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Issue #31.2 |
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In this Issue: A Quiet Revolution in Public Art
Lots of folks can agree, in the abstract, that public art is a laudable and graceful addition to our civic landscapes; but the conversation becomes increasingly fraught with disagreement when you get down to brass tacks: What sort of work deserves our communal support? Do we seek out more challenging, but arguably more culturally enduring pieces; or is crowd-pleasing, uncontroversial fare better suited to the aim that this should be art for all of us? For this issue, artist and writer Andy Sturdevant investigates Minnesota's own, quietly revolutionary public art venue, Franconia Sculpture Park, which is home to both an unpretentious and open creative ethos and a revolving collection of truly fine, remarkably varied public artwork.
PLUS: A month's worth of new Some Assembly Required episodes and a look into the Twin Cities Pan-African Festival of Music and Art presented by the nonprofit Diverse Emerging Music Organization (DEMO)
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| FEATURE: Otherworldly Realms in Your Own Backyard |
Artist, raconteur, and gentleman scholar Andy Sturdevant offers a mini-history of one of Minnesota's most exciting and quietly revolutionary public art projects
IT’S NOT TYPICAL METRO AREA MYOPIA TO SUGGEST
that, naming-wise, there is a strange otherworldly quality to the parts of our state lying outside the 694 loop. Take a look at a good, detailed map of Minnesota sometime and think about those place names you see: The Boundary Waters, The Arrowhead, The Iron Range, The Northwest Angle, The Driftless Area, Pipestone, Blue Earth, Yellow Medicine, The North Shore. Do these seem like places you could actually drive to in your Honda Civic and buy a hot dog? No, these places sound more like regions of Middle Earth, more like the fever dreams of a teenaged Dungeons & Dragons player than
they do the major geographic areas and outlying counties  of a typical U.S. state. Ours is a wild, wide-open region that, outside of its urban and suburban areas, is almost entirely defined by its natural characteristics. It seems sometimes as if the whole world is being overtaken by pavement and fluorescent lighting; but if you start in downtown Minneapolis and drive a hundred miles in any direction, you can easily find yourself someplace that seems as far away from that world as Narnia or the Fire Swamp.
“Franconia” is one of those Middle-Earthly Minnesota place names that conjures up visions of fantastical otherworldliness. Historically, the original Franconia was a region of Bavaria with a colorful history full of Holy Roman Emperors and words like “palatinate” and “bishopric.” One wonders how the township of Franconia, Minnesota got this name, as it bears little resemblance to the dense, heavily wooded hills of southern Germany – perhaps the predominantly Swedish immigrants that settled the area had a keen sense of irony. Minnesota's Franconia, about fifty miles northeast of the Twin Cities, is situated on a long, flat stretch of prairie that runs alongside the St. Croix River, from the hillier parts of the southeast all the way up to the Iron Range. It’s one of those areas which—but for a few barns, trees and water towers poking up every so often—is so flat that you see nothing, for miles, except the horizon. It is a wind-swept area. You get out of your car, and that’s what you’ll hear: wind sweeping. In the middle of this terrain, where Highways 8 and 95 meet up, you'll find the Franconia Sculpture Park....continue reading the essay on mnartists.org
 Click here to read Andy Sturdevant's essay on the community ethos and sculptural innovations that find their home in the Franconia Sculpture Park. We've also pulled together a complementary online collection highlighting a sampling of work by some of the Minnesotans working with the park this year.
About the author: Andy Sturdevant is a Minneapolis-based artist, curator and writer who is a regular contributor to ARP! and The Rake’s Thousandth Word blog. He curated the History Room: 20 Years of No Name and the Soap Factory exhibition at The Soap Factory this year, and is currently working on an accompanying book about the gallery's history. Andy is also a contributor to the Electric Arc Radio Show music and performance series, which is beginning a new season at the Ritz Theater in Minneapolis this fall.
Credits: (Top left) Holly Steekstra's Porta Obscura, mixed media, 2008. (Middle right) Black Walnut 1963 by Aaron Dysart, black walnut, paint, 2007. Both photos courtesy of Franconia Sculpture Park's website. (Bottom) Andy Sturdevant on site at the Art Shanty Projects 2008 (Image courtesy of Fox 9 News) |
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Artist Opportunities
»CLICK HERE for a daily-updated list of many, many more opportunities for Minnesota artists in every discipline on mnartists.org |
ATTN EVERYONE: Visit the My Yard Our Message website and cast your vote for the winning artist-designed political yard signs—only a few days of voting left!
