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WACTAC 2007-2008

photo: Gene Pittman

The Guerrilla Girls and WACTAC

photo: Witt Siasoco

Teen Video Workshop

Photo: Megan Leafblad

Master Class with Popmaster Fabel

photo: Cameron Wittig

General Information

Since 1994, the Walker Art Center has been the innovative leader in teen programming, providing cultural institutions around the world with a successful model for engaging teenagers. The mission of Teen Programs is to connect teenagers to contemporary art and artists. The Walker was the first art museum in the country to devote full-time staff to working with and building teen audiences.

Walker Teen Programs sponsored by

Sponsor
Supporter
Walker Teen Programs are also supported by the Surdna Foundation.
the play side of things right arrrow

blogs, links, events and art from the teens behind ►



Author: Witt Siasoco


Witt Siasoco is the Program Manager of Teen Programs at the Walker Art Center. Siasoco joined the Walker in 1998 to work with the Walker Art Center Teen Arts Council (WACTAC), a visionary program designed to connect teenagers with contemporary art and artists. Today, Walker’s Teen Programs serve as an international model for alternative education formats both within museums and cultural centers. Formerly, Siasoco worked as a coordinator of the Young Artist Cabaret at Intermedia Arts, a monthly open mic for young artists and a Grantmakers in the Arts Assistant for Arts Midwest, a regional arts organization. Currently Siasoco serves on the board of Juxtaposition Arts, a North Minneapolis arts organization that empowers youth and community to use the arts to actualize their full potential.



Paul Chan Research

Chan

Image:
Paul Chan Score for 7th Light , 2007
ink, collage on paper (15 sheets) 15 sheets, 14 x 11 in. Collection Walker Art Center Miriam and Erwin Kelen Acquisition Fund for Drawings and the T. B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 2008

Paul Chan is no stranger to the Walker – his film Baghdad in No Particular Order is playing daily in the Lecture Room and his piece Score for 7th Light (above) is being displayed in the galleries as a part of The Quick and the Dead. Chan is coming Walker for an Artist Talk (Sept 17) and WACTAC asked him if he would be willing to meet up and chat.  Yesterday, we took a look at some of his past projects and thought we would share the links with you.

Great New York Times article about Paul Chan’s Waiting For Godot production in New Orleans

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/arts/design/02cott.html

A portion of Chan’s Happiness (Finally) After 35,000 Years

http://www.nationalphilistine.com/happiness

Short descriptions and small clips of Chan’s videos

http://www.vdb.org/smackn.acgi$artistdetail?CHANP

Chan’s website

http://www.nationalphilistine.com



Ed Templeton

picture-3

Back in 2005, WACTAC had the opportunity to hang out with Ed Templeton before his Artist Talk. Unfortunately, it isn’t posted on channel.walkerart.org. but we’ll try to get the video up sometime soon. Skateboarding and art has always been intertwined and Ed has been at the center of it for 20 years. Although I have a moral objection to skateboarding being featured as a “sport,” I’ll be the first to admit that ESPN.com did an incredible highlighting the life of Ed. Check out the video and interview.



Don’t Sleep On It Time Lapse Video

I can’t believe we made it through this madness.

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Let’s Try It Again

Last month WACTAC was ready to present 13 Most Beautiful Young Artists, a multimedia performance featuring original music performed live by 8 groups of young Twin Cities’ musicians. Unfortunately, on the day of the show we had 6″ of snow dumped on us and had to postpone the performance for a later date. Fortunately, we snuck in a tech check before the snow fell. Check out the photos.

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Blizzard, sleet, or snow, we hope to present the performance on Thursday night!



Artists to Check Out

Here are some artists that we are looking to for inspiration for the Polaroids, Prints, and Projection class.

Robin Rhode

Animations

Robin Rhode. Still from “Untitled, Harvest”. 2005.

