elizabeth belz    biography

Elizabeth Belz was born and raised in Stillwater, MN. She realized at an early age that she wanted to travel and experience the world. And for Elizabeth, that meant packing a bag and boarding the first bus headed south when she was eighteen. Since then, she’s found herself running the streets of Germany in a dirndl dress, sailing across Ha Long Bay in Vietnam, carrying a carbide lantern through the dark ice caves of Austria, being chased by moose in Banff and sledding down a glacier in Iceland.

Elizabeth continued to travel the globe for nine years, gaining a better understanding of the world and continuing to learn more with each new destination. She eventually settled in Grand Marais, MN but her adventures continue to influence her creative work, handcrafts, and Midwestern lifestyle.

Primarily, Elizabeth works with metal, but also includes mushrooming, printmaking, broom making, and photography in her repertoire of skills. She has studied at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, John C. Campbell Folk School, Raspberry Island Folk School, Tunnel Mill Crafts, North House Folk School and Penland School of Crafts in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

She is currently enrolled in the AA program at Century College in Whitebear, MN where she hopes to transfer her credits on to pursue her BFA and eventual MFA. Elizabeth received a partial Merit scholarship and Arrowhead Regional Art Council Grant in 2017 to attend the Fall Iron concentration at Penland School of Craft in North Carolina and has been featured in many exhibits in the twin cities area including: ArtReach St. Croix, where she was recently awarded Best 3-D Piece in their 2015 member show for a forged sculpture, and the Phipps Center for the Arts where she received an honorable mention in photography.

In 2017 Elizabeth was a resident artist at the Pine Needles cabin in Marine on St. Croix in conjunction with the Science Museum of Minnesota where she worked on a forged steel sculpture of a water spider which is now included in the Watershed's art collection.

Elizabeth is passionate about many local causes - she has volunteered at the Minnesota Newspaper Museum, ArtReach St. Croix and the Minnesota Mycological Society, and was also the Teen Programs Intern at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts for many years. She was also a work-study student at Penland and John C. Campbell Folk School, and a 2016 Craft Education Intern at North House Folk school in Grand Marais, MN.

Elizabeth teaches at North House folk school, the Grand Marais Art Colony, and gives presentations on crafting to many local groups around the state which has included the Minnesota Mycological Society at the University of Minnesota.

Her current artistic endeavors include preparing to head to Memphis, TN for a two year blacksmithing apprentice program with the National Ornamental Metals Museum (2018-2020) in June.

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