December 2021
20 December 2021
The 2022 Northeast Calendars are available free at participating sponsors. For a list, see NE Calendar.
Suzanne Skon’s image is on the cover and the following were chosen for the months: Mike Anderson, Janet Bayliss, Owen Brown, Sonja Hutchinson, Jason Jenkins, Jeffrey Kraker, Angela Lundberg, Mark Peterson, Dennis Ready, Pete Sandvik, August Schwerdfeger, Hannah Steen.
Graphic artist Leann Johnson designed the calendar, and along with three independent judges – Ben Rasmussen, Pablo Lituma and Susan...
02 December 2021
Rendering of Stormwater Street, looking north between the building now occupied by studios and businesses, and the to-be-converted buildings that will become artist live/work housing. (Courtesy of Artspace)
When the sale of the Northrup King Building was made public in 2019, artists who occupied the building’s studio, gallery, and retail spaces took a wait-and-see attitude, said Loretta Bebeau. She has had a studio in the building for 19 years, served on the board of directors of the Northeast Minneapolis...
01 December 2021
When is a wall more than a wall? Through art, a community can make a utility shed or an outhouse into a symbol of themselves. The latest examples of this have popped up in three Northeast neighborhoods: Logan Park, Beltrami, and Northeast Park, the latter of which hosted a celebration unveiling the newly minted artwork adorning a bathroom facility on the far side of its baseball fields. These three neighborhoods collaborated to put together funding to commission new public art in their parks. The...
25 November 2021
Thanks to everyone who supported the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District on Give to the Max Day November 18. The link is still available at https://www.givemn.org/organization/Northeast-Minneapolis-Arts-District
The Arts District’s mission is to catalyze the innovative spirit of artists through generative community arts development. It is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization.
The goal of $2,500 was reached and matched by Mike Vennewitz in honor of the late State Representative Diane Loeffler, his...
21 November 2021
Art Force is requesting submissions for the first exhibit of 2022 at the gallery at NordHaus. The theme of the show is “Reflections.” The work should depict or respond to this theme. The exhibition will be installed in late December 2021/early January, 2022 and will remain installed for six months. Artwork will be available for sale and Art Force will manage those transactions.
Submissions should be received by 5 p.m. CST on Friday, December 3, 2022. More details at the link below.
https://www.artforce.org/post/call-for-art-nordhaus-apartments
21 November 2021
It is time to shop art for the holidays. Events include Birawer Holiday, Second Saturday California Building, Casket 2nd Saturday, Holiday Saturday Northrup King Building and Solar: 10th Annual Holiday Open House. Use this as your guide to holiday shopping in the district this year.
Birawer Gallery
Birawer Holiday
Our Annual Holiday Show will be Saturday, December 4th from 1PM – 9 PM at Michael Birawer Gallery.
Just like last year, we are offering several special promotions. Throughout the Holiday...
November 2021
31 October 2021
First Ward candidates participating in the Arts District-sponsored forum Oct. 18: Elliott Payne and Kevin Reich.
The Arts District forum held on October 18 was an excellent civic exercise for the arts community. The major candidates from Ward 1 and 3 participated. The discourse was cordial and meaningful. While there were many statements made about how all the candidates love and support the arts, this forum was meant to tease out the nuances of the candidates’ positions and how they see and want...
30 October 2021
It’s time for Art Attack, Art This Way, Open Casket, Thorp Warp, California Dreamin’, ArtBlok Fall Sale, Fall In Q.Arma, Holland Days and more. For information on open studio events on the first weekend in November, go to NEMAA website for information and links to the various social media for the buildings.
Art Attack!
Rawr, it’s Art Attack! The Northrup King Building’s highly anticipated event showcases four floors of amazing art and gifts that will attack all your senses – in...
28 October 2021
Opportunity to coordinate a prestigious international exhibit of local Arts District artists.
