Twin Cities Business Magazine: The Turning Tides of Red Wing

Gene Rebeck, August 5, 2109

It's easy to think of Red Wing as little more than a picturesque town on the Mississippi downriver from St. Paul. And that picture isn't exactly wrong. Red Wing's downtown has charm. There are shops, restaurants, and the venerable St. James Hotel. But there's much more to Red Wing than historic charm. ...

The next generation

Red Wing is home to a campus of Minnesota State College Southeast (MSCS)--a third of the college's total 2,800 students attend the campus location. It offers highly distinctive programs that reflect the craft and manufacturing cultures of Red Wing--and the ways they intersect.

"The biggest programs by far are our music programs," says Katie Hardyman, director of business relations for the Red Wing campus. Her campus has become nationally known for its courses on band and string instrument repair, as well as guitar making. "There are guitar shops in Nashville that will hire only our students," she says.

The Red Wing campus also offers a program in bicycle fabrication and design--"the first of its kind in the world," according to Hardyman. She hopes the bicycle-building curriculum will build a coterie of "well-rounded manufacturing employees," since students are learning in-demand skills like welding and blueprint reading. The campus has also developed a "manufacturing 101" program for people curious about the career option.

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