Scott Stulenmnartists.blog: From mnartists.org, this is where the conversation about the arts and culture hits home, right here in Minnesota.
Mini-Golf as Public Art (and Course Credit) at the University of Minnesota
For this year’s Artist-Designed Mini Golf course we invited the University of Minnesota Art Department to design and build two of the holes. The course, led by professor Chris Larson, was tasked with developing several designs to present to a panel of Walker curators. The class was asked to document their process leading up to the opening [...]
For this year’s Artist-Designed Mini Golf course we invited the University of Minnesota Art Department to design and build two of the holes. The course, led by professor Chris Larson, was tasked with developing several designs to present to a panel of Walker curators. The class was asked to document their process leading up to the opening of the course. Here is the first entry in their mini-golf journal.
Tuesday, January 22
Today, our class journeyed through -20 temperatures, across the tundra of Cedar-Riverside to the Mall of America for a game of mini golf. For some, it’s a completely new experience, others have already made hundreds of rounds putting through a mini-golf courses.
Thursday, January 24
We begin the process of creating our holes with a list of 10 words — 10 words a piece, to be exact, which results in over 160 terms and yields a plethora of ideas. Our word contributions were gathered, listed and put to a vote. The next step involved sorting the terms into groups to help inform the visual and conceptual aesthetic of our designs. Interesting ideas and contraptions were introduced as we did so: including moving steps, multiple platforms and elaborate labyrinths. Things are moving along.
Tuesday, February
Something was missing today. We had ideas, but time and time again the proposals seemed to amount to a clusterf**k of great ideas. You know what they say about too much of a good thing… After much discussion, Chris asked us to pause and think about what we really wanted to make: what’s the idea, the purpose, the story we’re after here? As we talked, we decided we’d been missing pinning down a central concept for our course.
So, back to the drawing board. We all loved what had been offered up so far, but to get any further in creating an actual course we’ve got to let some things fall away. Like Tupac or Crocs, all great ideas must come to an end, I guess. We split into groups, each one charged with brainstorming potential concepts, but this time we try to focus more on the narrative of our designs, and what it represents and contributes to the whole course. We break our small-group mass of ideas down to four main concepts: The Cycle, Garden History, The Mega golf, and The Ames room.
Thursday, February 14
Valentines Day is here, and so are the formal presentations of our four concepts. We were sent home to sketch ideas for each one, at which time we found that some ideas synced up very well with one another, others overlapped too closely, and a couple needed more concrete thinking behind them. At this point, we realize there’s still a lot of work to do; but we have limited time to present our courses (the deadline’s just a few days away!) and too many things to tackle. We split up into groups to develop the ideas further. No time for finding love — it’s crunch time.
Thursday-Monday
We meet in groups to finish the proposals. We begin to flesh out what each concept needs: we build models, sketch plans and make slides for presentation. It is concrete. It is substantial. We feel like we’re close to realizing our ideas and ready to show them off… almost.
Tuesday, February 19
The day of the the Walker presentations is here (a.k.a. we have an hour left to finish our presentations). We’re all feeling some nervous excitement as we gear up to show our proposals. We come in at 8 am, an hour earlier than our normal class time, to put on the finishing touches and assemble our PowerPoints; we finish some sanding on The Ames room model. Soon after, we split up to head over to the Walker, where we all gather in the Lecture Room. After all this planning – it’s showtime!
We’re making our presentations to the following committee:
Scott Stulen, Project Director, mnartists.org
Jehra Patrick, Project Coordinator, mnartists.org
Siri Enberg, Curator, Visual Art
Sarah Schultz, Curator of Public Practice and Education Director
Cameron Zebrun, Director, Program Services
Doc Czypinski, Carpenter/Exhibition Technician
Introductions are made and we present our course designs to the panel. After a suspenseful wait outside, while the committee discusses our proposals, we find out they’ve selected our concepts for The Mega Golf course and The Ames Room!
Thursday, February 21
Now that we have our two confirmed hole designs, it’s time to go over the models and start developing the physical ideas for construction. The holes are going to be amazing…. so long as it all works. What, at first, just seemed fun is turning into a heavy amount of time spent calculating dimensions and measurements. We’re using 3D modeling programs, hand drawings, and material structures to concretize our ideas.
Ames Room- the illusion behind the magic and wonder of the Ames Room — the very thing that drew us to the concept – is quickly turning into a daunting logistical puzzle. Lots of deep discussions and back and forth from members in the group as we work it out. Someone suggests using telescopic tools or an eye patch – we decide that just might work. Someone brought cake, which fortifies us as we work. We’re also working on developing a dome for the Mega Golf hole, and trying to figure out the dimensions for a platform to support the entire structure. Basically what we’re doing this week is A LOT OF MATH. Turns out basic math skills are a necessity, even for artists. Don’t forget your math, kiddos!
More to come next week.
Painter Painter Playlist: Molly Zuckerman-Hartung
What do you listen to in your studio? We asked this question to each of the artists included in the current Painter Painter exhibition. The artists responded enthusiastically with personal playlists, notes and reflections of what inspires them or just what is currently stuck on repeat in their studio. The Painter Painter Playlist blog series will [...]
What do you listen to in your studio?
