Art crawl to FLOW through North Minneapolis

If you visit North Minneapolis between 4-9 p.m. on Saturday, July 26, you can expect inspiration, motivation, and participation at the third annual FLOW Northside Arts Crawl. There will be dancers, musicians, visual art, and other entertainment along West Broadway and on the corner of 24th and Plymouth Avenue. Over 200 artists, partners, and businesses will participate in this event.

In 2006, the Peace Foundation was founded as an organization seeking to bring the North Minneapolis community together through art and sports. The organization established the Peace Games as a two week festival of sports and arts, meant to give young people positive activities to do throughout the summer as well as to help create a positive atmosphere for the Northside and other metro communities. Later the event's name was changed to FLOW: Northside Arts Crawl.

“There were so many artists, organizations, and businesses in the community," says FLOW coordinator Dudley Voigt. "They all came together, opening their doors and establishing an event for the whole family.” The Peace Foundation, the Northside Arts Collective, and the West Broadway Coalition produce and sponsor the event.

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“FLOW provides an opportunity for our neighbors and for people living outside our community to view us through a prism of light and color; to understand we are like any other place, full of the same hopes and dreams, the same needs and the same questions.”

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Shirley Jones is an artist and educator who resides in North Minneapolis. Currently, she teaches at Central High School in St. Paul as well as teaching art to children at her studio. "I am ecstatic when I see the joy on children's faces after creating something wonderful,” she says. She is the founder and owner of Plymouth Avenue Arts Studio. She creates innovative artwork including paintings, sculpture, and jewelry. Her work has been displayed at Phipps Art Center, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Walker Art Center, and at the annual Juneteenth Celebration in Minneapolis. She has actively participated in FLOW since the event's inception. During this year's art crawl she will be hosting live entertainment, imaginative and creative activities for children, and a children’s art show as well as selling her homemade jewelry. She describes her jewelry as small sculptures with a deeper meaning embedded in both her African roots and the natural world.

George and Beverly Roberts also reside in North Minneapolis. George is a retired schoolteacher. “FLOW,” he says, “provides an opportunity for our neighbors and for people living outside our community to view us through a prism of light and color; to understand we are like any other place, full of the same hopes and dreams, the same needs and the same questions.” In their studio, the Robertses will be hosting a public workshop on Hmong art. Yer Yang, a Hmong story cloth artist, will lead a demonstration and hands-on workshop for children and adults.

Also featured in this year’s art crawl will be Lundstrum Center, Juxtaposition Arts (at Emerson and Broadway), the Capri Band at the Historic Capri Theater, outdoor work on the Delisi Building (Penn and Broadway), and outdoor music hosted by KMOJ on the stage at the Bean Scene.

Josiah Jackson is a parent advocate, motivational speaker, and author of God Called Her Josiah, An Autobiography. To learn more about Josiah, visit josiahltd.net.

Also in the Daily Planet, read Ariah Fine on the Bean Scene.