The Northeast Minneapolis Arts District seeks a program manager for our next visual arts exhibit at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport. Position begins early November 2021, the exhibit installs June 2022 and Deinstalls December 2022. Stipend $2,500. The Arts at MSP Program has approved the theme Chroma: A Spectrum of Beauty from the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District for an exhibit in the five...
28 October 2021
Once again, Northeast Minneapolis Arts District will be participating in the annual Give to the Max Day state-wide fundraiser, taking place this year on Thursday, November 18: https://www.givemn.org/organization/Northeast-Minneapolis-Arts-District
Our goal is to raise $2,000 from individuals and businesses who share our organization’s passion for the Northeast Arts District. Funds raised through the 2021 campaign will support critical advocacy work to ensure that the District remains vibrant,...
28 October 2021
“We Beasties: Explorations of the Intersections Between Humans and Animals” solo show featuring the sculptures of Northeast Minneapolis artist Kyle Fokken is at Metro State University in the Gordon Parks Gallery through Dec. 2. Formally inspired by antique toys and folk art, the centerpiece is a backwards flying pig that projects a cosmic collection of colored lights onto the gallery walls. Miniature shopping carts support the animal as it hurtles through space. This work satirically points to Jeff...
October 2021
10 October 2021
You are invited to attend the 1st and 3rd Ward Candidates Forum for Minneapolis City Council on Monday October 18th 6:30-8:30 pm
Ward 1 Candidates – Kevin Reich and Elliott Payne
Ward 2 Candidates – Steve Fletcher, Merv Moorhead and Michael Rainville
Questions will be focused on Arts and Land-use-related issues in a live forum at the Solar Arts Building event space, 3rd floor of 711 15th Ave. NE. Major candidates have confirmed participation. It promises to be a unique and lively event.
Have...
01 October 2021
The new Immersive Van Gogh show at 15th and Central on the border of the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District has stirred some controversy. The arguments seem to be focused on whether it is trite. And will it continue to gentrify the neighborhood with all these Van Gogh enthusiasts coming to see this show?
For most artists going through art school in the 1990s and early 2000s, Van Gogh posters were everywhere at museum stores. Not local art but Klimt, Warhol and Impressionist artists’ posters. Those...
10 September 2021
Meet the people behind three of the newest art spaces in the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District
TOA Presents
Rob Sherer credits the pandemic with spurring him to do what he’d dreamed of for a while, opening a space at 655 19th Ave. NE where gallerists from other cities can expose the artists they represent, to the Twin Cities buying audience. People weren’t travelling, and there’s a hunger to see things in person.
Rob Sherer talks with friends Gabrielle Grier and Roger Cummings from Juxtaposition...
10 September 2021
This graphic from Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association says it all. See websites and Facebook of NEMAA and the individual buildings for details as they are known.
10 September 2021
James Brenner Sculpture, in partnership with the Holland Neighborhood Improvement Association (HNIA), Art Is My Weapon, and Chicago Avenue Fire Arts Center (CAFAC), is holding a Cast Iron Event on Tuesday September 21st from 7:00-9:30pm at the Water Basin next to Edison Highschool, 22nd Ave NE and Quincy Street NE in Minneapolis.
The focus of this event is transformation and change: What do we need to let go of, and what do we need to embrace as a community and as individuals? At the event, disabled...
01 September 2021
October 7, 5-9 p.m., First Thursday open studios at the Northrup King Building, 1500 Jackson St. NE, will feature a look at plans for site improvements. There will be live music by Mwago Kuria; traditional English pasties from Potter’s Pasties; and a presentation by Artspace Rafala Green Fellows Shalom Cook and Pablo Lituma, who will share results from their Radical Asset Mapping Project in Northeast Minneapolis. The presentation will be at 7:00 p.m. in Gallery 332.
Announced NKB site improvements...