William Kentridge

Animations

William Kentridge The Doctors

Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests

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Cathy Opie

Catherine Opie, “Bo” (1991), from the series “Being and Having” © 2008 Catherine Opie, courtesy the artist and Regen Projects

Cindy Sherman

Unititled Film Still #14, 1978 © Metro Picture Gallery & Cindy Sherman

Bill Viola

Bill Viola, The Quintet of the Astonished, 2000. Colour video rear projection on screen mounted on wall in dark room. Projected image size: 140 x 240 cm. Bill Viola Studio, Long Beach, CA © Bill Viola. Photo: Kira Perov

Tony Oursler

Tony Oursler (American, b. 1957)
Keep Going
, 1995
Projector, VCR, tripod, cloth dummy, videotape, 1995
Museum purchase, Kathryn Hurd Fund

Rineke Dijkstra

Kolobrzeg, Poland, 1992
Rineke Dijkstra (Dutch, born 1959)
Chromogenic print; 47 5/8 x 39 3/4 in. (121 x 101 cm)
Purchase, Roy R. and Marie S. Neuberger Foundation Inc., Jennifer and Joseph Duke, Gary and Sarah Wolkowitz and Anne Marie MacDonald Gifts, 2001 (2001.307)
© Rineke Dijkstra



THE ViGNETTES ALL AGES SHOW

WACTAC alumna Erica Qualy’s band The Vignettes will play at Stevens Square Center for the Arts on Saturday, February 28 for the opening of an art exhibit called Minimum Wage. The event is from 6:30-11pm. Oh, and it’s also FREE!

1905 3rd Avenue South Minneapolis



Arts High Seeks Writers

The Perpich Center for Arts Education is requesting personal writings from young women and men, ages eleven to seventeen, about their experiences with the transition from middle school to high school.

What does it mean to transition from middle school to high school? What does it mean to grow from young adolescent to teen – to find your way in a new world inhabited by many new people and many new ideas?

Tory Peterson, theater instructor at the Perpich Center for Arts Education Arts High School is collecting creative writings from teen writers, ages eleven to seventeen. Original stories, poems, essays, journal entries will be used to develop and produce an original play, “Ninth Grade Nothin’.”

“I’m looking for honesty and specific experiences related to the middle school/high school transition for this play. My hope is that my students from the Arts High School and I can create a theatrical piece that may help middle schoolers cope with some of the common worries that come with the transition to high school,” says Peterson.

Peterson’s daughter, Scout, inspired the project. “As I watch her grow and make decisions based on gut reactions and palpitations of the heart, it makes me want to help kids through this maze, give a bit of a road map, so they might at least find a clearer sense of direction.”

Students and educators interested in participating in the project should visit the Perpich Center’s website: www.pcae.k12.mn.us/middleschool.html for submission forms and more information.

The website has suggestions for subjects, themes, and writing ideas. Entries must be submitted by mail, and postmarked no later than June 12, 2009; young writers can choose to keep their identity confidential.

About the Perpich Center for Arts Education: The Perpich Center is an agency of the State of Minnesota that helps students develop and integrate their artistic and academic abilities, and educators improve student achievement.



TCYMN Film Showcase Application

Click on the image for the application.

2009 TCYMN-Application



WACTAC at Rectangle Designs

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BRLSQOTHEQUE at Don’t Sleep On It

This is at 3 am (10 hours after the event started)!

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Call For Photo Portraits!

patrick-web
Deadline for Submissions: Friday, May 29

The Walker Art Center Teen Arts Council (WACTAC) is looking for young photographers (ages 13 – 19) to participate in a photo contest examining the many faces of the Twin Cities and surrounding suburbs. One photographer will be awarded Top Prize by WACTAC. Top prize will receive a $1500 gift card and 25 runners up will receive $25 gift cards from Best Buy.

Guidelines:

  • Email your submission(s), name, age, phone number, and email address to WACTACPhotoContest@gmail.com
  • No more than 5 photos will be accepted per photographer.
  • Submissions must be titled by last name (example: smith_1.jpg).
  • Images should be saved in JPG format, at a high level of quality, 72 dpi, no more than eleven inches (or 792 pixels) along the image’s longest dimension.

