Anne-Marit Bergstrom | Dakota Drawings

Devils Lake is a small town located in a sparsely populated part of North Dakota. Yet in spite of its size – population 7,500, - and its remote location, it boasts a range of cultural activities usually found only in the biggest cities. This hasn’t always been so, however and Anne-Marit Bergstrom is responsible.

“People respond to quality.” says the former lyric soprano whose glittering career took her to New York City’s Carnegie Hall. “If you give them more than they realize they want, you will find they want the best.”

With that in mind, Anne-Marit founded the Arts and Humanities Council of the Lake Region and based it in her hometown of Devils Lake. Soon an increasingly impressive array of activities was launched, which today includes: Artists in the Schools, school orchestra program, theater activities…the list goes on and on. They have raised funds to bring in prestigious performers and artists like the Vienna Boy Choir and the Julliard String Quartet.

The cultural program has been a success with area residents. “We have folks come from sixty miles away when it is thirty degrees below,” Anne-Marit says. “People need enrichment just as a plant needs water.”
- Ladies Home Journal 1984
- Fifty American Heroines