I recently attended the Minneapolis Institute of Arts feature exhibition: “The Audacious Eye —Japanese Art from the Clark Collections.” The Twin Cities offer a wealth of arts opportunities in every genre, so exhibitions like this sometimes get overlooked. Many people may not know that the MIA houses an enormous amount of Asian art. This particular exhibition was born out of a recent gift of 1,700 pieces of Japanese art. The MIA’s press release states that this gift will ensure “the museum’s status as one of the nation’s foremost centers of Asian art.” The Clarks were a couple of private art collectors from central California. They gave their entire collection, valued at $25 million, to the MIA.
Spotlight on St. Paul reports that Rondo Community Outreach Library has a new reader bench, created by artist Seitu Jones in honor of retired librarian Alice Neve. According to the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library, Jones selected materials “to complement another major work commissioned by the library: the story tree and multicolored ‘kites’ rising into the ceiling in the children’s area.””Alice’s Storyteller Bench” was commissioned by Neve’s husband, Leon, and unveiled on October 20.Meanwhile, Highland Park and Sun Ray libraries are preparing to close for renovations at the beginning of December, not to reopen until the fall of 2014. According to the library website, the Highland renovations will help to better integrate the library and the Hillcrest Recreation Center, as well as providing additional parking and an exterior book drop, a new teen zone, new community meeting room, expanded children’s area, and more internet stations and powered furniture to accommodate personal technology.Sun Ray library is also set for renovations during 2014, including a new public plaza, sidewalks and landscaping, better car and bike parking, an outdoor reading garden, an expanded children’s section and a dedicated teen zone, “genius bar” technology counters, as well as a community room.According to the Highland District Council posting on E-Democracy, Highland Park Library will celebrate the remodeling with a Siesta Fiesta on Sunday, December 1 from 1-5 p.m. After the closing, preschool storytimes and book club meetings iwll be in the Hillcrest Recreation Center, Amharic storytimes will move to Homecroft Early Learning Center, and job search assistance, Paw Pals, and Dr. Who group meetings will be held at the Merriam Park Library. Continue Reading
From now until the end of November I will be profiling three three local fashion designers with three very different career paths. These images and interviews are meant to showcase the talents of these three incredibly skilled women and to provide you with more information on their individual brands.This week I’m showcasing Judy Cooper Lyle of Phyllis Designs. I interned under Judy for a while back in 2010 and received an understanding and appreciation for flowing fabrics and vibrant textiles. Her classic fits are combined with an elegant and ethnic flare and take inspiration from many cultures around the world, channeling Greek Goddesses and African queens.What is your favorite creation; a piece you’ve made that you’re really proud of? I would say the gown with the cape. Continue Reading
The magic of picture taking is the ability to tell people how beautiful they are through a photograph. This was the take-away message from Jamel Shabazz’s talk at Juxtaposition Arts this past Thursday. Jamel Shabazz is a photographer, lecturer and teacher of the visual arts from Brooklyn. This artist talk and reception was held in honor of the work of youth artists at Juxtaposition Arts as well as a part of One Minneapolis One Read, which invites residents in Minneapolis to partake in a city-wide read. This year’s book is A Choice of Weapons by Gordon Parks.During Shabazz’s weeklong residency working with six youth artists, students’ photographs focused on the communities we live in and aimed to create prideful visual documents representing the beauty of these communities. Continue Reading
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to see the collection of Johnson Loud’s life work now showing at North Hennepin Community College. A Minnesota Native American artist, potter, painter, and priest, Johnson Loud was born in Red Lake Minnesota in the early 1940’s and has produced art for the past 50 years.Loud is responsible for designing the logo for the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians that is used on the flag, public buildings, and license plates. Johnson Loud has also produced large scale murals celebrating Native America history and culture displayed in various Red Lake public buildings. These murals are all beautifully featured in the exhibit through photographs alongside a number of original paintings. One painting, “Making Maple Syrup,” shows off this traditional spring undertaking. Continue Reading
