Yesterday, all of us were sitting around trying to come up with original jokes, and you know it’s pretty hard!

That’s why we’re prepared to up the ante for the first prize winner in our one liner joke contest! Instead of two free Walker on the Green: Artist-Designed Mini Golf, you will now score two free Rock the Garden Tickets plus two free tickets to Adventures in Mating by Joseph Scrimshaw if you can come up with an original one-line joke about a joke by June 4th.

Why are we doing this? Because we want you to come to out third and final Richard Prince gallery talk about jokes on June 5th. It’s being led by Joseph Scrimshaw who will talk about why jokes are funny and the history behind humor.

The rules are simple:

It has to be an original one-line joke about a joke (we will be searching Google for cheaters!)

And, it has to make Joseph Scrimshaw laugh!

Send all entries to allison.herrera@walkerart.org with name, email, and phone number by June 4th!

Let the best man/woman win!

One of the bloggers on Babble, the painfully hip online magazine for a “new generation of parents” (that I read constantly), writes fairly frequently about taking his kids to museums. The blogger, Trey Ellis, is a single dad in Manhattan with two kids. He recently wrote about taking the kids to the Murakami exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. He didn’t have any warning about the content of the exhibition, which includes sculptures of “a Japanese girl jumping a rope created by milk spurting from her gargantuan breasts” (according to the Brooklyn Museum) and a naked young man with an erect penis. Read his post about the visit — it seems he was able to navigate the visit pretty gracefully. He answered his kids’ questions directly and simply, and he asked them questions, which probably gave him a good idea of where they were in their understanding. And they all had a good giggle.

The text inRichardPrince’s monochrome joke paintings are described as borscht-belt style humour. Jokes like, “I metmy first girl, her name was Sally. Was that a girl, was that a girl. That’s what people kept asking me.” These are the kind of crude, below the belt, old school raunchy one-liners our parents’ generation might remember telling during cocktail parties and the like. Maybe eating fondue was involved as well.

If you’rea New Yorker reader, then hopefully you’re familiar with the cartoon contest every week. It’s where you, the reader, are given an opportunity to supply text to a cartoon drawn by one of the esteemed New Yorker cartoon artists. So, in response to the Richard Prince Spirtual America show here at the Walker we’ll give you a chance to come up with your own one line joke to win prizes and other Walker Art Center swag. Sound exciting, then keep reading!

This contest is a little different. You, the gallery goer,the blog reader, the joke enthusiast, will be asked to supply a one line jokethat is about jokesintime for our Richard Prince Gallery talk on June 5th. This third in a series of three specialized gallery talks will attempt to explain what makes a joke funny, what is borscht-belt style humor, and the history of humor. It’s being led byTwin Cities funny manJoseph Scrimshawwho is an internationally produced writer, performer, and independent theater producer. He’s created multiple best-selling shows in the Minnesota Fringe Festival including Die, Clowns, Die and Macbeth’s Awesome Scottish Castle Party. His hit interactive romantic comedy, Adventures in Mating, has played in New York, Seattle, the UK, Bulgaria and every Monday night right here in Minneapolis

Submit yourjoke by June 4th. Again, the rules are simple. It has to be a one line joke about a joke. Submitthem to this address: allison.herrera@walkerart.org. Include your name, email address and phone number.

First prize wins two tickets to Joseph Scrimshaw’s current show Adventures in Mating plus two free tickets to Walker on the Green: Artist-Designed Mini Golf, which opens May 24th.Runner upis two free tickets to Walker on the Green: Artist-Designed Mini Golf and a B.T. McElrathSalty Dogchocolatebar from the Walker Art Center Shop.

To win, you must make Joseph Scrimshaw laugh!

Let the games begin!

Well, we’ve come to the end of our Arty Pants activities connected with Worlds Away, but not before our toddlers could show off their interior decorating skills, giving all those shows on TLC a run for their money.

A few weeks ago we had the tots decorate their own room within the Arty Pants McMansion.

Faced with blank walls, the tots quickly got on to furniture design, wallpapering, carpeting, and decor. There was a room evocative of a breezy seaside getaway…

… a much-needed habitat for a snowman family…

… another room for the tropical animal-loving snowmen …

… and a swanky lounge complete with commissioned soldier monkey art.

Other than snowmen, trends for this season also include brightly colored foam heart wall decor and larger-than-life animal wall illustrations.

I expect DesignSponge and Apartment Therapy to report on these trends very soon…

Which room would YOU fight your sibling for in the McMansion?