We asked this question to each of the artists included in the current Painter Painter exhibition. The artists responded enthusiastically with personal playlists, notes and reflections of what inspires them or just what is currently stuck on repeat in their studio. The Painter Painter Playlist blog series will shares these unique compilations on a regular basis throughout the run of the exhibition. We hope these posts give a tiny bit of insight into the personalities of the artists while sharing some kick-ass music for you to enjoy.
Molly Zuckerman-Hartung leads off the series. Molly received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2007, where she now teaches painting and drawing. She also is co-founder of Julius Caesar Gallery, an artist-run exhibition space in Chicago. Molly writes:
I came of age in Olympia, Washington’s nineties indie/punk scene. Music laid out the rules of engagement and I (badly) concealed my folk tendencies while absorbing the punk critique of hippies. Love is compromised, mediated. No one is happy. Graduate school, in my early thirties, I curtailed listening completely. I have no desire to channel feeling through sound. In the past few years I’ve cataloged my record collection into mp3s; been chastised for my sepia taste, while still locked in the last few decades of twentieth century music with few exceptions. Painting is (my paintings are) DOA; gravity bound, cadaverous, but the excess of ambivalent ardor is stored in the digital cloud. Folksy rage, acoustic angst, autumnal euphorics, all with a cracked voice. A stubborn critique from voices who knew they would be instrumentalized or “sold out” as we said in the nineties, but chose to articulate their trap anyway. These cages are social, but they are politicized, haunted, agonistic, derailed, monetized and jealous. Recently a student posted a video on my Facebook wall by a band called Girls. The song was Lust For Life, and it was chillingly lite. None of the self-lacerating rage of Iggy Pop (hence none of the wild glee,) and the video echoed the aesthetics and cast of Kids, the Larry Clark NAMBLA train wreck of a movie that set the pace for white twenty-something sexual and social intercourse in the nineties. Unprotected, non-amorous fucking and HIV fear was status quo. This is how I talk about Painting. My studio is full of silence, but I hope it seethes, whoops and throbs, like some of this.
1. The Game (acoustic demo). Echo and the Bunnymen
2. Ninety-Nine and a Half – Dorothy Love Coates
When the only available critique for the affective and cognitive labor class (ie the cultural worker) is apathy, well, my sentences get elliptical…
3. Hot Topic – Le Tigre
Name checking Yoko Ono, Gayatri Spivak, Dorothy Allison, Gertrude Stein, Valie Export, James Baldwin and so many other fighters. Don’t stop.
4. Come Again -The Au Pairs
The Rules for Sex under Network Capitalism in the guise of false feminism.
5. Season of Risk -Ether Island
6. Watchmaker – Excuse 17
7. Yr Mangled Heart – The Gossip
For Doug Ischar and my forever love of Beth Ditto, who I suspect is playing endgame in pop culture, and cuz everything I do has got a hole in it; the only way I can let the absence in.
8. The Ballad of Lucy Jordan – Marianne Faithfull
Regret is nostalgia for grown-ups. I said at the age of thirty-eight.
9. Here Come Cowboys – Psychedelic Furs
10. Vicky’s Box – The Throwing Muses
Kristin Hersh rides mood sidesaddle. When I was eighteen I thought the Throwing Muses were like the Cocteau Twins. I was a fool. I want to make paintings like Hersh makes songs. They are perfect, stubborn, thick and mutable.
11. Is This What You Wanted -Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen always knows the you he is singing to, and he knows that he will never know you. The album New Skin for the Old Ceremony is tinny, violas, a little Vegas strip mall razzmatazz and cynicism, K-Y Jelly and Steve McQueen. Neil Young and Leonard Cohen painted the 1970′s a rusty metallic orange sunset with backup singers.
12. BMFA – Martha Wainwright
13. I Don’t Like Mondays. The Boomtown Rats
Written by Bob Geldof after reading of 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer, who shot and killed two adults and injured eight children at Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, California on January 29, 1979, because, as she said, “I don’t like Mondays, this livens up the day.” Geldof made a rock opera. I listened to this song on repeat after the Newtown Connecticut shooting. Something about the pop orchestration helps me cry.
14. I’m Not Saying – Nico
15. Throw Silver – Mecca Normal
“I used to be very careful about how I represented myself. I was responsible for everything I did and said. I learned that humour didn’t translate well. No matter how clear I thought I was I noticed that I was still misunderstood. In fact, the clearer I was, the larger the degree of misinterpretation. I regained control by deciding that I could allow that to happen. Then I was in the same position. In control. In order to get beyond this I needed to explore the dark. I would like to work my way back from the darkness taking slow steps, breathing in everything I missed along the way.”
-Jean Smith, from The Ghost of Understanding 1998
16. Faces and Names – John Cale
17. Fake Friends – Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
Anti-relational aesthetics anthem. What Markus Miessen calls the nightmare of participation. Or maybe I’m just bitter about not getting into Skowhegan.
18. Everything is Free – Gillian Welch
The melancholy backside of open-source downloadable culture. If everything is free now, why are we working so hard?
19. A Man Needs a Maid – Neil Young
20. People’s Parties – Joni Mitchell
21. Insanely Jealous – The Soft Boys
Green used to be the color of jealousy. Now it’s the color of virtual presence. It’s easier this way.
