the parks. 

“I found that the funding was not sufficient to take care of all the needs, or a lot of, just the general maintenance things, they were hard to keep up,” Woychick said in a phone interview. “They had to pick and choose which things got fixed.” 

Woychick’s idea actualized in 2014 after finding a feasible service to print designed merchandise on-demand. He started LoveMplsParks.org, a website where he sells his designs inspired by Minneapolis parks and donates half of the profits to support the parks. 

Posters for Parks, an annual one-day art show featuring work inspired by the city’s parks from about 40 artists, was launched by LoveMplsParks and the Minneapolis Parks Foundation in 2016 as another means to support the city’s green spaces. 

LoveMplsParks and the Posters for Parks show have donated over $120,000 in the 10 years since LoveMplsParks started selling designs, according to Woychick. 

Posters for Parks sold 370 posters total in its debut year and now consistently sells about 1,000 posters at each show, according to Woychick. The show began as a one-day, on-site event where people could buy the posters and then they were off the market. In 2020, due to the pandemic, the show was an online sale and was the highest-selling event up to that point. The current format sees the in-person show followed by a one-week online sale after the event. 

Woychick, 61, grew up in Mankato, went to the University of Idaho and has been in Minneapolis since 1986. He has resided in Southwest Minneapolis, near Lake Harriet, for over 30 years. 

Woychick said he’s had a connection with Minneapolis parks for a long time. He remembers going to Lake Harriet with his grandmother when he was a child and golfing with his father at Hiawatha Golf Course near Lake Nokomis and Hiawatha Park. 

“The beautiful thing about the parks is that they’re outdoors-focused and they’re for everybody, instead of just your own personal nice backyard,” Woychick said. “Often people say national parks is America’s greatest idea. I think, in a smaller way, the vision behind, and care and maintenance of Minneapolis’ parks as an amenity for everybody, is part of what makes this city very livable.”

 

The Posters for Parks artists share Woychick’s admiration for Minneapolis’ green spaces. 

Yahya Rushdi, 33, a University of Minnesota graduate and senior studio artist for a marketing agency, had his art showcased in the Parks show for the first time this year. 

“Minnehaha Falls was like, a really big thing for me. I really loved going to the park there and just really enjoying the falls,” Rushdi said in a phone interview. “I called it ‘My Happy Place’ – it is the name of the piece.” 

Michael Jacobsen, 45, a freelance illustrator featured six times in the Posters for Parks show, also said his favorite Minneapolis park is Minnehaha. 

“I know that people in the Twin Cities, especially both Minneapolis and St. Paul, really appreciate their parks, and I think it’s just a reminder of that, kind of that necessity that you don’t want to take for granted,” Jacobsen said in a phone interview. “I think having some fiscal responsibility going back to the parks is a value.”

Woychick said he is looking forward to the LoveMplsParks website being revamped in 2025, and that it may be time for him to look for an heir to run the Parks show. 

“This next year’ll be the 10th year of the Poster show and I’m kind of looking for someone to take under my wing and eventually take it over. I don’t think I will do it forever,” Woychick said. “I hope and I think it will keep going ‘cause the Parks Foundation is interested in it as an event and as a celebration of artists and parks.”