(Voting ends August 1)
CALL FOR FILMMAKERS: To spread the word about "The Clean Water, Land and Legacy" amendment the Vote Yes campaign is hosting a film contest, inviting Minnesotans, from anywhere in the state and at any level of experience, to submit a short film (3 mins or less) telling why they love their state
(Submission deadline: September 1, $1000 prize for the winning story)
CALL FOR FILMMAKERS: The Watertown Film Festival is still taking submissions for films by Minnesota filmmakers for its August 1 public film festival
(Submission deadline: July 26)
SEEKING WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHERS: An Ohio hotel is looking for a photographer who specializes in wild flowers, plants, photo shots—specifically, they're hoping for large-scale photos of the Ohio Buckeye Plant rumored to be at the MN Landscape Arboretum
ARTISTS' RESIDENCIES AVAILABLE: The Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts in Nebraska City, NE is taking applications for two-eight week residencies for writers, visual artists, and music composers: housing, studio space, $100/week stipend are provided
(Application deadline: September 1)
CALL FOR ARTISTS: The Orono Rotary Club is sponsoring ArtWorks, a fundraiser/indoor art fair, and they are looking for 50 Minnesota artists and craftspeople to apply to be vendors (25% of all sales will go to the Orono Rotary Club)
(Application deadline: October 17)
CALL FOR ARTISTS: The Center for Independent Artists is looking for artists in the visual and performing arts who would like to serve as stewards, trading their time and skills for use of space in the Center's galleries and Black Box Theater
(Stewards' Information Meeting: July 26)
CALL FOR ART: The 2008 Arrowhead Biennial Exhibition is now accepting entries for the Arrowhead Biennial, a showcase for some of the best artwork to come out of the Upper Midwest
(Submission deadline: August 22)
CALL FOR ART: The Dahl Arts Center (Rapids City, SD) is looking for regional artists working on innovative approaches to traditional or contemporary forms on the theme of The Art of Personal Adornment for a January 2009 exhibition
(Entry deadline: August 15)
CALL FOR DANCERS: Wicked Sister Dance Theatre invites movers and dancers to join them for a choreography workshop exploring movement in the landscape the Derrick Exhibit of the Quarry Park near St Cloud.
(Workshop: July 26)
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VISUAL ART: By the People, For the People
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Art critic Julie Caniglia reflects on the exhibition By the People, for the People: New Deal Art at the Weisman, and on the unique American experiment in publicly subsidized arts programs from which these works spring.
Are we headed for another Great Depression?
Certainly plenty of people have drawn parallels between our current situation and the economic disaster that persisted throughout the 1930s (plus a few years of the decades on either side). When you consider that the prices for food and oil are climbing just as steadily as the stock market declines, the droughts, the growing layoff and unemployment rates, the stagnation in U.S. manufacturing—well, those comparisons don't sound so far-fetched, do they?…continue reading on mnartists.org
 Click here to read Julie Caniglia's essay on the historical context and surprising philosophical underpinnings to both the nationally acclaimed and the proudly regional artwork on view
What: By the People, For the People: New Deal Art at the Weisman
Where: Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN
When: Exhibition runs through July 27
Admission is FREE and open to the public
Credit:
Julia Thecla, Ballet Utopia, 1940. Gouache on composition board. (Courtesy of the Weisman Art Museum) |
VISUAL ART: Through Baryshnikov's Eyes
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Camille LeFevre weighs in on iconic dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov's exhibition of photography at the Weinstein Gallery, Merce My Way, by which he documents the inspired movements of fellow dance legend, Merce Cunningham.