22. Green Gloves – The National
23. Black Walls – Mythical Beast
24. Pink Sunshine (acoustic version) – Fuzzbox
25. Roman Candle – Elliot Smith
I was an angry young woman.
26. I Shall be Released – Nina Simone
I love the beginning, when she says “y’all pushing, you’re pushing, you’re pushing, just relax, relax, you’re pushing it. It’ll go up by itself. Don’t put nothing in unless you feel it.”
27. Rise – Public Image Limited
Anger is an Energy
28. Brand New Love – Sentridoh
The Internet Cat Video Festival hits the road
Cats are back! In reality they never really left. Since last August, when the First Internet Cat Video Festival debuted at the Walker Art Center, the interest and intrigue with the program has only increased. Here are some “cat stats” to give context to the feline fim fascination. The Internet Cat Video Festival YouTube playlist is [...]
Cats are back!
In reality they never really left. Since last August, when the First Internet Cat Video Festival debuted at the Walker Art Center, the interest and intrigue with the program has only increased. Here are some “cat stats” to give context to the feline fim fascination. The Internet Cat Video Festival YouTube playlist is nearing a million views. Walker blog traffic for cat related posts has eclipsed 100,000, views, making it easily the most trafficked event in the past year. The cat related website traffic is actually so significant, it has skewed the overall yearly stats for the site. Catvidfest has inspired “copycat” festivals by small groups such as the Somerville, Massachusetts Arts Council, and much larger organizations including the Friskies Awards and Fresh Step’s Catdance festival and the Internet love affair with cats shows no signs of slowing. Even the new Monopoly piece is a cat...decided by an online vote. Jon Stewart even had a few things to say about it on the Daily Show.
Its not just cute kittens jumping in boxes
What does it all mean? This was one of the recurring questions after the success of the first Internet Cat Video Festival. It wasn’t just about watching cat videos, it was about watching cat videos together and it was about watching cat videos together at the Walker Art Center. Basically its about context. Watching cat videos with 10,000 in the shadow of a leading Contemporary Art Center is part of what makes it interesting. To answer some of these questions in more depth we speaking at where the internet gathers offline, the SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin. Our session is titled #CATVIDFEST: Is this the end of Art? and co-organizer Katie Hill and I will speak to the fractious questions raised about the relevancy or ridiculousness of the event and the role of the curator in a crowd-sourced environment. Using #catvidfest as a case study, we will question what it means for a museum to reflect contemporary culture in the era of YouTube, explore the challenges traditional institutions face engaging online audiences and share what we learned from transforming a solitary online viewing experience into a real world social event. The session is kicking of the first day of SXSW and we anticipate a healthy discussion interspersed with cat videos. For more check out the recently posted interview new here.
Edited Crowd Sourcing
The original festival began with a simple invitation to nominate your favorite Internet cat video. Ten thousand nominations came pouring in. After countless hours of screening and careful editing the final cut was created. It was vitally important to openly crowdsource the content, but equally important to refine, edit and pace the final cut to be compelling and entertaining. We are again taking nominations for the 2013 Internet Cat Video Festival. So track down those browser bookmark, do some quality “research” on your lunch break or better yet break out the camera and make your own video. Click here for the Nomination Form to put forward your favorite kitty clips.
Here is one of my personal early favorites for the 2013 festival. Slayer Cat
catvidfest on the road
One of the most unexpected outcomes post-festival was the number of inquires to re-stage the event. To date, over 50 inquires have been submitted from all over the US, Canada, Mexico and Europe. Officially the “catvidfest tour” started last fall with smaller events at UMASS Boston and The Museum of Photographic Arts San Diego. The spring tour tour kicks off tonight at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art with two already sold out screenings, followed by events in New York, Austin, Oakland and Portland all leading up to the 2013 Internet Cat Video Festival at the Minnesota State Fair. As with the first #catvidfest, each of these festivals taps heavily into the community by partnering with local museums, cultural institutions, non-profits, animal resource groups and artist. To insure the context and spirit of the original festival is retained, we are working closely with each site to produce the festivals and learn further from this experiment. If you are interested in an event in your city, contact me.
Here is the Spring 2013 Internet Cat Video Festival Tour Lineup:
MEMPHIS: Memphis Brooks Museum of Art
Thursday, February 14, 2013
6-9 pm with screenings at 7 & 9.
Spend your Valentine’s Day at the Brooks for an evening of art-making activities, feline-inspired performances by Opera Memphis, music from DJ Superman, a cash bar, and two screenings of the Cat Internet Film Festival.
AUBURN, NY: Auburn Public Theater
Friday and Saturday, March 3-4, 2013
Screening Friday 8pm and Saturday 1pm and 8pm.
The Auburn Public Theater presents Cat Carnival, a weekend full of fun and games-all for a good cause. The Cat Carnival will be complete with face painting, trivia and games with kitty-friendly prizes fit for the whole family. The Finger Lakes SPCA and the CNY Cat Coalition will have tables set up with important information on the feline community both days. There will be a special talk by Scott Stulen from The Walker Art Center, one of the organizing members of the Internet Cat Video Festival and cats and kittens will be available for adoption!