For those of you who don’t know what or who the UpTake is, let me inform you now. It is definitelyy one of the most rockin citizen journalist efforts to spring from the offices, basements, and living rooms of Minnesota.

It is also the brainchild of St. Paul activist and sculptor Jason Barnett, Minnesota Stories creator Chuck Olsen, and Mike McIntee, producer of Inside Minnesota podcasts. Not only have they stayed up latecovering all things Minnesota politics, but they also have loyal bloggers, video journalists, and writers all over the country covering this wacky thing we call the election. Their motto is, “Will journalism be doneby youor toyou?”

I sing their praises on the Walker blog because we here in ECP will have the pleasure of working with these nice fellas during the summer months on the Walker’s Unconvention project, “I Approve this Message.” It’s a project that will hopefully incite the Twin Cities and beyond to explore what is democracy, and whatdoes participating in it look likedespitethe craziness that will be our metro area in the first week of September. Ordinary citizens like you and I will roam the streets armed with video camera and microphone to find out what people think about this election and our role in it.

So, congratulations, UpTake folks! We’re working with the best!

If you’ve read the Star Tribune yesterday and today you’ll know what a woeful state the Twin Cities suburbs are in. Especially Wright County’s many cul-de-sacs and developments that sit empty and unfinished waiting to be unloaded while one bad investment scam after another takes its toll on the residents there. Many of thethem were promised bustling shopping centers, recreation facilities and schools to send their kids to.A safe place away from the city, but with some culture and more shopping options than a strip mall.

This Thursday at the Walker we will talk about the rising rate of home foreclosures amongst other changes occurringin the metro in our panel Next Exit: The Shifting Landscape of Suburbia. It’s in conjunction with our exhbit Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes.

How willAmerica seeit’s suburbs in the growing housing meltdown?Whatdoes a city dowhen they’re left holding the bag after borrowing money to pay for new schools, roads, and water treatment facilities when there is no tax base to pay for them? These questions will be addressed by Lance Neckar of the Metropolitan Center for Design at the University of Minnesota, Michael Lander of Lander Group Development, and Dan Bergin, documentary filmmaker for TPT.

Reading the the story about the Collins family in Monday’sStar Tribune article Housing Bets Gone BadI felt many things. From anger at these fraudulent investor scams to a sense ofamazement at how anyone would want to take out million dollar mortgage whenthey make less than 30K a year. Everyone shares some responsibility. People are desperate, and sometimes getting money for free doesn’t seem to be a bad idea, even when it’s not reallyfree.

While foreclosures are ripping communities apart and shredding people’s good credit, it’s no wonder people are bitter. They should be. Homeownership is sold as the American Dream, but now with the economic downturn it is a nightmare. It’s now wonder they’re clinging to their guns and subdivisions, as one presidential hopeful might suggest.

Escape to the Suburbs was an awesome day and since pictures are worth a thousand words….

The Elia Chair, brainchild of Michael Gross, was a stand-out hit!

The kid-sized chairs are fun to customize, recyclable, and yielded amazing results!

Kids also got a chance to get their groove on as part of the Flow Motion performance featuring Truth Maze, Dancin’ Dave, DJ Stage One, Autumn Compton, Arturo Miles, Debra McGee, and Aaron Barnell.

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In addition be being awed by the talent, I heard one of the coolest versions of the ABC song ever!

I always enjoy watching the kids diligently work away as they did at the Satellite Suburbs activity, where kids got to create their own aerial view of a suburb by making a collage with satellite images of Twin Cities’ suburbs.

The project was designed by Ilene Krug Mojsilov in relation to the Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes exhibit.

Thanks to all the volunteers, artists, and participants that made it one of those days when, at the end of the day, I think…Wow!

It’s a curiosity cabinet of sorts that displays an array of projects. These are art works that have been made by people who have attended an After Hours party, a school tour, or a workshop.

This project was all about wrapping, Cassidy ran out of time and materials, but she could have worked all afternoon on her assemblage. Notice how her layering included her name tag. Like a cyclone, she explored her tactile sensibility, emphasizing her love of the process.

Yes, anyone can participate in an art lab. Just come with an intention to play with the materials set out for you. You’d be surprised by your ability to invent and build stuff. For those people who love to learn by doing, I suggest you take a look at the Walker’s permanent collection or a special exhibition after you’ve done the art making. You might experience the galleries in a new way.

Next time, you’re at a Walker event, try out the art lab. Look for the Kiki Smith inspired doll parts sculpture, Object with a Cause, or just marvel at the playful creativity of our local talent.