Prizes:

  • Top Prize: One photographer will be awarded a $1500 @15 Scholarship.
  • Finalist Prize: 5 photographers will each receive a $100 Best Buy Gift Card.
  • Runner Ups: 15 photographers will each receive a $25 Best Buy Gift Card.

Criteria:

  • Top Prize and Runner Ups will be selected by the Walker Art Center Teen Arts Council (WACTAC) based on three equally weighted categories – technical quality, originality, and overall strength of portfolio.

Rules:

  • Photographers must be 13-19 years old.
  • Submissions must prominently feature faces of people who reflect the diversity found in the Twin Cities.
  • All photos submitted by Friday, May 8 will be displayed during Northeast Minneapolis’ Art-A-Whirl from Friday, May 15, 6 PM through Sunday, May 17, 5 PM at the California Building (2205 California Building, Minneapolis).
  • All photos submitted by Friday, May 29 will be featured in a scrolling projection at the Minneapolis MOSAIC Kick Off Event on Saturday, June 6, from 6 – 10pm on 8th Street between Hennepin Avenue and First Avenue in downtown Minneapolis.
  • By submitting photos to the WACTAC @15 Photo Contest, the photographer warrants that he/she has control of and/or has obtained the rights to exhibit the photo(s), the photo(s) do not infringe upon copyright or licenses held by any other artist, estate, publisher or other entity; the photographer will be responsible for any charges or legal action brought by the exhibition of the photo(s) or the infringement of any rights held by others and will hold the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis MOSAIC, and mnartists.org harmless against such claims.

Co-presented by:

http://www.at15.com
Email teenprograms@walkerart.org
Phone 612.375.7683



Animations from Class #3

Here’s a quick exercise that we did with Xavier’s friends La Changa, a rock and roll musician/entertainer, and Anselmo, professional clown.

Anselmo the Clown

http://www.vimeo.com/3612091


13 Most Beautiful Young Artists

Thursday, March 26, 6:30 pm
Walker Art Center
McGuire Theater
Free Admission

Inspired by Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests and Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips’ 13 Most Beautiful . . ., the Walker Art Center Teen Arts Council (WACTAC) created 13 original films and commissioned young musicians to compose accompanying soundtracks. Join us for the resulting collaboration—a raucous night of live performance and film. Musical performances by Nakami Green, Daudi Long, MMMs, Henry Misa, Dylan Perese, Jon Mitchell and Denis Terzic, and Shallow Creek. For more info call 612.375.7683 or check out teens.walkerart.org



MMMs Interview

Walker Art Center Teen Arts Council (WACTAC) members Partick Risberg and Evan Gabriel caught up with Nicholas Larkins of the band MMMs to talk about his participation in the 13 Most Beautiful Young Artists performance. Check out the interview and join us for the free performance on Thursday night!

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Live at the Blake School

PICT4490

This a great opportunity for any student that is interested in drawing from live models!

Tuesdays, 7 – 9 pm, Sept 18 , 2009 – April 20, 2010

Drawing from the nude figure model in a pleasing comfortable environment with serious students and adults that want to enhance and improve their skills in various media (no photography). This co-op series of open studio sessions is held at The Blake School on the Northrop Campus. Session are held in the Wet Paint Studio room 115.

Enter building through West Entrance . Bring participation/permission form to first session.

This is a non-Walker class. Please contact  Bob Teslow at rteslow@blakeschool.org or call 952-988-3712 for more info.



2010 GIRLS IN THE DIRECTOR’S CHAIR Application

Deadline for submissions: Monday, November 23, 2009


Young women directors, ages 12 to 18 years old, are invited to submit videos for possible inclusion in the 2010 Girls in the Director’s Chair Film. This showcase celebrates the works of young female filmmakers and will be screened as a part of the Walker Art Center’s Women with Vision Film Festival in March 2010.

Click on the image below to obtain an application.

Kate GIDC



New Don’t Sleep On It Photos!

