January 2012
6 posts
Works Progress Happy Hour
This & Every Friday!
To celebrate our new home in the Robert’s Shoes building at Lake & Chicago, we’re hosting a weekly happy hour on Fridays from 3 to 6pm. Stop by anytime for a cup of coffee, tea, wine or beer. Learn what we’ve been up to, relax, brainstorm or share your ideas, meet and chat with other creative people, or just browse our growing library of books and...
Law of Two Feet
Hey everyone,
I’m Regan Smith, the new Project Assistant for Works Progress. I’ll be working here part-time helping out with communications and program-based work. In my non-Works Progress life I’m a freelance writer and the Co-Founder and Editorial Director of Paper Darts, a Minneapolis-based literary and arts magazine. If you have a pressing need to know more about me, please feel free to...
“Two seemingly opposite pedagogical poles appear to be collapsing. On one side is...”
– After OWS: Social Practice Art, Abstraction, and the Limits of the Social by Gregory Sholette
A lot to think about in this great essay.
December 2011
3 posts
Recess Press →
“As a collective, we are joining our funds and experience to provide access to a democratic print shop as well as education for Minneapolis’ growing printmaking community.”
Impressed by all of the collectively run, educationally-minded studios & projects cropping up around the Twin Cities, many of them run by recent college graduates. Jobs might be scarce, but that doesn’t...
“When I entered our field, I believed that sharing space and story in a darkened...”
– Michael Rohd, co-founder of Sojourn Theatre, in an excellent article that distinguishes what he sees as three allied movements in theater that work for similar goals, but have markedly different philosophies and processes. He defines these as Community-based, Participatory, and Civic, all words that...
November 2011
2 posts
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October 2011
15 posts
ART OF THIS →
These guys are doing some great projects - including one of their ‘one nighter’ events tonight! Details for that below. Minneapolis is lucky to have spaces/projects like AOT.
“In the Pale” organized by Jonathon Thomas
October 30th, 7PM-12AM
ART OF THIS, 4 East Franklin Ave
Featuring the work of artists Aaron Anderson, Justin Schlepp, Martha Colburn, Cameron Gainer, Alex...
“The challenge for community building is this: While visions, plans and committed...”
– Peter Block, Community: The Structure of Belonging. Hat tip to local community organizer and recent Bush Fellow Neeraj Mehta for introducing us to Block’s writing. Add this one to the reading list!
Western Minnesota Working Together, Building... →
The Bush Foundation’s Catherine Jordan with a short write-up of her recent visit to Western Minnesota for the Arts Meander. She’s got it right, lots of great stuff happening here.
Works Progress is hiring! →
WORKS PROGRESS, an artist-led public design studio based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, seeks a PART TIME PROJECT ASSISTANT
This is an opportunity for an emerging cultural producer to assist a rapidly growing organization with large and small-scale public projects. The Works Progress (WP) Project Assistant will work directly with WP Co-Directors, as well as with project partners from diverse fields...
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Fantastic Futures →
While looking for this website for a bicycle tour Works Progress is participating in this weekend, I stumbled across Fantastic Futures, a platform created by a group of students from Iraq and the US for the mixing and sharing of field recordings, songs, interviews and stories.
At first I thought, “The US is still occupying Iraq, isn’t something like this just a little too...
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September 2011
11 posts
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Field Office Fellowship: Amoke Kubat and The Sick...
We met Amoke Kubat earlier this year when we were putting together our Solutions Twin Cities event at the Capri Theater in North Minneapolis. We asked neighborhood residents and community leaders who they thought was doing creative, exciting, impactful work and a number of people pointed to Amoke, an artist, writer, mother and educator living and working on the Northside.
Since meeting Amoke and...
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Field Office Fellowship: Interview with Mike Haeg
This Friday we’ll hold the 4th of 8 public conversations with this summer’s Field Office Fellows. We’re introducing each fellow with a short interview before their discussion. Here, Mike Haeg answers some questions about his micro-experiment, the WALKER Pole.
You’re the Mayor of Mt. Holly, Minnesota. Tell us a little bit about your hometown, and what happens there?
Well, we are a small town of...
Agonism is a political theory which emphasises the... →
This is a concept we are interested in. We’re grateful to Steve Dietz for introducing it to us.
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“We thought we shouldn’t just define ourselves by what we are against, but...”
– Patrick Moore, Director of CURE (Clean Up the River Environment), a non-profit based in Montevideo, MN, in a recent MPR story about the group’s efforts to bridge the farmer-environmentalist divide.
Colin and I met Patrick at the Rural Arts & Culture Summit a few months ago, where he...
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WatchWe’re digging Minneapolis artist Amanda Lovelee and her Call and Answer project, a year-long exploration of physical connection, community, and Square Dancing. Check out the video, or participate in one of Amanda’s square dances this Saturday at the mnartists.org Field Trip to Silverwood Park. Sad that we’ll be out of town, looks like lots of fun!
SHM
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“Artists now have the opportunity to work not only as makers but as...”
– Artist Camille Gage writes about public art and community in a recent article for MNartists.org, A Citizen Artist in a Country at War.
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August 2011
8 posts
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MPR: The Walker's "reading room" vs. your local... →
Pitting Reading Room MPLS against the ‘Local Library’ is missing the point.
The public library is a place primarily about open access to information while Reading Room MPLS is an event primarily about the experience of intentional reading with others. It’s like apples to oranges, there’s no way to compare the two!
More importantly, Reading Room MPLS is a creative...
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Field Office Fellowship: Interview with Rachel...
This Monday we’ll hold the first of 6 public conversations with this summers Field Office Fellows, starting with Rachel Breen (see below for more details!). In anticipation of each discussion, we’ll be posting short interviews with the fellows. Here is what Rachel had to say:
You’re an associate at On the Commons, can you tell us about when and why you first started thinking about the commons...
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“I wonder if there are people out there who read creatively? If we can agree that...”
– Chris Fischbach, publisher at Coffee House Press and the creator of Reading Room MPLS, shares some questions that he hopes people will ask themselves (and others) when encountering his project. Reading Room MPLS is one of 8 artist projects created as part of the Field Office Fellowship, a...
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WatchStumbled across SpeakeasyDC, an autobiographical open mic storytelling series that shares some of the same community building goals as our Give & Take program - though it seems they have a slightly more narrow definition of what storytelling is, what it can look like, and how participatory it can be. Still, looks like a great series! I love that they see their work “training”...
July 2011
15 posts
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WatchDigging these short Quick Takes of Poptech’s 2010 Science and Public Leadership Fellows. Looks like a great program for cultivating communication skills and leadership among scientific researchers. Poptech also has a Social Innovation Fellowship.
We especially like this sentiment: “If you’re able to communicate your ideas, you’re able to collaborate with unconventional...
“Pillsbury House Theatre and Pillsbury House Neighborhood Center have been...”
– Bill Cleveland talking about the merging of Pillsbury House Neighborhood Center and Pillsbury House Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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WatchA year and a half of Give & Take in 90 seconds.
Big thanks to Andy Dayton for doing all the videography and production on this!
