Last year, Minnesota Public Radio News launched a new series called “Art Heroes,” stories about some of Minnesota’s most exceptional artists, who not only exhibit incredible talent, but are recognized as influential community leaders. These artists have made it their life goal to give back to their community. Their art addresses social issues, and brings people together in creativity to transform their community. Through art, these artists are making the world a better place.

Sandy Spieler of In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre was just one of these many artists to be featured on the program. In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre began in 1973 in the basement of the Walker Church in Minneapolis’ Powderhorn neighborhood. At the time, it was known as the Powderhorn Puppet Theatre. Founded by Ray St. Louis and David O’Fallon, the theatre sought to create change, ”the way a monk might — through witness and hope and a kind of disciplined simple prayer, or practice,” O’Fallon wrote in the Twin Cities Daily Planet, and as Spieler stated, “— to look more at what it is that binds us together in a visual language, brings us into dialogue.” Spieler became the artistic director in 1977, and helped to transform the theatre into what it is today.

In the Heat of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre not only performs shows, but involves the community also. Each year, they produce a season of original plays and tour productions premiering in and around Minnesota, as well as teach puppetry through workshops to youth, students and teachers.

Spieler was one of the four founders to intertwine the theatre into the community. Now the theatre is a new thriving neighborhood center, which O’Fallon said on “Art Heroes,” is the result of Spieler’s commitment to staying rooted in Powderhorn for four decades. Over the years, she has pulled together the diverse neighborhood of Powderhorn in South Minneapolis through puppetry to raise awareness of both environmental and social issues, and to create a community of people to do good in the world. Spieler found that all types of people are brought together by performance.

Spieler’s most significant contribution is In the Heart of the Beast’s May Day Parade, which is an annual event that draws tens of thousands of people to Powderhorn Park, Minneapolis. “Everything inside me just vibrated,” she recalled in the “Art Heroes” interview. “And I went, ‘Oh, this is what I want to do.’ I think, because it brought together a way of telling stories and images that was visual, that was movement, that was musical and that brought people together.”

The May Day Parade is a vibrant festival of puppets, masks, food vendors, world music, activist booths, and peaceful people. Although the parade symbolizes the coming of warmer months, it also addresses contemporary issues, concerns, and visions for a better world. Last year’s parade theme was “See the World,” which emphasized the issues of pollution, war, and death. twenty foot tall puppets covered in black, towering over the crowd with long, dreary faces proceeded solemnly down the street. Following the ominous figures came a flourish of colorful people dressed as flowers and plants, smiling and dancing in circles, symbolizing a new future.

In preparation for May Day, the “In the Heart of the Beast” theatre floor is cleared, and replaced with tables covered in cardboard, wire, feathers, paper mache, paint, beads, wood, and all sorts of other odds and ends. Volunteer community members file in and begin to create. Together and under the direction of Spieler, they work to construct incredible pieces of art.  “You just say, ‘Welcome, please come!’ It’s an open door. And I think it grows,” Spieler said in the “Art Heroes” interview. “One person comes and tells another person.” Spieler has found how to organize hundreds of people in creativity and teamwork, and has brought them together to raise awareness of issues people are passionate about.

Spieler has been an inspirational figure to thousands for over forty years, and she continues to work her talent into the unity of the Powderhorn community and beyond.

“As thousands look on and cheer, Spieler and her fellow puppeteers enact the final moments of the May Day ritual,” MPR’s “Art Heroes” interview said “Paddlers row a large sun sculpture across the lake to the shore, ushering in the beginning of spring. For a moment, the people and the planet seem to move as one.”