AUSTIN, TX: SXSW Party and Screening with Animal Planet
Saturday, March 9th
5-7 pm
Fado on W 4th St
A cat-loving happy hour to please, cat lovers, online cat video watchers and all things feline. Animal Planet and the Walker Arts Center join forces to provide entertainment, cat themed cocktails, and chances to preview exclusive new (what else) cat videos. This indoor-outdoor event will feature live music, a showing of the top videos from the Walker Arts Center’s Internet Cat Video Festival, previews of the upcoming season of Animal Planet’s My Cat from Hell and the exclusive premiere of a new “Henri” video. Special guest Jackson Galaxy from My Cat from Hell will also be in attendance.
OAKLAND, CA: The Great Wall of Oakland
Here is the event website…which is amazing!
Saturday, May 11, 2013
2-10pm
The Great Wall of Oakland will host the Bay Area premiere of the Walker Art Center’s Internet Cat Video Festival with an estimated 10,000 cat-lovers and friends celebrating felines and exploring the low-art of internet cat videos together, in real-time. West Grand between Telegraph and Broadway will transform into a cat-lovers wonderland with cat-themed events in every corner, including animal adoptions. Festival attendees can peruse cat products from a host of local vendors, sample delicious food from local food trucks, and participate in a plethora of cat-themed activities including a cat fashion show, cat trick demonstrations, cat art projects, cat-themed bands, and much more.
PORTLAND, OR: Cataclysm: Portland’s Internet Cat Film Festival
Pioneer Courthouse Square, Portland OR
Saturday, May 11, 2–10pm
More info in the coming weeks and months.
Meow.
Top Ten Things That Brought Me Joy in 2012
2012 was a crazy year. I will remember it as a year filled with many unexpected and delightful events, including the opportunity to speak at a TEDx conference, the release of the Open Field book and talking seriously about internet cats to serious media outlets. It was a year for new projects, ideas, spaces and [...]
2012 was a crazy year. I will remember it as a year filled with many unexpected and delightful events, including the opportunity to speak at a TEDx conference, the release of the Open Field book and talking seriously about internet cats to serious media outlets. It was a year for new projects, ideas, spaces and directions. Here are ten things that I found intriguing, challenging and most of all brought a little joy in 2012.
National Geographic Room in Why We Do This
Andy Ducett: Why We Do This at the Soap Factory: Featuring a working thrift shop and record store, arcade, Northern Wisconsin bar, chunk of an airliner, bubble wrap tunnel, Fabio dude handing out flowers and a life-size Construx corner, Andy Ducett‘s exhibition was an event. The installation playfully tackled the daunting Soap Factory space and transformed it into a generation specific snapshot of the Upper Midwest. The resulting piece was brilliant, accessible and most of all fun.
RACA: Rural American Contemporary Art (RACA) has a slogan: Making Nowhere Into Somewhere. While the “nowhere” is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, there is a real challenge for artists working outside urban art centers. RACA started with a Facebook page led by Mankato artist and professor Brian Frink and grew to include exhibitions, an online magazine (RACAonline) and more projects in the works for 2013. RACA has turned the perceived disadvantage of location into an asset by gathering a loose network of rural contemporary artists to not just talk, but to make things happen.
ROLU: When Does Something Become Something Else? The Apparent is the Bridge to the Real: ROLU‘s two week Open Field residency at the Walker was one of the most conceptual and simultaneously accessible projects hosted in the three years of the project. The residency included participatory and performative moments centered around the Walker’s collection and revealing the process in which art is produced. From re-creating artworks from the Walker’s collection on the field, to opening an alternative “gallery shop” inside the museum to inviting guests to re-shoot an Alec Soth photograph from a diorama, ROLU demonstrated that often the best way to learn about something is to make it yourself.
Jehra Patrick: Inescapable Support at the Rochester Art Center: One of the pleasures of working in the arts is watching young artists develop a voice, produce strong work and receive well deserved recognition. Jehra is a colleague at mnartists.org, a friend and an amazing painter. She killed it this year with exhibitions at the Rochester Art Center, Soo Vac and her Jerome Fellowship exhibition at MCAD. I think its just a taste of what is coming in 2013.
The Internet Cat Video Festival: On a warm August evening we put up a screen in our backyard to watch some You Tube videos and over 10,000 people showed up. The Internet Cat Video Festival or #catvidfest was the oddest and most amazing event on which I have worked. What started as Katie Hill’s wish in last year’s “best of 2011″ blog, grew into a surreal summer of viral videos, media interviews and a stunning embrace from a worldwide audience. The craziness has continued through the fall and is spilling out into 2013 including a speaking engagement at SXSW in March on how this event didn’t destroy art, but did raise questions around crowd sourced curation and the relevance of museum in the age of You Tube. For the 2013 festival we will attempt to destroy art.
Fresh Spaces: (David Peterson Gallery, TuckUnder Projects, Public Functionary, Bindery Projects): New spaces seems to popping up with regularity in the Twin Cities coming from both established names and fresh faces. Each of these projects has a different approach to showing interesting and emerging work as well as strategies to survive. Its a time of transition as more conventional artist space models evolve and new platforms emerge. We need more of this activity to thrive in the coming year and hopefully its the start of a trend. Support them.