September 2021
02 September 2021
Artists Gustavo Lira and Victor Yepez stood with Solar Arts Building manager Mike Schardin prior to cutting a ribbon for the mural, Solar Arts Fauna, that graces the back of the Solar Arts Building at 711 15th Ave. NE. They described it as meant for community members of all ages to enjoy. Rodrigo Oñate, also known as Roco Drilo, designed the piece and executed it with the help of assistant Joshe Montaño, Lira and Yepez. He became friends with them during Art-A-Whirl® shows when first starting his...
02 September 2021
When Beverly Tipton Hammond, dance instructor at Pure Water School of Dance, talks about her art, she tells mesmerizing stories, each with significance. Starting ballet at the age of five, she was already exposed to her family who sang, danced, played instruments, and often listened to music. Tipton Hammond believes she was born to dance.
Originally raised on the East Coast, living between Baltimore and Washington D.C., she spent summers in Minneapolis starting at the age of nine after her parents...
02 September 2021
For many art is essential to place and identity. Art provokes conversation and social media posts. However, art for many real estate developments tends to be an afterthought. Within the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District we want to change that process and invite all developers to integrate arts in the original budgeting process. This allows designers and architects to build locations for art into the program as well as think about locally made functional art from the beginning of the development...
02 September 2021
Donna Bruni Recent Paintings catalog. Image provided by Doug Flanders & Associates
Douglas Flanders & Associates presents a solo exhibition by Donna Bruni, of renowned local and international acclaim, through Saturday, September 25, 2021.
The gallery is open Tues – Sat, 11am – 5pm; at 818 W Lake Street, next to the Bryant Lake Bowl. The entire show can be viewed in-person or online at flandersart.com.
Bruni’s work is influenced by the ever-present movement of nature, the paradigm we...
02 September 2021
Immersive Van Gogh, the visually striking exhibition that invites audiences to step inside post-Impressionist artist Vincent van Gogh’s incredible works of art, is inviting Minneapolis artists to apply to the Artist-In-Residence program. Local artists can apply for the opportunity to create and cultivate their work in a unique space over the course of a month-long residency around the theme of van Gogh. Artists should have an inventory of work to display and sell, be comfortable working within the...
02 September 2021
NE Calendar Cover from 2021
A quick reminder to photographers, artists and dabblers; September 12, 11:59 p.m. is the deadline for submitting images to be considered for the 2022 Northeast Calendar. You are paid for your work $200 per image if selected. Full submission guidelines are at https://northeastminneapolisartsdistrict.org/archives/ne-calendar/
The annual printed calendar is now a project of the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District, a result of our merger with Northeast CDC.
02 September 2021
The Small Business Institute at the University of St. Thomas offers a team of senior-level marketing students who will spend an entire semester designing a marketing project. The Small Business Institute (SBI) provides local businesses, non-profit organizations, and schools high-quality business consulting in the area of marketing.
With the guidance of experienced faculty and with your input, a team of senior-level marketing students will spend an entire semester designing and executing your consulting...
01 September 2021
The historic California Building is home to 80 artists. Please join them on September 11th from 11-4pm for Open Saturday.
August 2021
01 August 2021
As a former museum guard, I can tell you most art works get a cursory couple of seconds notice. Rarely do people spend 5-10 minutes at each piece, reading and studying, discussing…but that’s what I observed many visitors did during a visit to the shows by two local artists at Mia, the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
Leslie Barlow and Piotr Szyhalski , who both work out of the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District, show some very timely work of what our society is going through both politically and...
01 August 2021
The City of Bloomington will have new art through Ua Si Creative. The WE mural will be located in the South Loop neighborhood on 9,000 square feet of walls at the corner of American Boulevard and 30th Avenue South.
Reggie LeFlore at work, photo by Margo Ashmore
“We are so pleased to announce that a stakeholder panel selected Ua Si Creative as the curator and producer of the WE mural in the South Loop. Ua Si’s thoughtful process for artist selection and coordination, approach to the theme, and engagement...
