333 E River Road
Minneapolis, MN 55455
United States
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April is National Poetry Month! Established in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets, this month-long celebration honors poetry’s unique ability to inspire, connect, and express the richness of human experience. It’s a time to reflect on the vital role poetry plays in culture and everyday life, offering a voice to diverse perspectives and fostering creativity.
This month in OPEN STUDIO we invite you to write your own poem and illustrate it; or feel free to leave your poem behind for others to illustrate. Whether you use drawing, collage, or mixed media, your goal is to translate the feelings, themes, and imagery of the poem into a compelling work of art.
Looking for some inspiration? Browse the work of Bino's poetry in SEEN.
Supplies: Bino's poems laser-etched on wood, pages for black-out poetry, general art supplies.
Ronald "Bino" Greer II is a creative writer and self-taught violinist from Detroit, Michigan. In response to the lack of gardens and green space in prison facilities, Bino uses memories of his grandfather’s gardens as places of refuge while incarcerated.
When a garden becomes a canopy of verses emerged from a collaboration with multimodal artist and professor Diane Willow, and their shared reverence for the sustenance, transcendence, and haven that gardens offer. Through a series of asynchronous call and response communications from their positions inside and outside of prison, Bino and Diane have envisioned a participatory healing space.
These plants are relatives of the Detroit summer garden plants that Bino grew up with. They represent the vitality of the plants that could not be present.
When a garden becomes a canopy of verses is nourished by those who shared their love for plants with the artists, and together they share this love with the viewer. This garden is an invitation to reflect, connect, remember, and imagine.
Drop-in, Self-Guided Art Activity
Each month, WAM presents a self-guided art-making activity inspired by an art piece or artist from the museum's collection. Everything you need to make your own masterpiece is provided and the activity is designed to be accessible and open to all. Drop-in during open hours and get creative!
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund. Additional general operating support is generously provided by Ameriprise Financial.
We Are All Criminals
We Are All Criminals is a catalyst for conversations about race, class, privilege, and punishment. One in four people in the United States±—and one in four in Minnesota—carries a criminal record, yet four in four have a criminal history. Our criminal legal system disparately targets Black people, Indigenous people, people of color, and people experiencing poverty, resulting in higher rates and weights of criminal records. It’s no small number of individuals and families affected, and to no small degree: permanent and public criminal records perpetuate inequities in housing, employment, and education all of which precludes millions of people from countless opportunities to move on and move up. We at WAAC use first-person narrative, photography, law, and statistics, to humanize and shift the narratives of crime, privilege, policy interpretation and implementation, and redemption.
Mass incarceration is dependent upon the ignoring and erasure of the human beings we cage. Projects like SEEN challenge that. In collaboration with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop, Weisman Art Museum, and the thoughtful and deeply gifted writers and artists on the inside, WAAC disrupts mass incarceration by clearing the pathways for people behind bars to have their voices heard, faces seen, and humanity recognized—and for people on the outside to reckon with the inhumanity of our country’s mass incarceration mass disaster.
Minnesota State Arts Board Legacy Grant logos
Ameriprise Financial