Lifelike at the Walker Art Center: My favorite show at the Walker show since The Quick and the Dead.
Midway Contemporary Art Library Expansion: The Midway Library is expanding and becoming a premier resource for artists, art enthusiasts and students. Founded in 2007 the Midway Library continues to expand and house rare, hard to find and out of print monographs, exhibition catalogs and the library contains thousands of titles from a wide range of publishers from around the world. While group exhibition catalogs and monographs form the core of the library’s collection, the library also contains reference material, a selection of artist books, DVD’s, and an extensive selection of periodicals and journals. I need to spend more time here in 2013.
Artists Having Kids: I find it very encouraging to see so many artists balancing the demands of family and their art career. I don’t think this is trend, I just am more aware of it as I get older, have my own kid and have more friends having kids. While it is exhausting, sometimes frustrating and dominates your time, it is also energizing, inspiring and provides a grounding (or reality check) to life. From my very biased observations, I think we are going to have a strong group of young artists in about twenty years. Although I am still pushing for my kid to be a left-handed relief pitcher.
Boots and Cats. Best thing I discovered in 2012.
HONORABLE MENTION: Silverwood Park, Burning an Andy Warhol autograph at The Northern Spark Festival, work by Peter Happel Christian, Amanda Lovelee, Miguel Calderón, David Rathman, Joe Sinness, Jason Pearson, Icona Pop, My Little Free Library, Lunalux, and Fulton Beer.
What Makes a Healthy Art Community?
Lately I have been thinking a lot about what local artists need. Over the last year we on the mnartists.org team have been diligently planning for the new mnartists.org website. During the discovery phase of the site rebuild, we often returned to the question that launched the mnartists project in the first place, back in [...]
Lately I have been thinking a lot about what local artists need. Over the last year we on the mnartists.org team have been diligently planning for the new mnartists.org website. During the discovery phase of the site rebuild, we often returned to the question that launched the mnartists project in the first place, back in 1999: What do artists need to survive and prosper in our community?
This week an article by l’étoile arts columnist Nathaniel Smith (reprinted today on mnartists.org) raised similar questions about what is needed to sustain a healthy cultural community and, specifically, which of those things truly sustain artists. Smith quotes The Cool School, a film about LA’s influential Ferus Gallery, and the five things founder Walter Hopps cites as necessary ingredients for a healthy art city:
1: Artists to make the work
2: Galleries to support it
3: Critics to celebrate it
4: Museums to establish it
5: and collectors to buy it
Smith points out in his piece that Minnesota is blessed to have the requisite artists and museums in abundance. Certainly, the nearly 20,000 members of mnartists.org provide compelling evidence of the volume, diversity and passion of the artists in Minnesota. I am not going to reiterate all of Smith’s assessments as to the needs of the community. You should read the full piece yourself: his essay raises several direct points of critique and debate related to the list above in relation to aspects of the current local arts support structure.
But what about a creative community’s other needs? What do you see that is missing from Hopps’s admittedly visual arts-slanted list? Or, perhaps this list is a completely outdated model? If so, what elements for a healthy arts community would you substitute instead?
Midwesterners are quick to praise and support Minnesota’s arts scene, which can be a strength, but knee-jerk self-congratulations lead to complacency and unrealized potential. We don’t want to live in a good art community, we want to have a hand in making an exceptional art community. We want an art community with strong local support and lively dialog that is not provincial but instead nationally, even internationally relevant.
So, let’s continue this conversation and separate needs from desires. Let’s have open discussion about what is working and what isn’t. There are the obvious things that would sure help: like more financial support for individual artists, cultivating actively engaged patrons of the arts and involved audiences; cheap space and informed, lively critical response for artists. What’s important to you? What are some more specific, feasible things that we are overlooking as we think about the vitality of our state’s arts and cultural scenes?
Now, its your turn. What do you think?
FINAL LIST! Monster Drawing Rally 5: More Artists, More Art, Same Entertaining Format.
Midway Contemporary Art’s Monster Drawing Rally returns! In celebration of its 5th year, the very popular annual fundraiser/community event is moving locations to the Grain Belt Bottling House at 79 13th Ave. NE Minneapolis on Saturday, December 15th from 6-10pm. The new location will accommodate nearly twice as many artists as prior years, meaning more [...]
Midway Contemporary Art’s Monster Drawing Rally returns! In celebration of its 5th year, the very popular annual fundraiser/community event is moving locations to the Grain Belt Bottling House at 79 13th Ave. NE Minneapolis on Saturday, December 15th from 6-10pm. The new location will accommodate nearly twice as many artists as prior years, meaning more artwork and more space to socialize and scout the next acquisition to your personal collection.
For the last four years The Monster Drawing Rally has given artists living in the Twin Cities the opportunity to support the programming at Midway Contemporary Art while simultaneously gaining exposure within the community. For this years event over 80 artists will generously donate their time and talent by drawing live at the event during three one-hour rounds beginning at 6pm, 7pm and 8pm. Admission to the event is Free. Each of their drawings is available immediately for sale (first come/ first serve) for a flat price of $35. The casual atmosphere lets visitors watch the art making process while keeping a close eye on the walls filled with finished drawings available for purchase. Even if you are not in the market for art, its still an unique opportunity to interact and watch local artists at work.