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Broken Crow Interview

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5 Things I Like About This Class…I Think

1. Witt Siasoco, is a really inspirational guy but he is nothing compared to Xavier Tavera.
2. I loved the session that dealt with the models because it was challenging. Why? I don’t know but I found it hard to stand in one position for like 1 minute. Lol.
3. The snacks were really…um….you can say…decent.


4. I loved how I got a hold of Meng and had to hold him like a statue for like 10 minutes. Even though my arms of buffness was going to break, I still hold on to him.
5. Animation is a great focus on photography and video because it is like a blending of both. The thought of doing a shot of me break dancing could be fantastic using animation. Lol.

Yeeleng Yue

Music Instructor/ Producer/ Rapper lol its for real



Xavier Tavera Workshop

Here’s some photos from the second Polaroids, Prints, Projections class taught by Xavier Tavera. We started off the workshop by playing with the idea of a video portrait.

If you would like to see more photos check our flickr site by clicking here.



Salt, Vinegar and Sugar

Salt, Vinegar and Sugar: Paintings by Louis N. LaPierre
Nicademus Art
March 14th 2009 at 7:00pm
w/ special performance by Face Candy

This show is a collection of work by Louis N. LaPierre. Louis’s works with many different mediums including, acrylic and mixed media pieces on paper and wood. His work is a depiction of contemporary waistlands mixed with the mundane human existence that fosters our surrounding’s continuous state of flux. Salt, Vinegar, and Sugar is an exploration into bitter happiness and sweet despair, diving into utter realities and the joys of being left in the dark. In the end, it is a search into finding comfort in the uncomfortable, and a constant struggle to search out truth when there is no clear truth in sight.

Face Candy
Face Candy is the brain child of E&A frontman, Eyedea. It is an improvisation based quartet melding free-jazz and freestyle rap into an unchartered amalgamation of the two, with roots in jazz, rap, comedy and theater. The line up includes local legends, J.T. bates, Casey O’brien, Eyedea and new found local favorite Kristoff Krane. Come see them as never before in this gallery setting, as they support friend and contributor Louis N. Lapierre. Performance begins around 9:00pm.



Call for Artists


mnartists.org and Minneapolis Public Library are excited to announce the call for submissions for the 2009 ARTmn exhibition program. Artists will be selected by an established a panel of regional curators, artists and critics to participate in a group exhibition at the Minneapolis Public Library’s Cargill gallery opening in the fall of 2009.

Eligibility: Open to all Minnesota residents working in any visual art medium.

Application Process and Materials: Submissions will be accepted via email only. No slides, photos or other physical documentation will be accepted. Questions or problems regarding the submission process or guidelines should be directed to submit@mnartists.org. Every attempt will be made to assist artists in the application process.

The following materials must be emailed with the subject line “ARTmn Submission” to submit@mnartists.org by February 6th, 2009 to be considered.

  • Resume or Curriculum Vitae saved as a Word document (.doc)
    6 Images (images should be JPG format with a max resolution of 1024×768, 72dpi) . Images should be labeled in the preferred viewing order with the artist’s last name. For example smith1, smith2, smith3 etc. Work samples should be representative of the artist’s best work, and will not necessarily the work that will be included in the exhibition. The actual pieces will be chosen by the curators closer to the exhibition date.
  • Image list saved as a Word document (.doc). The image list should contain the relevant information for each submitted image including date, medium, dimensions and title. It may also include an optional short (2-3 sentence) description of the concept or context of the documented piece.
  • DEADLINE: All Applications must be received by February 6 th , 2009
    Review Process : The scope and theme of the exhibition will be established by the jurors from the pool of submissions. Artists will be notified by March 16 th after the panel has selected the winning artists. Selected artists will have the opportunity to participate in studio visits, critiques and panel discussions leading up and during the exhibition. A public reception will take place at the opening of the exhibition. An extended gallery guide will be produced with essays by the curators in conjunction with the exhibition.

ARTmn and all of mnartists.org 2009 competitive series are sponsored by The Onion.






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