August 22, 2019
Remembering Rondo is a landmark retrospective of Rose and Melvin Smith’s expansive careers in the arts. Currently living in Eagan, MN, Melvin R. and Rose J. Smith were residents of St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood for many years. The works in this exhibition are drawn from the artists’ Rondo series—a sprawling body of work that stands as…
August 20, 2019
Launched in 2018, the HOMEWORK Collection is the student-only art rental collection available to student members, with artwork selected by WAM Collective Officers. The below works were purchased at last year’s MCAD Art Sale. Meet the artists behind these works, and, if you’re a UMN student, come to WAM for Study Night on September 18…
August 20, 2019
To make Wood Collage: Landscape, George Morrison collected driftwood and fit the pieces together to form what he described as a “painting made of wood.” He assembled a loose grid structure, with the smaller fragments seeming to coalesce into squares, divided by beams that stretch across the composition. In places, the texture of the wood…
July 30, 2019
On May 15, community members gathered alongside the Target Studio cohort and their UMN collaborators to celebrate the very first year of the Target Studio for Creative Collaboration program. The evening began with studio activations and performances from 2018–2019 artist-fellows Terry Hempfling and Rachel Jendrzejewski, Marcus Young and students at HECUA’s Art for Social Change…
July 23, 2019
Affectionately known as “Weisguides,” WAM’s volunteer tour guides complete extensive training and lead hundreds of museum tours each year. Discovering new works of art, connecting with artists, researchers, curators, visitors, and each other, and engaging in critical conversations with people in the community (from school children to elders) are only some of the ways our…
June 13, 2019
I have personally always been interested in sex work. It is and has always been work. I think sex workers and erotic dancers specifically are very underappreciated. There are a lot of misconceptions about dancing that I would love to clarify for the public. One is the stereotypes about the kind of women who…
June 7, 2019
In expanding the permanent collection, WAM aims to accession new works wisely and with the utmost intention. To our Senior Curator Diane Mullin, this means attentively developing our collections of work by Black and women–identifying contemporary artists, and works considered international art, Minnesota art, and video and other moving-image art. Opening in mid-July, a number of…
May 29, 2019
WAM’s Cindy and Jay Ihlenfeld Curator for Creative Collaboration, Boris Oicherman, reflects on the past year’s progression in working towards fulfilling the Target Studio for Creative Collaboration’s mission, as well as what the future of the studio has in store. Kate Drakulic: You began planning for this year’s studio cohort in the summer of 2017….
May 28, 2019
When I am initiating participatory projects, I am engaged, of course, with the questions and issues specific to the context—in this case, the labor issues within and feminist potential of erotic dancing. But I am also thinking about overarching issues of participation and organizing. In my artist statement, I say that I am interested…
May 28, 2019
Over the last few years I have produced a body of work that focuses on social control. These conceptual art projects have been effective in teasing out and putting on display some of the unseen ways institutions exercise control. The zine project Inmate Activity Book is a perfect example: produced in collaboration with a…