Photo courtesy Dan Ruth and Ellie Roscher
Many of you know the format, but for any first-time Monster Drawing Rally attendees here are some tips to make your evening a success.
1. There are three one-hour rounds with approximately 25 or so local artists drawing for each shift. We will be releasing the full list of artists on this blog over the course of the week. Check back often and see if your favorite local artist will be participating.
2. This is a rare opportunity to watch and interact with an artist as they are working. I have personally participated as an artist ever year of the event, I can say it is an interesting experience from the other side of the table as well. No hiding your miscues with an attentive audience and there is a wonderful satisfaction is a meeting someone that has excitedly purchased one of your drawings.
3. All the work is a flat fee of $35. However, drawings may not be purchased, claimed, or snatched prior to hitting the wall. Conflicts or ties for purchasing a work will be resolved by drawing cards. Fighting, hoarding, hovering, or any other bad collector behavior will be sternly frowned upon.
4. At $35 you WILL find something you want to buy.
5. When you purchase the piece you will also get the contact information for the artist. If you don’t get a chance to meet them or talk to them at the event…contact them and let them know you bought their work. Artist love to meet people who invested in their work….we really do.
6. This is one of the most community driven and artistic centric fundraisers in the city and one of the most popular. This is also an event the rewards people that show up early and stay throughout…so plan accordingly.
Here is the full list of participating artists and their websites so you can do some pre-rally scouting.
Brendan Dawson
Brain Downs
Welles Emerson
Kelly Filreis
Mark Fischer
David Frohlich
Matt McAuliffe
Miles Mendenhall
Kelsey Olson
Melba Price
Jack Stanley
Bruce Tapola
Hannah Varn
The 5th Annual Monster Drawing Rally is sponsored by:
#catvidfest: Its Not About Watching Cat Videos. Its About Watching Cat Videos Together
As discussed in a post last month the Internet Cat Video Festival is continuing to draw interest and also several “copy cats” around the country. The “Friskies” is one of the #catvidfest inspired events happening today in LA. Its live streaming at 4:30 CST here if you are interested in watching the event. The commercial [...]
As discussed in a post last month the Internet Cat Video Festival is continuing to draw interest and also several “copy cats” around the country. The “Friskies” is one of the #catvidfest inspired events happening today in LA. Its live streaming at 4:30 CST here if you are interested in watching the event.
The commercial variations of the #catvidfest were inevitable, but for us the more interesting outcome is that nearly all of the inquires about re-stagging the original event have come from other museums, art centers and cultural non-profits. Why is this? Its because they understand what the event was and is. They understand the spirit in which it was conceived, the context of the event within the museum and most of all they understand that its not just about watching cat videos from the internet, its about watching cat videos together.
Its not just about the screening either. To be successful its about creating a social space and inviting participation. So you need food and drink, artist projects, music and a few making activities all situated within a comfortable space. Basically its the same formula we have demonstrated for the last three years with Open Field. This is where the future of #catvidfest gets interesting. #catvidfest got peoples attention and also introduced Open Field to a much broader national audience. #catvidfest is our gateway drug. #catvidfest is creating opportunities to plant the seeds of Open Field around the country. We are not only screening the festival by partnering with like minded institutions but raising questions of participation and crowd sourced content, starting versions of Open Field programs like Drawing Club in new cities and spreading a bit of joy.
Thursday night #catvidfest will be featured as part of POP Thursday at the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego. Along with the screening MOPA has a full lineup of related events around their first crowd sourced exhibition Soapbox! The Audience Speaks including:
- DIY blending station with North Park’s Coffee & Tea Collective
- Street eats from Stand & Deliver, a MIHO experience
- Garage rock by Wild Wild Wets
- Adult libations from Alchemy Restaurant
- Winning photographs from The App Wars, a Hipstamatic vs. Instagram competition
There is even a contest for your to Submit your favorite cat meme (original or otherwise) for free tickets and drinks! Sounds a lot like Open Field and we are thrilled to partner with MOPA and hopefully learn a bit from each others programming.
This is just the start. We plan to announce the plans for #catvidfest and Open Field for 2013 in the coming weeks. Look for more information soon and as always follow all the action on twitter @openfield
The Nine Lives of the Internet Cat Video Festival
The first Internet Cat Video Festival grabbed the attention of the world, generating hundreds of articles, interviews and blog posts worldwide. The #catvidfest You Tube playlist has logged a staggering 872,460 views since the festival and “Golden Kitty” winner Henri 2, Paw De Deux (created by Will Braden) has generated nearly 6 million views. On [...]
The first Internet Cat Video Festival grabbed the attention of the world, generating hundreds of articles, interviews and blog posts worldwide. The #catvidfest You Tube playlist has logged a staggering 872,460 views since the festival and “Golden Kitty” winner Henri 2, Paw De Deux (created by Will Braden) has generated nearly 6 million views. On the surface the idea of the Walker Art Center hosting an event for Internet Cat Videos may have seemed surprising, but in the context of Open Field it was a perfect site. The uniting spirit of Open Field or as described by a local writer Maggie Koerth-Baker for the blog BoingBoing as the “Happy Mutant Smorgasbord” is to create a space for new ideas, experimentation and community. The Internet Cat Video Festival was a perfect summation of this desire, taking crowd sourced content and placing it in a new context and bringing together community.
