Twin Cities Daily Planet (https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/author/jakre/page/2/)
Students at the Minnesota Transitions Charter High School and Elementary School explored history through animation working on a project this year with Teaching Artist John Akre. They made a stop-motion animated documentary that traces the history of the High School’s location near Lake and Minnehaha from prairie to the present.
On May 31, North Girard and Humboldt Avenues North were cleared of car traffic from Broadway to 42nd Avenue for the first Open Streets event of the summer. People rode bikes and other kinds of human powered devices, walked, played music, created art and hung out over a temporary north-south greenway across north Minneapolis.
Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges and at least five Minneapolis City Council Members and two Hennepin County Commissioners rode through the rain on Bike to Work Day, Thursday, May 8. Four rides that started in different parts of the city ended up on the plaza between City Hall and the Hennepin County Government Center for a gathering that included information tents and speeches (at the rotunda in City Hall).
How do people live in the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul? The annual Minneapolis Saint Paul Home Tour is one way to find out. People open their homes to visitors to show off the spaces they live in and what they might have done to improve or enhance those spaces.
Love Loring, an annual fundraiser organized by the Citizens for a Loring Park Community, featured music, food, a silent auction, and an opportunity for community members to get together and talk about neighborhood issues. The event, held on April 10th at the Woman’s Club of Minneapolis, was also dedicated to long-time neighborhood volunteer Gary Gliem, who passed away late last year.Here’s a look at the event [above]. Continue Reading
The best of old and new Northeast came together on April 6th for the tenth annual Hotdish Revolution. Hotdish Revolution, a project of the Holland Neighborhood Improvement Association, is a hotdish competition that raises funds for the neighborhood group while also showing off what makes Northeast Minneapolis such a wonderful combination of residents and businesses.
On December 12, dozens of Loring Park Neighborhood residents and friends gathered at the park to celebrate WinterFest, with a bonfire, carriage rides, snow-shoeing and much more. Inside the park building, Kairos Dance Company got the community dancing to the music of Mark Stillman and the Kenwood Ululele Club.
Every December, the World Mission Prayer League, located in a historic mansion in the Loring Park Neighborhood, puts on a curry dinner to raise funds for Citizens for a Loring Park Community. The dinner is the brainchild of Pat Hafvenstein, whose appreciation of curry came out of time spent as a missionary in India.
Creative CityMaking is a collaboration between Intermedia Arts and the City of Minneapolis that pairs artists with city planners to work on projects in the city’s neighborhoods. At the Creative CityMaking Forum on Saturday, November 23, the four artist/planner teams showcased their work to involve citizens through art in projects along Penn Avenue in north Minneapolis, Dinkytown, Linden Hills, along the proposed Southwest LRT line, and in understanding historic preservation throughout the city. The teams also worked with attendees who were developing other projects at the intersection of art and planning.A Creative CityMaking exhibition is currently on view in the Intermedia Arts gallery, and this video takes a look at the Forum itself. Continue Reading
Last month, the 3rd Avenue bridge over I-94 was dedicated to Minneapolis Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton at a night event that featured speeches and music. Speakers included current Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, and members of Sayles Belton’s staff, family and others. Larry Long wrote a song in honor of Sayles Belton, and performed it with Robert Robinson, J.D. Steele and Tonia Hughes.The bridge on Minneapolis’ Arts Avenue also includes a new public sculpture by artist Janet Lofquist. The ceremonial lighting of the sculpture was part of the event. Here’s a video look at that night. Continue Reading