On a sweltering Friday evening several weeks ago,
(June 20, to be exact), an exhibition of photographs by Mikhail Baryshnikov, titled Merce My Way and depicting Merce Cunningham’s dances, opened at the Weinstein Gallery in south Minneapolis. A media circus, a see-and-be-seen event, a can’t-miss brush with celebrity (whether you were a dance aficionado, a Sex in the City gal, or Cunningham groupie), the opening was jam-packed with kiss-kissing, much jockeying for photo ops with “Misha,” microphone thrusting and flash-bulb popping. People took turns in front of two decrepit air conditioners that failed to cool the heat of proximity to stardom and the fervor of devoted fans. .…continue reading on mnartists.org
Click here to read dance writer Camille LeFevre's reflections on mixing celebrity with art, and on the unique vision one iconic artist brings to bear when viewing the work another
What: Mikhail Baryshnikov: Merce My Way
Where: Weinstein Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
When: Exhibition runs through August 2
Admission is FREE and open to the public
Credit:
Untitled 13 by Mikhail Baryshnikov, 2006. 40" x 30" Digital C-print mounted to sintra. Signed and dated on verso. Print 1 from edition of 15. (Courtesy of the Weinstein Gallery) |
THEATER: Chasing Windmills in Lanesboro
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Theater critic Christy DeSmith weighs in on Commonweal Theatre's production of Man of La Mancha, and on what happens when the critical cha-cha-cha, the pizzazz of a beloved classic show, goes missing.
I don't know about you, but when I find myself destined
or yet another production of Man of La Mancha, it isn’t the perennially revisited pop song, “The Impossible Dream,” that I look forwarding to hearing—it’s the tearjerker “Dulcinea.” For me, the comparative subtleties of this lesser known lyrical gem perfectly capture the transformative powers of Quixote’s optimistic thinking. But, sadly, I nearly missed the catharsis of crying to this favorite song. As it turned out, the new production of Man of La Mancha I'd gone to see, by the Commonweal Theatre Company (located in the impossibly dream-like hamlet of Lanesboro, Minnesota), was considerably lacking in emotional thrust. .…continue reading on mnartists.org
Click here to read Christy DeSmith's nuanced critique of this rendering of the classic musical
What: Man of La Mancha by Dale Wasserman, directed by Hal Cropp for Lanesboro's Commonweal Theatre Company
Where: Commonweal Theatre Company, Lanesboro, Minnesota
When: The play runs through October 25, 2008
Tickets: $25
Credit: Photo by Jason Underferth, from Man of La Mancha, courtesy of Lanesboro's Commonweal Theatre |
DANCE: Momentum Right to the Edge of Dance
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Lightsey Darst is reporting on this year's Momentum series of new dance premieres, annually commissioned by the Walker Art Center and the Southern Theater. Here, she gives her take on the first weekend's performances: Chris Schlichting's love things and Maia Maiden and Ellena Schoop’s dance-theater production The Foundation, et cetera.
For Chris Schlichting's love things, the Southern’s concrete arch is swathed in sheer nylon of a sickly pink shade, the color a young girl might imagine she’d want for her wedding. Piles of pink roses, a little past their prime, line the arch’s legs; pink streamers trail down the side and back walls. Even the chairs are tied up with pink bows. Clearly this is An Event. Meanwhile, Schlichting himself—with the house lights up and patrons trying to find their seats—dances around the stage. “Dances” is a loose term here, encompassing a range of activity, from miming mythical musical instruments to tracing tiny orbits above his head with his forefingers, to a weirdly loose jogging.…continue reading on mnartists.org
Click here to read Lightsey Darst's review of this many-layered, rewarding, but challenging, duo of performances
And this weekend:
What: Momentum: New Dance Works 2008 presents Eddie Oroyan's Brown Rocket and Anna Marie Shogren's I'm a jerk
Where: The Southern Theater, Minneapolis, MN
When: Performances continue through July 26, 2008
Tickets: $18 ($14 for Southern and Walker members)
Credit: Still from Chris Schlichting's love things (Photo: Cameron Wittig for the Walker Art Center)
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Hosted by Minnesota artist Jon Nelson, Some Assembly Required features sample-based music and audio art by a variety of artists and groups working with bits and pieces of their media environments, giving something back to the cultural landscape from which they so enthusiastically appropriate.
This month’s standouts include an entire episode dedicated to mashups and an interview with The Tape-beatles, not to mention a very fresh approach to the art of political cut ups.…continue to the full collection of episodes, links, and more
 Click here to start listening to the last month's episodes of this nationally syndicated podcast on mnartists.org
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| Classes and Workshops |
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Class: "Spin on a Spindle" - Try it!