Halloween is over, but there are many events on tap — from Dia de Los Muertos celebrations, to poerty and art shows — to keep the good times rollin’. Check below for a few of this weekend’s highlights. Also, don’t forget to fall back an hour on Saturday night for Daylight Savings Time! FRIDAYRock Ink Roll: Comics & Music Gallery Show at Altered Esthetics, Friday, November 1Altered Esthetics Gallery1224 Quincy St NE, MinneapolisRefreshments will be provided!7 pm – 10 pm | Free(An artists’ discussion will take place Saturday, November 23 at 3 pm)More information as advertised:”Our 2013 project is Rock Ink Roll, an anthology celebrating the raucous intersection of music and art. The 128-page perfect-bound book features cover art by Xeric-winning artist Brittney Sabo, and comics by more than 30 artists, writers and musicians from across the country. Musical styles ranging from classical to punk appear in the stories, which explore a variety of storytelling genres including fantasy, realistic fiction, documentary and autobiography. We will also release an ebook version with expanded content when we run out of the printed books.During the corresponding gallery exhibition, a selection of comics from the book and ebook will be on display at Altered Esthetics, along with other music-themed posters, prints and paintings. Continue Reading
As part of the Taste of Phillips Art Festival, close to 100 people came out on October 26 for the dedication of one of the largest community murals to appear in Minneapolis in more than a decade.On the corner of Lake and Bloomington, the project is the culmination of four years of work by the Semilla Community Arts Program of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church. The 1400 sq/ft mural involved the work of more than 300 volunteers, led by local artist, Greta McLain.To date, the Semilla program has worked with more than 1800 community members to create 19 murals in the neighborhood, ranging from garage doors to two large scale mosaics on the Andersen School, as well as more than 30 mosaic flower pots around the neighborhood.“The name of the program: Semilla, or seed, speaks to our vision of a new community,” said Rev. Patrick Cabello Hansel, co-pastor of St. Paul’s. “Phillips neighborhood is blessed with an incredible diversity and talented, courageous people. Giving people tools to create beautiful art together also empowers them to work together to build community.”On the spiraling glass and ceramic mural appears the artwork of individuals in the form of their own seeds, as well as the seeds of the projects partners, Waite House, In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theater, All My Relations Arts Gallery, Mercado Central and Global Market.”We want to recognize the seeds of art in everyone’s lives,” said McLain. “We all have grown from somewhere and here we see our own seeds surrounded by pollinators that have helped us grow in our community.”The mural dedication is aimed to be the first step in developing a Phillips Avenue of the Arts, which will continue over to The Heart of the Beast Theater on 15th Ave, then up to St. Continue Reading
Ping-pong and karaoke are not what you might expect to find at an art gallery, but they go right along with exhibit openings and artist dialogues at Wing Young Huie’s Third Place Gallery in south Minneapolis. Same Difference: A cross-cultural dialogue featured artists Shana Kaplow and Meng Tang presenting their various works at the Third Place Gallery in Minneapolis and entering into a dialogue about their impressions on the Chinese and U.S. cultures on October 19. Shana Kaplow, who was born in the United States, has visited China twice and did a six-week artist residency there. Her work shows her experiences in the series, Close to Home. She stayed in Beijing in China when she started to work on the series. This work includes the video Facetime and some ink-on-paper paintings. Continue Reading
Renowned international photographer Jamel Shabazz hosted an intergenerational, street photography workshop in the Twin Cities last week as part of the third annual community conversation for One Minneapolis One Read. This year, the citywide read teamed up with Juxtaposition Arts to host a residency with the Brooklyn photographer, lecturer and teacher of the visual arts.Every year, the community read program selects a book and hosts a community conversation to encourage citywide reading in Minneapolis. The book this year is A Choice of Weapons, written by the late Gordon Parks, an African American photographer, artist, filmmaker and writer. Parks is most known for his photography for Life magazine, and as director of the iconic 1970s film, Shaft.The crowd was fortunate to have the opportunity to listen to Robin P. Hickman, the great-niece of Parks, who spoke about his legacy and beyond, as well as his experience moving to St. Paul, Minnesota in 1928 at the age of 16, after his mother passed away.According to the One Minneapolis One Read website, Parks’ autobiography tells how he “managed to escape the poverty and bigotry around him, and launch his distinguished career, by choosing the weapons given him by ‘a mother who placed love, dignity, and hard work over hatred’.”Hickman’s presentation was empowering, and it is clear Parks was an inspirational man. Continue Reading
From October 23-November 2, I’ll be in Los Angeles as a fellow in the 2013 USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Program. In the fellowship application, I was asked to write an essay answering the question, “When everyone’s a critic with an opinion, why should artists care about arts journalists?” As I transition into a new job at American Public Media, I thought it would be apt to share this essay as my final column post at the Twin Cities Daily Planet.My father works in housing finance, and when we drive around Minneapolis and St. Paul, he can point to specific buildings that he helped to secure funding for. A homeless shelter; an apartment building containing affordable units for single mothers; a recovery center for chronic inebriates.When I began a career in arts journalism, I realized that I wouldn’t be creating such tangible products. Continue Reading
