This issue's featured banner artist: Shawn McNulty
Shawn McNulty, Mantle, Acrylic and Pumice on Canvas, 2008. 24 x 24", black wood frame.

Pretty Please: New Work by Scott Wenner and Shawn McNulty
You can see more work by this issue's banner artist at Rosalux Gallery's Pretty Please exhibition, on view from March 4-31.

Making Music series: an evening with Dirty Projectors' front-man David Longstreth
mnartists.org and the Whole Music Club copresent an free performance with Dirty Projectors' leader Longstreth on Thursday, March 5 in the Maguire Theater at the Walker.

"Exhibitionists" by Andy Sturdevant
T.B. Walker Art Gallery, 807 Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis. Photograph Collection ca. 1890, Location no. MH5.9 MP8 p254,Negative no. 13993 (Photo reproduced with permission, courtesy of the MN Historical Society)

"It's Written All Over Your Face" essay by Ruben Nusz
Elizabeth Peyton, Jarvis. 1996
Oil on board 11 x 14 in. Hort Family Collection (Courtesy of the Walker Art Center)

"Bend Your Ear" essay by Joey Kantor
The James Buckley Trio (Photo: Sasha Z. Bates, courtesy of the musicians' MySpace page)

Some Assembly Required: 50/50
To celebrate Some Assembly Required's 10th anniversary, mnartists.org and SAR are teaming up to produce a compilation of fifty-second tracks, by as many as fifty artists comprised of at least 50% post consumer audio (sounds found in the media).

The web version of this issue of a+E
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In this Issue: Facing Forward

If you've poked around on the mnartists.org homepage in the last week or so, you likely noticed a few changes. The overall layout has been spruced up-bigger pictures and a new image slideshow grace each feature article, the front page headlines and collections have a splashier presentation. We couldn't be happier with the results, because these changes are going to make it even easier for you to find the content you'll be interested in. But we're not done yet. This is just the beginning of what will be a months-long enhancement process for mnartists.org. So, keep your eyes open. There are lots more improvements you'll notice in the months to come: more opportunities for engaging with and responding to the writing and artwork on the site, as well as more efficient ways for artists to easily tap a variety of practical and professional resources.  

• HOMEPAGE: Highlights include a look into Minnesota's shadow-gallery circuit, an essay defending difficult art, and a quiet revival of the painterly art of portraiture
• NEWS YOU CAN USE: an array of current artist opportunities including a call for appropriation art for a compilation celebrating Some Assembly Required's 10th anniversary
• YOU ARE HERE: a handpicked assortment of events around the region, drawn primarily from mnartists.org's self-posting, member-driven arts calendar

PLUS: See a free show by Dirty Projectors' front-man David Longstreth, co-presented by mnartists.org and the Whole Music Club as part of the U of MN's Making Music series