May 4, 2022
In 2009, Weisman Art Museum (WAM) established the E. Gerald and Lisa O’Brien Curatorial Fellowship. For over twelve years, the O’Brien Fellowship has been launching curatorial careers by enabling recent graduates to achieve their first paid curatorial museum staff position, as they consider continuing toward an advanced degree. Art history majors from across the…
April 19, 2022
In September 2021, the Texas Legislature adopted Senate Bill 8, which restricts access to abortion by allowing private citizens to sue service providers. Later in the fall, we commissioned several artists to create responses to the legislation. We opened the series with an image created by the artist Dread Scott that equated Texas governance…
April 15, 2022
After Progress An activist investor is leveraging his stake in Canadian Pacific to force the company into climate action, my friend Gudrun Lock tells me. This news overlays our walk through the patchwork of forest, park, and grassland that surrounds the CP-owned Shoreham Yards train and truck site in northeast Minneapolis. The air smells like…
March 21, 2022
Have you ever imagined what it would be like to be able to touch the art at a museum? Conservators and preparators get to do just this as they delicately move, care for, and arrange the pieces in the museum’s collection. The WAM Collective spoke to Reggie Spanier, Preparator at WAM, about what it’s…
March 21, 2022
Masks Are Welcome, But Not Required March 21, 2022: As of today, masks are welcome, but not required for visitors and staff at the Weisman Art Museum (WAM) and WAM Shop, in accordance with University of Minnesota policy and current public health guidance from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…
February 14, 2022
WAM’s Frank Gehry-designed building is the perfect backdrop for architecture and design programs. Expanding on existing architecture and design programs, like WAM’s Teen Architecture Summer workshop, the Weisman has partnered with designer Brian Kelley, founder of the Young Builders and Designers program, for youth design workshops over the past year and will continue to offer…
December 27, 2021
Hear from Lake Street Truth Collective Truth & Repair facilitators Quito Ziegler, Jennings Mergenthal, and Kya Concepcion about their work engaging the Lake Street community during summer 2021 on the former Roberts Shoes lot on Lake St. & Chicago Ave. Moderated by WAM’s curator for creative collaboration, Boris Oicherman. This event was recorded on December…
November 23, 2021
Telling the Story of Kinship In my time doing research into my family history, I came across allegations that my great-grandmother died as a result of mental and physical health complications after an illegal and unregulated abortion. She’d already faced a lifetime of hardships. She was a social pariah in her small town, due to…
November 23, 2021
About the Series On September 1 2021, the Texas state legislature adopted State Bill 8, which allows private individuals to sue anyone aiding women in accessing abortions. We invited some of WAM’s past artists-in-residence to offer their reflections and commentary on this Texas law in images and/or text. Rachel Jendrzejewski chose to submit an image-only…
November 23, 2021
It’s fitting that Texas’ new abortion restrictions went into effect during the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack in the US. 9/11 and the subsequent, unending “War on Terror” inaugurated an era of surveillance that now seems inescapable. Technologies like facial recognition software have made possible the kinds of observation and social control…