(Weavers Guild of Minnesota, Minneapolis, July 26)
Class: Teacher Workshop - a seminar for teachers to apply the principles of the Vaganova syllabus to their curriculums
(Academy of Russian Ballet, Eden Prairie, July 28-August 1)
Class: "Art of the Miniature" - Children's Art Camp
(ArtiCulture, Minneapolis, July 28-August 1)
Class: "Slices of Life: Youth Animation Workshop" - make drawings and objects come to life
(Intermedia Arts, Minneapolis, July 29-August 28)
Community Collaboration/Hot Metal Pour
(Franconia Sculpture Park, Franconia, August 2)
"Art Weirdoes" - experience the oddities of lesser-known art movements
(ArtiCulture, Minneapolis, August 4-8)
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| Dance |
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Momentum, New Dance Works 2008: Eddie Oroyan's Bottle Rocket and Anna Marie Shogren's I'm a jerk
(Southern Theater, Minneapolis, July 24-26)
Interplay | still and moving - a showcase of modern dance
(DanceWorks Performing Arts Center, Lakeville, July 26)
Deviants - a reworking of the show Desiderare: Desire the Undesirable by Live Action Set and Jeune Lune co-founder Robert Rosen
(The Soap Factory, Minneapolis, August 1-10)
Co-Motion: Emerging Twin Cities Choreographers Make a Scene, with new work by Erinn Liebhard, Erica Pinigis, Jessica Briggs, Natalie Bucey, Heather Parker and Lucy Rahn
(Lowry Lab Theater, Saint Paul, August 7-9)
Credit: Photo from Co-Motion by Bridget Noltimier |
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| Festivals and Group Shows |
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Re-Creative: Reused, Recycled, Repurposed - Earth friendly art and crafts by local artisans
(The Bakken Museum, Minneapolis, July 24)
Owatonna Festival of the Arts - 60 artists in Owatonna's shady downtown Central Park
(Owatonna Art Center, Owatonna, July 26-27)
Loring Park Art Festival - 140 Fine Artists circle the large pond - an idyllic setting for art, music, food and entertainment
(Loring Park, Minneapolis, August 2-3)
Uptown Art Fair - the largest art fair of its kind in Minnesota
(Lake and Hennepin, Minneapolis, August 1-3)
Powderhorn Art Fair - Local Artists show and sell their work around Powderhorn Lake - ride the Target Art Hop to all three shows
(Powderhorn Park, Minneapolis, August 2-3)
West End Arts' Scene-and-be-Seen visual arts exhibition
(The Pilney Building, Saint Paul, July 12-August 2)
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| Lectures and Readings |
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The People's University: "150 Years of Music Making by the River"
(Minneapolis Central Library, Minneapolis, July 24)
Kao Kalia Yang will talk on the "Art of Memoir"
(Mill City Writers' Workshop, Hopkins, July 24)
miniStories: a new round of MN authors read their victorious flash fiction!
(Ritz Theater, Minneapolis, July 28)
Split Rock Soirée - celebrating Split Rock's 2008 faculty
(Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, July 29)
A "First Friday Poetry" Reading - Paula Cisewski and Erin Lynn Marsh
(Cantabria Coffee Company, Bemidji, August 1)
Lithographics - Artist Talk 1: "As Free As the Wind" by Gendron Jensen; Lithographics - Artist Talk 2: "In Collaboration" by Gendron Jensen
(Northern Prints Gallery, Duluth, August 2-3)
The Erotic Poetry Slam - August gets even hotter!
(The Artists' Quarter, Saint Paul, August 3)
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| Music & Film and Video |
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Summer Music and Movies: Mark Mallman & All the King's Men
(Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, July 28)
"Playing the Villain:" the films of Richard Widmark
(Parkway Theater, Minneapolis, July 28, August 4,11,18,25)
Cinema of Urgency: Flow: For Love of Water
(Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, August 1)
"A Lot of Spirit: Performance and Politics" – nighttime screenings in the parking lot of Patrick's Cabaret
(Patrick's Cabaret, Minneapolis, August 3,10,17,24)
Summer Music and Movies: Mouthful of Bees & Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
(Loring Park, Minneapolis, August 4)
Minneapolis Pops Orchestra - KIDS PLAY
(Lake Harriet Bandshell, Minneapolis, July 26)
Third Annual Headphones Festival at Flux
(Rochester Art Center, Rochester, August 9)
The Nite Owls - some folk, some swing, some traditional
(Fine Line Music Cafe, Minneapolis, July 31)
Purgatory Creek - Folk, Bluegrass, Country-Gospel, Blues
(Lake Harriet Bandshell, Minneapolis, August 3)
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| Openings and Parties |
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Walldogs on Nicollet - A four day event that will change Nicollet Avenue South forever!