ITS NOT JUST ABOUT CAT VIDEOS
Since the festival we have had some time to assess what made it work and where to go next. This was not intended to be a curated film program, but rather an embrace of an internet phenomena and experiment to transform a solitary online viewing experience into a real world social event. The event comes out of our Community Programs and Education Department (ECP) and Open Field, which is built on a platform of crowd sourced content and in the spirit of collaboration and building community. With that said, it was important that event was the Walker Art Center and in the context of a leading contemporary art institution. But it was also about the related programming. We invited local non-profits and animal rescue organizations to have information tents, Lunalux made collaborative letterpress posters, our weekly drawing club convened, Mike Haeg lead the creation of giant cat’s cradles on the hill, Brian Laidlaw and the Family Trade opened the night with Acoustic Campfire (including covers of Cat Power and Cat Stevens) and plenty of food and drink. Its about the entire platform and something that didn’t appear overnight, but the result of years of prior work and experimentation.
ITS ABOUT CROWD SOURCED CONTENT AND THE EDIT
The festival was created by crowd sourcing videos from the public nominated from You Tube. We received over 10,000 nominations, from which a team of jurors narrowed down the videos to a few hundred. The final editing, sequencing and animations were completed by Katie Hill, Scott Stulen, Andy Underwood-Bultmann and Dante Carlos at the Walker to create a finished reel that was tight and entertaining. It was important for the festival to be sourced from the public, but like Open Field, it benefited from some assistance from the institution in making it finished program successful.
ITS ABOUT THE PEOPLE
One of our lessons from the event, and also from Open Field, is the desire for people to build community and contribute in sincere and meaningful ways. Its also very different watching Keyboard Cat with thousands of other people laughing in unison than alone on your computer. Part of the success of the Internet Cat Video Festival is in this simplicity. It’s not trying to be anything deeper than it is. Although it does raise many issues about authorship and curation and the role of traditional institutions, at its core the event used cat videos as a means to gather people together and create moment of joy.
The experience of the event is summed up well by Madeline Davies writing for the online site Jezebel. ” The Internet Cat Video Festival made an act of isolation (sitting alone in front of your computer screen) into a celebration of togetherness. Walking towards the parking ramp, I noticed that people who were previously strangers were now interacting with ease. Cars were letting other cars pull ahead of them. Everyone was happy and being kind. While my bones ached from standing and my head hurt from exhaustion, I was sad to leave the small utopia that the Walker had created.”
SO WHAT IS NEXT?
Since the conclusion of the festival we have field dozens of inquires about staging the event at other sites. We wanted the project to remain in the spirit of its origination, but also source from the community of its host site. These events as extensions of the experiment….kinda our mobile Cat Lab. To date we have schedule two experiments to see how the event travels, one on each coast.
#catvidfest @UMASS
University of Massachusetts Boston
Tuesday, October 23rd
7pm
Tonight #catvidfest will make its east coast debut at the U Mass Boston Campus Student Center. Hosted by the student run Harbor Gallery the event will occur outdoors on the UMass Boston campus from 7:00 until 8:30 PM. As seating will be free range, attendees are encouraged to bring their own blankets and folding chairs. This event is free to attend and open to the public.
#catvidfest @MOPA
Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego
Thursday, November 15th
8:30 pm
The west coast premiere will take place a few weeks later on Thursday, November 15th at the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego as part of their POP Thursdays programming and in conjunction with a crowd sourced exhibition titled Soapbox! The Audience Speaks. MOPA is including the screening as part of an evening of several activities including a DIY blending station with North Park’s Coffee & Tea Collective, Art installation by J Noland and a display of winning photographs from The App Wars, a Hipstamatic vs. Instagram competition. Its promises to be an amazing event!
#catvidfest @SXSW
We learned last week that we will be presenting on #catvidfest at this year’s SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin, TX. We will speak on #catvidfest as a case study to question what it means for a museum to reflect contemporary culture in the era of YouTube, explore the challenges traditional institutions face engaging online audiences and share what we learned from transforming a solitary online viewing experience into an real world social event. More on this closer to the event.
FOLLOW US
Follow for updates future events and other #catvidfest developments on twitter and facebook.
@openfield
Open Field Facebook
#catvidfest Facebook
Any inquires regarding festival or potential tour sites should be directed to scott.stulen@walkerart.org or call 612-375-7616
For media inquires please contact Rachel Joyce rachel.joyce@walkerart.org or call 612-375-7635
Introducing mnartists.blog
It’s been seven years since we launched the Walker Blogs, and with the release of our new homepage back in December we thought it was finally time for a refresh. You’ll notice that the design has changed to align with our new website and we’ve used the opportunity to rebrand each of our core blogs, [...]
It’s been seven years since we launched the Walker Blogs, and with the release of our new homepage back in December we thought it was finally time for a refresh. You’ll notice that the design has changed to align with our new website and we’ve used the opportunity to rebrand each of our core blogs, focus our offerings, and give readers a better sense of what they’ll find inside. Don’t worry though, the name might have changed, but this is still the blog of mnartists.org, and we’re committed to bringing you stories about and by those living and working in Minnesota’s diverse arts community, through personal essays, humor, video shorts, and brief dispatches from readers, artists and staff about the events and personalities, issues and timely news relevant to the local cultural scene. We invite you join in the community conversation!
