The Five Wings Arts Council serves Cass, Crow Wing, Morrison, Todd, and Wadena counties. These counties cover approximately 5,600 square miles in the center of the state and may be considered the heartland of rural Minnesota. In addition, Cass county is the home of the Leech Lake Reservation which covers approximately 1,057 square miles.

Structurally, the land consists of tillable farmland, prairies, forests, lakes, and mines. The economic diversity ranges from agriculture to tourism. Primarily rural, the region is void of any major metropolitan area with the largest city in the region, Brainerd, having a population of approximately 15,000 residents.