‘You Betcha’ showcases 100 years of DFL party

Did you know that Minnesota is home to the most successful third-party movement in U.S. history? 2024 marked the 100th anniversary of the Farmer-Labor Party and the movement of solidarity that supported it. In honor of this centennial celebration and in partnership with Monument Lab’s Re-Generation initiative, the Farmer-Labor Education Committee (FLEC) commissioned Gita Ghei (middle image, at left) to create a permanent traveling sculpture, commemorating the Farmer-Labor movement in Minnesota. She and her team engaged with people throughout the state to inform permanent art that commemorates this important history in a whimsical artwork.

The exhibit is on display at the East Side Freedom Library. The exhibit will travel to libraries and fairs to teach the history. It consists of 12 bronze artifacts that speak to milestones and moments in the history, and 56 paintings that will be scanned into a deck of cards with an educational booklet for high school students to play rummy with. There is a one-hour documentary that can be accessed at YouTube, titled “The Farmer Labor Movement: A Minnesota Story.”

From its founding in the 1920s through its dominance in the 1930s, the Farmer-Labor movement united workers, farmers, and the unemployed, building solidarity across regional, political, and racial/ethnic divides. Combining electoral politics, year-round organizing, and political education toward a vision of a “Cooperative Commonwealth,” this movement created a model for progressive change that continues to be relevant today.

Lost to history by political repression and considered less relevant in the cold war 1950s, a new generation of political activists rediscovered the Farmer-Labor tradition in the 1970s and formed the Farmer-Labor Education Committee (FLEC), a non-profit organization with a mission to educate members of the public about the history and continued relevance of the state’s progressive Farmer-Labor tradition.

By engaging Minnesota communities in processes of both remembering and visioning, “You Betcha” is a project of hope in challenging times, according to organizers. “Over the past decade, we have witnessed the resurgence of fascism and ultra-conservative organizing extending across the state in rural, urban, and suburban settings. At the same time, a divisive and reductive characterization of state political divisions has emerged, framing the Twin Cities as a progressive haven pitted against a White, conservative, and ‘backwards’ rural monolith. ‘You Betcha’ uses history as a way to trouble those narratives and engage Minnesotans in dialogue that might both build and unearth solidarity across differences.

Since 1996, Ghei has worked as a sculptor and public artist in Minnesota, specializing in public art and teaching. She is a community collaborator with organizations and artists. She learned her trade in a bronze art foundry, and has worked as a patina artisan and public art maintenance technician since 1990, with museums and conservators. With her art, Ghei celebrates the dynamic life sustaining abilities of earth materials. As a public artist she has created permanent works in commissions for public spaces which celebrate diversity, and sustainability, and also brings art to community events with topics such as messages to migrating monarchs, or save the dark skies. She has worked in public school settings with residencies and grants, teaching art along with watershed, green energy, and public art learning with young people. Ghei has an Herbal Studies certificate from Minneapolis college received in 2021 which enhances her living in communion with earth matter. She maintains a studio in Minneapolis.

“My work is driven by sharing my excitement for culture, history, sustainability and natural material science with the public, including through community engagements, teaching and permanent site specific art,” said Ghei.

Ghei has lived in the North End by Como Park since 2003, and volunteers with Frogtown Green planting trees; MN Seed harvesting and sharing native seeds; and Urban Strategies collaborating with youth on their entrepreneurial projects. She is on the Capitol Art Exhibit Advisory Committee and the board of Public Art St. Paul.