01 August 2021
George Floyd Square in South Minneapolis appeared both joyful and mellow on a Sunday afternoon July 11 with the sounds of gospel music and preaching emanating from a parking lot on one corner and an informal meeting of minds on another. Xavier Tavera and Maria Cristina (Tina) Tavera were there with fellow artists and supporters of the Social Justice Billboard Project that sits on top of buildings on the corner of 38th and Chicago avenues.
Xavier’s portrait-style photographs of hands making various...
26 July 2021
Using Geographic Information Systems software and publicly available data, University of Minnesota grad student intern Kenny Niemeyer created this version of our signature map, showing the locations of Arts Insights advertisers.
Since 1984, industrial land use in Minneapolis has been converted and developed for other uses. Across the entire city, the acreage of industrial land use reduced by 41% from almost 5,000 acres to just 2,900.
The above Northeast Minneapolis Arts District map highlights...
26 July 2021
Members of the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District Land Trust Task Force recently toured the new Timber and Tie Urban Apartments being constructed at 900 14th Ave. NE (a block west of Central), soon to be leased to persons at or below 60% of the Area Median Income.
Community amenities include a 5,000 square foot divisible maker’s space which is for lease to one group or several individual or smaller group artists, and a 500 square foot gallery space.
NE SCULPTURE | Gallery Factory will be administering...
26 July 2021
Theater Latté Da has announced its 24th season. The season kicks off with “Puttin’ Up the Ritz” (Nov. 13 and 14). The re-opening concerts offer audiences the opportunity to raise a glass to celebrate a return to the Ritz Theater in Northeast Minneapolis with performances from the upcoming season, and an insider’s look into new works in development as well as favorites from award-winning Latté Da productions.
“All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914” (Nov. 26 – Jan. 2, 2022), the poignant docu-musical...
25 July 2021
Loretta Bebeau shared her process of combining hands and languages. The video and stills were made while working on a commission for Regions Hospital, brokered through ArtForce’s Leslie Palmer-Ross.
View Video
20 July 2021
The historic California Building is home to 80 artists. Please join them on August 14th from 11-4pm for Open Saturday
July 2021
01 July 2021
In late July, the Minneapolis City Council will vote on an ordinance establishing a Department of Art and Cultural Affairs. Ninth Ward Council Member Alondra Cano, who spearheaded the effort to create the office, said that the arts are a five billion-dollar industry in the city, and the new department “would acknowledge how much we receive from it.” She added current arts support is diffused, the city needs a “dedicated, centralized, and reliable funding source” (the general fund) for arts projects...
01 July 2021
Cover of Nick Legeros’s book
Nick Legeros, prolific sculptor, was honored by the Edina Community Foundation; they worked to produce a book this spring that features the recognizable sculpture work of the Edina native. Nick’s studio has been a staple on 14th Avenue NE Minneapolis for over 20 years. His career spans more than 500 works of art. From his Minneapolis-based Blue Ribbon Bronze studio and foundry, Nick creates commissioned work for clients ranging from cities and businesses...
01 July 2021
Memorialize the Movement (MTM) founder and Executive Director Leesa Kelly.Anyone who wants to “own a piece of this history,” referring to the plywood protest art created after the murder of George Floyd, gets “a flat and resounding NO” from Memorialize the Movement (MTM) founder and Executive Director Leesa Kelly. “You can attend the public events like anyone else,” but the idea of people making historic artifacts something only available to whoever visits their home “is just a grotesque concept,”...
01 July 2021
The Northeast Minneapolis Arts District is looking for active, colorful, beautiful and/or funny images from Northeast or by artists based in Northeast that bring cheer and a feeling of togetherness, community, even healing. Images can be, but do not need to be, tied to recognizable individual neighborhood landmarks. Jurors will look for variety in areas, seasons and perspectives.
NE Calendar Cover from 2021
The merger of the Arts District with Northeast CDC underscores our commitment to artists of...
