Our friend Jaimie is story editor at Once Magazine, and as much as we wish she would move back to the Twin Cities, we love what she & her colleagues are doing with photography & storytelling for digital platforms like iPad. It’s been fantastic to see them get some much-deserved recognition for their work!

Also worth noting: they actually pay their contributors with revenue from subscriptions. So subscribe!

Or submit? (Zoe-prinds Flash we are looking at you)

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 Hubbard, Justin Matherly, Peter Tscherkassky, Stan Vanderbeek, Liz Wendelbo, and C. Spencer Yeh, In the Pale will bring together a selection of 16mm films, videos, prints, a sculpture, and a photograph that all deal somehow with darkness, masking, or splitting. Very scary, indeed.

Speaking of leadership fellowships, Colin and I are approaching the final weekend of the Creative Community Leadership Institute, a fellowship program for engaged artists and community developers that we’ve been taking part in for the past few months. It’s been an amazing experience, both in terms of the ideas we’ve been introduced to, and the people we’ve been fortunate to meet and learn with.  Last night I sat down to finish the final set of our readings, which included an excerpt from this book edited by one of CCLI’s faculty, Bill Cleveland, and Patricia Shifferd. This quote from the introduction really resonated, since it seems to describe the qualities that we aspire to, as well as those I think of as endemic to so many of our friends, close collaborators and Works Progress program regulars: The growth of a sustainable culture will require persons who are skilled in problem-solving, critical analysis, holistic and systematic thinking, and who have the ability to suspend judgement while seeking solutions. These cultivators of the new world must also be adaptive, able to work co-operatively with others, and possess personal balance and internal grace. They must be able to identify with a particular place, a region, and to help preserve the unique cultural traditions and natural landscape of that place; without retreating to parochialism. They must not allow their communities to become everyplace that is no place. They must be empowered to create economic and political institutions which are respectful of each other and of nature. The task, in short, is one that will require a strong dose of the most powerful of human capacities - our creativity.
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Speaking of leadership fellowships, Colin and I are approaching the final weekend of the Creative Community Leadership Institute, a fellowship program for engaged artists and community developers that we’ve been taking part in for the past few months. It’s been an amazing experience, both in terms of the ideas we’ve been introduced to, and the people we’ve been fortunate to meet and learn with. 

Last night I sat down to finish the final set of our readings, which included an excerpt from this book edited by one of CCLI’s faculty, Bill Cleveland, and Patricia Shifferd. This quote from the introduction really resonated, since it seems to describe the qualities that we aspire to, as well as those I think of as endemic to so many of our friends, close collaborators and Works Progress program regulars:

The growth of a sustainable culture will require persons who are skilled in problem-solving, critical analysis, holistic and systematic thinking, and who have the ability to suspend judgement while seeking solutions. These cultivators of the new world must also be adaptive, able to work co-operatively with others, and possess personal balance and internal grace. They must be able to identify with a particular place, a region, and to help preserve the unique cultural traditions and natural landscape of that place; without retreating to parochialism. They must not allow their communities to become everyplace that is no place. They must be empowered to create economic and political institutions which are respectful of each other and of nature. The task, in short, is one that will require a strong dose of the most powerful of human capacities - our creativity.

Miss out on Constellation last weekend? Get caught up with Denise Rouleau’s summary of the South Minneapolis backyard art expedition. And just so you know, some of our absolute favorite people make an appearance in the video above. Congrats to everyone involved!

Last night we drove out to Somerset, Wisconsin, where some friends of ours have been fixing-up a small cabin by the Apple River. Their plans were to finish remodeling the place by spring, and once finished, to offer the cabin as a retreat and gathering place for the community of artists that is continually coalescing here.

When the flood predictions for the year were announced, it looked as though the cabin might be underwater, setting back the rehab project significantly. Rather than try to save the cabin with sandbags (an impossible task, anyway) a decision was made to host a night of performances, readings and art activities; a way of christening the cabin and ensuring that at least there would be one gathering before the flood.

People brought along art projects to share, many of them addressing the flood directly, others exploring our relationship to water and catastrophe. Miranda Trimmier proposed using placebos to rid the cabin of its ailments, and brought a handful of sugar pills she’d made; Cecilia Aldarando read a defense of cataclysm, asking why we think we can build so close to water and not come into contact with it; Colin and I shared a video project we’re working on that tells the story of the Mississippi River in five parts; others shared songs, poems and videos. One pair of artists created a template for tiny paper cabins, which we all constructed and placed near the river as an offering. It was a cold night, but we barely noticed.

This video is one of the songs that was shared: the story of the cabin relayed via a murder ballad that John Moore wrote, and that John Kim and Molly Reichert sang.

It was a great way to spend an evening in the woods! I hope that in the end it helped to ward off the flood waters, and that our next trip out there won’t be spent cleaning up the mud. But if it must be, than I’m sure we’ll all make the best of it!