Jenna Johnson stands inside one of the spaces that she created at 10 Talents Art Center in Blue Earth. Her business was selected for the Business of the Year Award by the Blue Earth Chamber of Commerce.
The owner of the Blue Earth Chamber of Commerce’s choice for the Business of the Year Award was honestly almost shocked when she was told the news.
“You know, I never really think of myself as a business owner,” says 10 Talents Art Center owner Jenna Johnson. “It is more something that I wanted to create in Blue Earth, but yes, it is also a business.”
Her original dream was just to create a space where the arts and music could be taught and enjoyed.
“I wanted to find a place where I could give piano lessons,” she says. “And that grew into all of this. But to be honest, my favorite thing to do is still give piano lessons.”
She has had other music instructors also give lessons at 10 Talents Arts Center ever since she opened it up four years ago.
Some of those other classes have been taught by Laura Larson, who also teaches piano, voice singing lessons by Clarissa Smith, Ryan Lano who teaches guitar and Jessie Moore who teaches violin, and some others.
“Laura is an amazing piano teacher,” Johnson says. “And I am so grateful for Clarissa. I am not a voice teacher, for sure. And I could use another person for that.”
Johnson is getting back into teaching painting now, too, saying classes will be held more frequently.
One of the popular classes is the “Paint and Sip” group. Although the beverage of choice is optional, the group meets every month. Rochelle Karp and Johnson trade off, every other month, teaching the class.
There have been other classes, including even a cake decorating class and a candle making class.
But it is music that Johnson loves, and derives much pleasure from teaching music to kids.
“I did suffer from depression in the past,” she says. “And it was music that got me through it.”
That and keeping busy. Johnson did a lot of the construction and remodeling of what is now 10 Talents Art Center.
It had taken her more than a year of hard work to get a former printing plant completely transformed into what it is today.
Then there is the very large event center in the back of the arts center.
“Our side room, with the fireplace, wasn’t really large enough to hold the music recitals,” she says. “So, we finished off the large back space for a hall. It was going to be my husband, Aaron’s, storage area.”
The back hall is available to rent and has hosted a multitude of events, from wedding receptions to large meetings and other big events.
“We wanted it to be able to host events,” Johnson says. “But to be honest, that is not really my thing, running an event center. I hope to find someone else to take that over.”
She, of course, wants to concentrate on music and painting.
But there are other ideas for the event center. Johnson is looking at bringing in some entertainment, and she is also looking at hosting an arts fair this fall.
She says she does have a little more time now that she and Aaron only have one child left at home – all of the time.
“Spencer is 10 and in school here,” she says, giving a little rundown. “Joshua is a full time truck driver, Cynthia and her husband live in Georgia and have three little kids, Jacob has two kids and he is deployed to Baghdad, Maja is an accountant in Mankato, Robin and Vern just completed two years of mission work and go to college at BYU in Utah, and Jaime is getting ready to do two years of mission work, too.”
Some of her family will be able to see her receive the Chamber’s Business of the Year Award at the Chamber of Commerce Banquet and Awards Program on Monday night, Feb. 3, at the Riverside Town and Country Golf Course.
“I am very humbled by all this, the special honor from the Chamber,” Johnson says. “I really love what I do, the benefits are having connections with different people, and students asking to play piano, that means a lot to me.”
One person Johnson wants to be sure and thank is her husband, Dr. Aaron Johnson.
“I really want to credit everything to my husband,” she says. “He unselfishly let me spend literally all of his money on this project and never complained about it just because it made me happy, knowing he’ll probably never see it again.”