29 June 2021
Reprinted/adapted with permission from the Northeaster newspaper. There are many reasons to support expanding the city of Minneapolis’ commitment to arts, from arts’ intrinsic value, to a desire to catch up to otherwise comparable cities. We urge support for a new department of Arts and Cultural Affairs. Public comment is open now through July 21 online (see MyNortheaster.com for link). The full text of the ordinance is available at https://lims.minneapolismn.gov/File/2021-00387.
The Northeaster’s...
29 June 2021
University of Minnesota graduate student Kenny Niemeyer is interning with the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District this summer cataloging the land uses, talking with building owners and exploring ways to preserve maker space and compatible industry. Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Mapping, he created this version of the map readers usually see, showing the locations of the entities that advertise on the Arts Insights page in the Northeaster newspaper.
The map shows land use in 1968, scanned...
June 2021
01 June 2021
Two shows on the Southwest and Northeast corners of the Arts District are going on simultaneously. Zoran Mojsilov‘s show at the Grain Belt Bottling House, and Witt Siasoco’s paintings in a Lowry/Central storefront.
Mojsilov’s exhibit hosted a collaborative pop up poetry reading (Vimeo below) by Bryan Thao Worra
Zoran Mojsilov show image created by Candy Kuehn
Thao Worra commented: “Reading my poem “The Dancer Introduces One Of His Aspects” from my 2008 collection...
20 May 2021
Photo by Pierre Ware of Harvest Feast by Sayge Carroll and Keegan Xavi.
The Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy invites applications for the Creative Response Fund- Community Well-Being grant opportunity. Community based artists in Minnesota are invited to gather a team and apply for Creative Response Fund grants of up to $15,000 per project, 13 projects will be awarded in 2021.
Learn more here.
Application Deadline: June 30th, 2021 at 11:59pm CST.
Interested applicants can join a zoom...
20 May 2021
Described in the Casket Arts directory as a retired 3M chemist who has spent the last 30 years painting in acrylics and oils, Spencer Silver’s latest multi-canvas floral and natural works featured ideas about the prairie. When he passed away at age 80 on May 8, we learned (if we didn’t know already) of his fame as the co-inventor of the Post-It Note.
Silver invented the repositionable adhesive many years before colleague Art Fry put it to use bookmarking his choir music. Silver was named in dozens...
20 May 2021
University of MN graduate student Kenny Niemeyer will use his GIS (Geographic Information System) skills to help the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District’s Land Trust Task Force catalog arts spaces, industrial uses and businesses in the Arts District, and meet with arts and industrial building owners.
Niemeyer is in his second year at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, concentrating in housing policy and environmental planning. His undergrad degree is in global studies (environment and sustainable...
20 May 2021
The undeveloped buildings in the Northrup King complex, 1500 Jackson St. NE, each present interesting challenges or opportunities. Northeast Minneapolis Arts District board members got a sneak peek tour May 24. Artspace is committed to maintaining the existing artist studio space in current configuration. Planning around redevelopment of vacant buildings is actively underway.
A six-story building sits at the end of the in-use dock level next to the building we now think of as Northrup King Building....
May 2021
01 May 2021
by Josh Blanc
Art has been front and center throughout the past year responding to the pandemic and the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Art throughout history has always been a powerful medium for society to understand complicated and difficult situations. For reference, two artists who documented their societies’ indifferences and brutality were Francis Goya of Spain 1746 -1828 and American Gordon Parks, 1912 -2006.
Francis Goya’s “Third of May 1808” painting...
29 April 2021
“It’s fun to realize that all the connections I had to get this project done happened in the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District or just outside of it. We are so lucky to live/work in such a great community that we can take advantage of these connections and work together,” said Kyle Fokken of his latest project.
The Wary and the Fierce by Kyle Fokken
Permanently installed as a gateway outside the event center where the Mankato State University Mavericks hockey team plays, the heads of two bulls...
29 April 2021
by NE-AD Board of Directors
Ouroboros-as-Mind-35-x-37-2
• The Northeast Minneapolis Arts District board congratulates Public Functionary, recipient of the remaining $1 million from Intermedia Arts. The organization is inviting collaboration at hello@publicfunctionary.org. For more information, see their website and Facebook page.
• Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association continues to walk the transitional fine line between encouraging people to come in person/by appointment for Art-A-Whirl® May 14-16,...
28 April 2021
Thinking of donating to NE Mpls. Arts District?
You can do it anytime by going to our Donate page on this website. From May 1-11 we’ll also be on GiveMN.org participating in SpringForwardMN. https://www.givemn.org/organization/Northeast-Minneapolis-Arts-District.
One of our goals for SpringForwardMN is to raise funds to pay photographers to document the Arts District for uses like this effort. To put our best foot forward while properly compensating artists.
Also, whenever you see a themed gallery...
April 2021
31 March 2021
The Social Justice Billboard Project and NE SCULPTURE | Gallery Factory are delighted to announce that the National Academy of Design, Abbey Mural Committee has awarded support for 2021-22 Phase II production. This launches Phase II of the Social Justice Billboard Project, through February 2022.
The Social Justice Billboard Project elevates BIPOC voices and artwork in the Minneapolis community using the three billboards facing the intersection of 38th and Chicago, the site of George Floyd’s...
30 March 2021
Submitted by Layl McDill …
On March 27, Art to Change the World was the co-host of the Connections Radio on AM950. The topic of conversation was the Arts District Palette – Where Neighbors and Artists Mix.
The developers of the Huxley have commissioned 224 pieces of art by NEMAA and ACW artists to be given as part of a welcome swag bag to the new residents. Director Barbara Bridges invited Council Member Kevin Reich, artist and Tres Leches gallery owner Alison Price and ceramicist and...
29 March 2021
“Hope” acrylic and oil on plaster, 2020. by Karen Wilcox
By Josh Blanc …
Artist and studio organizing consultant Karen Wilcox parted from Northeast Minneapolis Arts District/NECDC board of directors at the end of March 2021. Karen was part of the first generation of the board, which started in 2014. She quickly took the role of secretary.
Ms. Wilcox is a master of the English language; her skills are evident in the Arts Insights pages and our monthly e-newsletter, where she has edited and even...
26 March 2021
Photo by Mike Madison
We are half way though the daily voting for the best arts district competition. We are currently in 3rd place in USA Today’s 10Best Readers’ Choice Travel Awards. Last time we were nominated, we won this award (2015). It was accomplished with a dedicated artist community of 800 artists and friends voting daily. Today we estimate we have 1200 artists in the Arts District, so our chances should be higher. But to accomplish this feat again we will have to harness our best...
March 2021
28 February 2021
Dyani White Hawk. Photo by David Ellis.
Dyani White Hawk (Sičáŋǧu Lakota) is a visual artist and independent curator based in Northeast Minneapolis Arts District in the Thorp Building. White Hawk was a 2017–18 Bemis exhibiting artist in Monarchs: Brown and Native Contemporary Artists in the Path of the Butterfly. The annual $5,000 unrestricted award is designed to provide financial support to increase the capacity of a Bemis alum’s practice. Funds may be used for any purpose and do not need to be...
28 February 2021
At their annual meeting February 23, Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association’s board and staff talked about plans to support member artists in promoting even more robust online stores than they mounted for recent events, and to launch those improvements around the typical weekend for Art-A-Whirl.
They reviewed some of the government guidelines for social distancing, and are leaving it up to artists and building management to figure out whether to be open and what hours, suggesting that visitors be...
28 February 2021
“People looking at art furniture are not price shopping,” said Tom Schrunk. They’ve already gone to other stores and they’re looking for something that makes their own statement, fits their physical stature or the size of their rooms. “It might cost more, but maybe not a lot more.”
Thomas Schrunk can’t read music, but the folks who make Steinway grand pianos consider him a virtuoso of veneer. Photo courtesy of Steinway
In the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District, there are about 200 artists...
