May 6, 2019
They greet you at the door, they wave as you go, they lead tours, organize events, sweep the galleries, guard the art, and run the shop. They create, educate, question, consider, and challenge the museum to reach new heights. The heart of WAM, they are our student staff — many of whom will be leaving…
April 25, 2019
Often considered polar opposites, medical science and art share more common threads than you might think. In engaging with concepts of creation, experimentation, manipulation, and representations of life and humanity, both fields demand curiosity and a creative spirit from their practitioners. For four weeks, two worlds harmoniously collided as fourth-year UMN medical students partnered…
April 16, 2019
All snow aside, WAM is ready for spring cleaning! Thanks to Professor Juanjuan Wu’s visual merchandising students, the WAM Shop has received a new window display makeover. For the majority of the spring semester, students have been working in collaboration with WAM Shop manager and buyer Marissa Onheiber to create a display inspired by both…
April 5, 2019
At this very moment, University of Minnesota apparel design students are hard at work, crafting one-of-a-kind garments inspired by fairy tale iconography. Over the course of their spring semester, the 18 designers studied the visual language presented in The Wonderful World Before Disney, an ongoing exhibition of postcards that explores the eclectic imagery of popular fairy tales…
April 2, 2019
Here at WAM, we’re doing a lot of thinking about baggage, because of the exhibition Baggage Claims. It’s still here until May 12, so you’ve got some time, but not too much, to explore the things we carry with us. Baggage Claims is all about baggage: psychological, metaphorical, and literal. It’s about immigration, break-ups, emergencies–in…
February 1, 2019
When she joined WAM in 2011, shop manager and buyer Marissa Onheiber noticed a gap in student engagement. As WAM began to turn its focus to enhancing student membership and the collective, Onheiber decided that the shop window provided a perfect solution. “It’s part of our mission to enhance the student experience by offering them…
December 21, 2018
To coincide with WAM’s ongoing exhibition, I Want to Make This Perfectly Clear, the WAM Collective recently hosted local artist and activist Leon Wang to lead a protest poster-making workshop. A special art form with the potential to be an extremely powerful method of protest, posters have a long history within political and performative activism….
November 16, 2018
Last night, WAM Collective left home base at the Weisman to attend opening night of the annual MCAD art sale to purchase new pieces for HOMEWORK, the Weisman’s student-only art rental collection. The Minneapolis College of Art and Design, aka MCAD, hosts an annual art sale featuring artwork from emerging student artists and alumni from…
November 12, 2018
Using a student driven format since its inception in 2011, the WAM Collective places student voices at the center of shaping and developing programming at the Weisman Art Museum. This hands on and fast paced program gives participants the opportunity to work with professional museum staff, artists, advocates, and community members on projects that reflect…
November 7, 2018
Art is often described as having soft power, or power that persuades through appeal and attraction, “using persuasion, attraction, or agenda setting,” rather than coercion or force.* Looking at how soft power functions in broader cultural contexts such as in television and radio programming, it is clear that art possesses this same power and with…