Written by: Lisa Roy
Explore a vibrant lineup of free art exhibitions, interactive workshops, and open studios this September. Highlights include Paola Evangelista’s ancestral clay installations at Solar Arts (Sept 3–19), the premier North Star Glass Exhibition at Potekglass (Sept 4–20), garden-inspired collage paintings by Fidencio Fifield-Perez at Dreamsong (Sept 10–Oct 24), and Suyao Tian’s paintings at Belwin Conservancy (Sept 10–Oct 4), which features exclusive access to scenic hiking trails. Don’t miss a hands-on Nature Printing Salon on September 26, plus weekly open studio building hours throughout the month.
Altar of Bones by Paola Evangalista at the Solar Arts Building
A Peruvian diaspora artist investigating ancestral healing through clay, community, and decolonial practice.
Artist: Paola Evangelista (Peruvian-born, arrived in the U.S. in the 1990s)
In this exhibition porcelain paperclay bones, handmade braids, and functional vessels begin an investigation into ancestral healing and cultural reclamation. Bones reference both colonial erasure and ancestral resurrection. Braids honor collective labor and ancestral knowledge, a practice that connects cultures around the world. Functional pieces; the pestle, mortars, spoons, and bowls invite the audience to understand clay as medicine for the body.
How do we heal ancestrally? How do we decolonize our daily lives? How does art become medicine?
Shop Open Studios. 36+ artists and live music on the 2nd floor Gallery Stage!
Free and open to the public. Kids & families are welcome.
Where: Solar Arts Building, 2nd Floor
When: Opening Reception Thursday, September 3rd from 5–9pm
Closing Reception- Saturday, September 19th from 12-6pm
North Star Glass Exhibition 2026 at Potekglass
Potekglass is proud to present the inaugural North Star Glass Exhibition, a juried regional exhibition celebrating excellence in glass art throughout the Upper Midwest.
The exhibition showcases selected painted glass works from artists across: Minnesota • Wisconsin • Michigan • Iowa • Illinois • Nebraska • North Dakota • South Dakota
This September, we’re presenting the inaugural 2026 North Star Glass Exhibition: Painting on Glass, a regional juried exhibition that brings together glass artists from across the Upper Midwest.
The exhibition opens September 4 with a free, catered opening reception featuring a talk by internationally recognized glass painter and Judson Studios Master Glass Painter Indre McCraw, an awards ceremony, and an SGAA (Stained Glass Association of America) networking event.
Both the opening reception and the full run of the exhibition are free and open to the public. Throughout the exhibition, visitors will also have the opportunity to participate in a People’s Choice Award, with the winner announced at a smaller closing reception at the end of the exhibition.
Exhibition Dates: September 4–20, 2026
Opening Reception: September 4, 2026, 6–9pm
Location: Potekglass, Flux Arts Building, 2505 Howard St NE Studio C, Minneapolis, MN 55418
The Passing of a Shadow by Fidencio Fifield-Perez at Dreamsong
DREAMSONG is pleased to announce The Passing of a Shadow, a solo exhibition with California-based artist Fidencio Fifield-Perez (b. 1990, Oaxaca). Featuring collage paintings, cut paper compositions and hand-drawn maps, the temporally disparate bodies of work in The Passing of a Shadow display a continuity of material, approach and ideas, and take the garden as a site of inspiration and meaning. Analogizing the daily rituals of planting, watering and growing to the networks of mutual care and support that sustain marginalized communities, Fifield-Perez’s verdant depictions of plants celebrate how inheritances of knowledge, advocacy and compassion are nurtured and shared within likeminded social groups.
*Image caption- See My Brother, He’s Jumping Out, 2026 – Intaglio ink on woven paper, acrylic on canvas 54 x 48 in.
When: September 10 – October 24, 2026
Where: Dreamsong – 1237 4th Street NE Minneapolis, MN 55413
Worlds Within Worlds | Suyao Tian – September 10th – October 4th at the Belwin Conservatory
Exhibition features paintings by Suyao Tian, with public access to Savanna Hills trails during gallery hours
This fall, Belwin Conservancy invites the public to experience art and nature together at Belwin’s Savanna Center. From September 10 through October 4, Worlds Within Worlds, an exhibition of paintings by artist Suyao Tian, will be on display in Belwin’s gallery. During gallery hours, visitors are also invited to hike the Savanna Hills trails. Over four miles of trails, typically closed to the public, wind through restored prairie and oak savanna.
Gallery Hours:
Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays, 12 – 4 p.m.
Belwin Conservancy – 1553 Stagecoach Trail South, Afton
Artist Reception – Sun Sep 20th 5PM – 7PM
Artist Talk – Sun Sep 27th 3PM
Free Nature Printing Salon at the Art to Change the World Headquarters
Join interdisciplinary artist Becca David as we go outside to incorporate nature into our artistic practice. No prerequisite or art experience required.
Nature Printing was one of the earliest forms of documenting and preserving nature, used by early botanists to record details of place and growth habits. Prints could be used for study long past the point of decay.
Today, we are able to use processes that are safer for the environment to provide an introduction to this process. This allows people of all backgrounds and abilities to engage with nature and experience the world with in a positive and playful way.
You’re welcome to bring a favorite leaf or plant specimen smaller than 5″ x 7″ however, all materials are included!
Please register via the Facebook Event here: https://www.facebook.com/share/1DVsMKCNRz/?mibextid=wwXIfr
When: Saturday, September 26th from 2:00pm – 4:00pm
Where: 699 Lowry Ave NE
Flux Arts Building – Upstairs at Art to Change the World Headquarters
2505 NE Howard St Minneapolis, MN 55418
Monthly Open Studios
Flux Arts Building, Every Saturday from 10am – 5pm
Northrup King Building, every Saturday from 12-4pm
Solar Arts Building, Thursday, September 3rd 5-9pm & Saturday, September 19th, 12-6pm
Q.Arma Building, Fall Open Table & Gathering Saturday, September 26, 2026 – Open Studios: 12–6 PM – Fall Table Gathering: 6:30–10 PM