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We can't celebrate in person this year, but the Weisman is so proud to share work online by the ninth annual ArtWordswriting competition winners and the 2020 edition of The Tower, the University’s annual undergraduate art and literary magazine. This partnership has, over the years, become one of the treasures of springtime at the Weisman. Enjoy!
Read the full 2020 edition online >>
Listen to The Tower podcast, and hear this year's contributors read their works aloud >>
2020 ArtWords Winners
Macie Rasmussen
"Situated Between a Hamlet and a Village"— Macie Rasmussen is a senior studying strategic communication with minors in public health and cultural studies and comparative literature. She directs The Wake magazine and DJs on Radio K. In her free time, she hunts for new bolo ties at thrift stores. Macie's winning entry is inspired by Teo Nguyen's painting, Untitled 13 (2017).
Catherine Retica
"How My Husband Makes a Jackson Pollock" — Catherine Retica is a senior from Minnetonka studying journalism. She enjoys design, photography, and waving to the light rail driver. Her piece garnered a second-place spot, and is inspired by Sam Gilliam's monoprint, Marathon (2003).
Joey Gotchnik
"Around Here"— Joey Gotchnik is a senior from Cloquet studying materials science and engineering. He enjoys songwriting and the outdoors, and the role that humor takes in everyday life. In the future, he hopes to find the proper balance between science and art--like the relative ratio of root beer to ice cream. In third place, Joey's writing is inspired by Rhonda Willers's mixed media work Lift (2018).
Samantha Sanvik
"Real Colorful Creatures"— Samantha Sanvik is a recent graduate from Minneapolis. She enjoys going hiking and camping in northern MN with her friends and family. She hopes to become a physician assistant one day and inspire others. Tied for third place, her piece takes its inspiration from a B.J.O. Nordfeldt landscape, Green Woods (1950).
ArtWords is an annual writing competition in which students select a piece of art on display from the Weisman Art Museum's permanent collection, and create an original piece of prose or poetry in response to it.
This competition is open to undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Minnesota. Selected authors are awarded prizes, published online, and given the opportunity to present their work in the galleries of the museum. Undergraduate winning writers of ArtWords are published in The Tower.
ArtWords is held in collaboration with the English Department's Creative Writing Program. A panel including Creative Writing faculty, Weisman Art Museum staff, and editors of The Tower select winning entries. Prizes include a gift certificate to the WAM Gift Shop, as well as two $75, two $50, and two $25 prizes.
Our guest judges: Sam Van Cook, the president, founder, and owner of Button Poetry; award-winning poet and essayist Douglas Kearney, professor in the University of Minnesota's Creative Writing Program; and Michael Curran, the Marketing and Communications Associate at Weisman Art Museum.
Our student judges: Claire Breitenbach, Designer, Fiction Editor, and Copyeditor of The Tower; Afton Kelly, Managing Editor and Chief Poetry Editor of The Tower; Miki Schumacher, Marketing Director and Art Editor of The Tower; and Kimberly Xayaroun, Publicist and Fiction Editor of The Tower.