(Lyndale Neighborhood Association/Nicollet Avenue, Minneapolis, July 24-27)
Gallery hop and reception - Honoring Tradition: Finnish and Sami-inspired Textiles
(The Tweed Museum of Art, Duluth, Receptions on July 24-26)
Decorate the Well in Gratitude - Water will flow again in Heart of the Beast Theatre's lobby drinking fountain! - a family festival and street fair
(The Avalon Theatre, Minneapolis, July 26)
The Alice Project -
Cris t. Halverson, co-creator of Dr Farrago’s Synergistic Theater (a 21st Century Burlesque Circus) is opening an installation of two- and three-dimensional works based on Alice In Wonderland
(Stevens Square Center for the Arts, Minneapolis, July 26)
Caitlin Karolczak Gallery opening party at the Independent
(The Independent, Minneapolis, July 27)
Fleeting Bits of the Ordinary - Paintings by Gregory Graham and Joy Liberman
(Bloomington Art Center, Bloomington, Artists' Reception August 1, Show runs July 1-September 5)
Lost Land - Work by Kimberly Tschida Petters and Cheryl Wilgren Clyne
(Rosalux Gallery, Minneapolis, August 2-31)
Credit: Alice Meets Humpty D by Cris t. Halverson
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| Theater |
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Queer Boyz Night at Patrick's Cabaret
(Patrick's Cabaret, Minneapolis, July 25-26)
Someone Save My Baby Ruth - step back in time to the easier life and the corner candy store
(Bemidji State Park, Bemidji, August 1-9)
Brilliant Traces - a blizzard, a fleeing bride, a hiding hermit and the unlikely places we find sanctuary
(Bryant Lake Bowl Theater, Minneapolis, August 1,2,4)
The Bronze Bitch Flies at Noon and Dog Tag - Minnesota Fringe Festival short play double feature
(Rarig Center - University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, August 1,2,6,7,9)
Dying for the Chance! Or: Paris: Dead on Arrival - part of the Minnesota Fringe Festival
(Lab Theatre, Minneapolis, August 4-10)
Yankee Doodle - the life and times of George M. Cohan
(Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, Saint Paul, August 5-17)
The Minnesota Fringe Festival is here!
(Various venues, July 31-August 10) |
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| Visual Arts |
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Cocoons - Paintings by Michaela Poepping
(Evelyn Matthies Gallery, Brainerd, July 27-August 29)
The Revolution will not be Televised - artwork in response to global and sociopolitical topics
(Altered Esthetics Gallery, Minneapolis, July 31)
to the bind - work by three photographers from the Beijing Film Academy
(Pocket Gallery at Rosalux, Minneapolis, August 2-31)
East Meets West: Chinese Painting and Watercolor with Lian Quan Zhen
(White Bear Center for the Arts, White Bear Lake, August 6-10)
Tÿpøgrafika: The Work of Erik Brandt
(Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis, through August 3)
Credit:
Progress: Delhi, India by artist, Rebecca Finley |
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You Are Here event listings are drawn entirely from the mnartists.org calendar, so if you want to improve the odds that you'll see your happening linked here, you'd better start posting your events!
We've made it super easy to begin: here's a step-by-step guide that'll show you how to promote your own events on the new arts calendar. Browse through more up-to-the-minute events listings or post a show of your own on mnartists.org's member-driven, DIY arts events calendar. |
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One for the Road |
DEMO Presents the Twin Cities Pan African Festival
The Diverse Emerging Music Organization (DEMO), founded by First Avenue's legendary Steve McClellan, is hosting a five-day festival from August 6-11 which will highlight the vibrant diversity of African music and art. The lineup includes: an opening night concert by Mali’s Habib Koité and Bamada, a night of African jazz and visual art at Altered Esthetics, a nightclub event with the region’s hottest African DJs, a free outdoor concert by local and international African musicians on the West Bank, a day of African music documentary films at the Parkway Theater, and a concert by Somali hip-hop sensation K’Naan on the closing night of the festival.
The Twin Cities Pan African Festival is spurred by this nonprofit organization’s ongoing mission to "to support, educate, and promote emerging musicians and enrich communities eager for diverse, multicultural, musical experiences."
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The mission of mnartists.org is to improve the lives of Minnesota artists and provide access to and engagement with Minnesota’s arts culture. |
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