28 February 2021
When the COVID-19 pandemic tanked art fairs and craft sales last year, the American Craft Council teamed up with other national organizations to host hundreds of people on a series of Zoom calls talking about relevant survival topics.
This national organization occupies a suite at the former Grain Belt Brewery, 1224 Marshall St. NE, where a library of archives of many regional craft organizations and competition slides from early artisans serve to inspire current artists of all genres.
It’s the 80th...
February 2021
21 February 2021
Saturday, February 20th and 27th from noon-4pm.
There are limited number of people allowed, so I will be in my studio #170, clay@3 on February 13th so stop by and say hi after you see the show.
Masked will be in the Social Justice Exhibit, completed January, 2021
Artists of the 2021 Social Justice Exhibit: A. Drew Hammond, Beverly Tipton Hammond, Kathy Mommsen, seangarrison, Broderick Poole, Loretta Bebeau, and Karen Kraco.
In this new work above, I carve directly...
31 January 2021
By Karen Kraco
Arts figured prominently in the Northeaster newspaper’s awards from the Minnesota Newspaper Association’s Better Newspaper Contest, judged by journalists from another state.
The Northeaster won a first place for Use of Photography as a Whole in its circulation category, and Mike Madison, a photographer with studio in the Casket Arts Building won a first in Portrait & Personality for his portrait of Warren Thomas Fenzi. Liz Jensen’s story on Tuscaloosa, a movie directed by Philip...
30 January 2021
By Mark Peterson
When his friends were asked for a word to describe David Felker, “visionary” came up more than once. Felker, who died December 31 in Washington State following an earlier stroke and COVID-19, played a pivotal role in the creation of Art-A-Whirl® and the resultant flowering of the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District in the 1990s.
Photo of Dave Felker by Hal Gage
California Building president John Kremer said Felker came into his office in 1995 with a proposal for an art studio tour...
30 January 2021
By Barbara Bridges
Art to Change the World (ACW) has issued a call for art, and objects, coupons or other contributions from Northeast businesses, restaurants, organizations and banks. The non-profit ACW is organizing a neighborhood networking project to welcome more than 100 new neighbors at The Huxley apartments. It’s named Arts District Palette: Where Artists and Neighbors Mix (ADP:WANM).
The Huxley, at 657 22nd Ave. NE, is under construction. When finished, the J-Row sculpture trail will run...
18 January 2021
By Margo Ashmore
Travelers spending time at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport will enjoy viewing art by hundreds of Northeast Minneapolis Arts District-based artists.
Part of the Airport Foundation’s Arts@MSP program, the exhibit “Passages” includes a slide show of images by 182 artists and a history of the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District as well as two-dimensional and three-dimensional works by 21 artists. It is located in the Thomson Reuters Airport Mall Gallery in Terminal 1.
Additionally,...
January 2021
03 January 2021
for dave felker
when you write a poem for someone that’s left us,
someone that’s passed on, you’re always looking
for a doorway in, a passage towards something deeper,
something significant, something that touches the soul.
my door to dave was his sweetness.
now i know that i just wrote about how sweet charlie
thysell was, and he was one beautiful man, but damn,
dave felker was such a sweet man too. i guess i’m just
blessed with the sweetest of friends.
so this story starts...
01 January 2021
By Josh Blanc
Our society has had many years of difficult political conversations. What is right and wrong? How do we solve problems? How do our choices in policy affect those we don’t know or understand?
A popular way for the public to digest complicated political conversations is the political cartoon featured in newspapers and social media. Steve Sack, an artist who used to have a studio in the Northrup King Building, is one of the most recognizable political cartoonists in Minnesota. There are...
31 December 2020
The Northeast Minneapolis Arts District and the Northeast Community Development Corporation directors announce they have merged, as of Dec. 30, 2020, to become Northeast Community Development Corporation, dba (doing business as) The Northeast Minneapolis Arts District, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.
“Some of the recent land development within the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District threatens the integrity of the land designated by the City of Minneapolis as industrial zones. This
underscores...