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As part of the Freeborn County Arts Initiative’s 10th-year anniversary celebration, Arts Initiative intern Piper Aanes and curator Susanne Crane have created a winter wonderland installation in the Historic Bessesen Building gallery to be used as a backdrop for fun family photos for people in the community.

With a $20 donation, families may take photos on their cellphones, with several interesting props, or pay the Arts Initiative’s photographer $50 for a 20-minute professional shoot.

Fifteen-minute sessions are free for community members on government assistance. Just show an EBT card with your name on it to receive your session. The sessions will take place from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursdays and from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturdays. Sessions can also be scheduled by appointment until Christmas.

“Individual or family holiday photo shoots can be very expensive these days,” Crane said. “This is just another way we can creatively help out the community during the holidays.”

Aanes said she was happy with how the room was transformed and said she did a photoshoot as practice to set up the lighting.

“It was very fun,” she said.

Sample photos by Elisha Marin can be found at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1vnQATz6XwkpPAVvf7euIZFGR3XmjTkg0?usp=sharing.