Looking back over the last two years the Arts District community celebrated a lot of accomplishments, collectively and for individuals, starting with winning back-to-back Best Arts District awards 2022-2023.
Many artists were featured in museum shows around the country including the Whitney and Renwick and here in the Twin Cities at the Walker, MIA and Weisman including artist Piotr Szyhalski, Dyani White Hawk, Aaron Dysart, Leslie Barlow, Christopher Selleck, Maggie Thompson, and Peyton Scott Russell. Two artists won very prestigious awards: Dyani White Hawk, the MacArthur “Genius” award and Rosy Simas the Doris Duke award. The two totaled over 1.35 million dollars brought back to the arts community.
In 2022 Public Functionary also received over two million dollars in funding from organizations. Ten to 20 years ago this type of acknowledgement for artists in the Arts District was unheard of. Now we are starting to see the evidence that our arts community is entering a new stage of higher profile artists and community recognition.
All of these accomplishments were featured through our relationship with the Northeaster newspaper, reaching over 40,000 residents monthly. We cannot stress enough how important it is to our success, to have distribution of artists’ stories being read by so many residents and business people. Knowledge is power. The more readers learn how and what artists do that affects their daily lives in real time, the more they can support the Arts District.
One of the big issues for 2024 is the city government has yet to demonstrate recognition of the major asset that is the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District. While we are city designated it is rare to see it promoted as a city asset, or to see engagement in its potential and recognition of its successes. We have seen the zoning code changes make it more difficult for artist communities to thrive and expand. We hope that with the new City Cultural Arts Department, leader Ben Johnson will be able to harness more of the community arts assets throughout the city, and we pledge to help him do so. It will only bring more positive energy and opportunities for everyone in Minneapolis. A lot more work will need to be done to ensure the Arts District is part of future development planning. Please look for opportunities to engage over the coming months and years.
There is talk of working on a new Arts Action Plan II. The first AAP in 2002 developed by Jerry Allen and Associates was a massive success to help the community, businesses and government know how best to collaborate to improve the beginning of the Arts District in 2003. It was a 15-year plan and for the most part it was completed. The Arts District board has discussed and looked for resources to get another AAP started but funding has not been identified as of yet. A new AAP would help in many factors. One having stated long term goals and issues to resolve gives the arts community more clear direction for both new and existing artists to the community. When the last AAP was done there were around 300 artists in the AD. Now we have over 1,200. Having common goals with such a large campus of artisans is important to our cohesiveness. We hope to continue the discussion and develop a comprehensive plan for the future.
By Josh Blanc