MAKING IT: Wants and Needs. Sourcing Materials for Why We Do This.
We are back with another entry in our ongoing series tracking the production process for Andy Ducett’s upcoming exhibition at the Soap Factory titled Why We Do This. Andy’s work is heavily built from found, borrowed, rescued and other cleverly sourced items. As a progress report on the exhibition Andy shared his current inventory of [...]
We are back with another entry in our ongoing series tracking the production process for Andy Ducett’s upcoming exhibition at the Soap Factory titled Why We Do This. Andy’s work is heavily built from found, borrowed, rescued and other cleverly sourced items. As a progress report on the exhibition Andy shared his current inventory of acquired and desired items. If you happen to have some of the items from the needs list and would like to contribute to the exhibition (or just get rid of the stuff) here is your chance. Email Lillian@soapfactory.org for more info. The ambitious exhibition opens the 8th of September. Mark your calendar to see how all this stuff comes together.
Have:
1 plastic shower curtains (80” long)
6 cases of Chanticlear pizza
4, 800 National Geographics
8 sets of encyclopedias
5 high school football teams
4 sets of lockers
2 airplane seats
1 VW Bus
1 display cabinet
10 LED projectors
5 overhead projectors
1 lava lamp
6 wall panels
1 wall panel with door and frame
8 windows of varying sizes
16 various pieces of electronic equipment (oscilloscopes, monitors, tube testers, etc.)
multiple various lengths of PVC pipe, sticks and sheets of wood
12 sets of Christmas lights
1 peg board
1 operational thrift store and thrift store employee
10 landscape paintings
12 plastic cat litter containers
1 fake Christmas trees
1 15’ exterior staircase (heavy)
1 15’ pool cover and stand
6 bedroom pillows (w/o pillowcase)
5 pinball machines
1 couch and recliner
2 end tables
1 collection of souvenirs (on loan)
1 ice fishing shack
2 person swing set (vintage)
11 lamps
6 end tables
1 grandfather clock
1 cabinet record player
1 8’ stainless steel bar sink
2 pairs of skis and poles
1 weight bench w/ weights
1 oscillating fan
1 disco ball
15 yards of voile, tulle and silk
18 glass vases
5 shop lights
900 square feet of bubble wrap
400 used records
1 fireplace
1 door with window
3 area rugs
1 hot dog cart
8 stanchions
1 leather sofa
1 fire extinguisher
20 bricks
20 concrete blocks
1 patch of AstroTurf
1 instance of Sasquatch footage
8 bags of dried leaves.
Need:
more end tables
15-20 hanging lights
living room furniture
5 rolls of scenic background paper
3 dogs
wooden walkway
guitar and guitar stand
Alumicraft canoe
paddles
50-75 mason canning jars and lids
1st, 2nd and 3rd place ribbons
trophies of all kinds
3-5 area rugs
4 lazy boy recliners
set of kitchen cabinets
pull tab charts
Green Bay Packer schedules
12-20 living room lamps,
metal dart board
cigarette machine
picture frames (wooden, 16” x 20” or smaller, 75-100 needed)
2 reclining outdoor lounges
30-40 2′ x 2’ concrete pavers
shingles
drapes
exterior siding
3 arborvitae
fake sarcophagus
video footage from TCF bank stadium
200-300 white balloons (standard size)
photographs of Don Cherry
2,000 used LP records
2 bullhorns
record player
headphones
3 9’ long record racks
2 plastic mattresses (blue)
picnic table
bench
3-5 9’ tall tree trunks
velvet curtain
star charts
3 telescopes
5 binoculars
20-30 file cabinets (2 or 3 drawer)
plastic cat litter containers
3 fake Christmas trees
rolls of wall paper
7-10 overhead projectors
tube TV’s (any size, no rear projection)
yardsticks
7-10 bar stools (preferably matching)
mirrors (all sizes, rectangular is best, need as many as can get)
concrete blocks (150)
small fish tank
3-5 goldfish
200 Gatorade cups w
White picket fence
small space heater
fake snow
Mayan temple
net to hold multi-colored balloons
political bunting
basketball hoop
500-600 coffee cups
40-50 used bedroom pillows (rectangular)
7-10 lava lamps
gravel
windows
PVC pipe
blue suit blazers (S, M, L)
10-12 fans
motion detector
large 6-pack of beer
personal collections (on loan)
banister
shovel
3 airplane seats and section of commercial airliner
neon bar signs
rock and roll posters (used)
cash register
metal security door
SWAT team costume
landscaping
high powered fan
Making It lifts the curtain on art-making around the state with posts that go inside the process of making and showing work. You’ll find these visually-oriented little pieces on both the Education and Community Programs’ blog and here, on the mnartists.org blog, and they’ll include a broad-mash up across disciplines, with everything from staff dispatches from Arty Pants and Open Field to rehearsal notes and studio visits, maybe even a few DIY tutorials by and with Minnesota artists.