333 E River Road
Minneapolis, MN 55455
United States

Additional Details
Join us for the opening day of the Weisman Art Museum's spring exhibition, SEEN, presented in collaboration with We Are All Criminals. This exhibition highlights the work of artists inside the carceral system, in partnership with artists on the outside. Opening day will feature drop-in artist activations in the galleries, a reading library, self-guided tours, and light bites and beverages. All events and activities are free and open to the public.
ACTIVATIONS
Cage[d] with Cheng Xiong
Featured Exhibition Gallery
Prolonged isolation profoundly impacts a person’s well-being, fundamentally altering how individuals perceive themselves and the world, with long-term consequences even after release. For inside artist Sarith Peou, a structured exercise routine has become a means of escape.
Black Label Movement dancer Cheng Xiong will enact Sarith’s exercise routine within the confined space of cage[d]. This live activation invites reflection on the harsh realities of isolation and the persistence of resilience, expressed through movement.
cage[d] activation schedule:
- Saturday, February 8 - 11:30-12:30; 1:00-2:00; 2:30-3:30
- Saturday, March 1 - 11:30-12:30; 1:00-2:00; 2:30-3:30
- Saturday, April 5 - 11:30-12:30; 1:00-2:00; 2:30-3:30
- Saturday, May 3 - 11:30-12:30; 1:00-2:00; 2:30-3:30
What’s In Your Bin? with Erin Sharkey
Target Gallery
Imagine packing a bin—18 inches in length, 15 inches in width, and 15 inches in height—that holds the only items you're allowed while incarcerated, such as clothing, hygiene products, legal documents, and personal letters or photos. What would you choose, and what do these items say about you? This activity invites reflection on the politics of the property bin—how limited space, systemic restrictions, and personal choices influence what people carry with them and what they leave behind.
When a Garden Becomes a Canopy of Verses with Diane Willow
Riverview Gallery
Inspired by artist Ronald "Bino" Greer II’s memories of his grandfather’s gardens as places of refuge during his incarceration, this activity invites you to connect with growth and renewal. Write your own words or phrases, drawn from Greer’s poetry, onto provided seed paper. Take your “seed poem” home, plant it, and nurture its growth as a living reflection of hope and transformation.
Live Drawing Session with Chris Fausto Cabrera
Riverview Gallery
Artist Chris Fausto will conduct a live drawing session, sharing his creative process behind An Inheritance. In this work, he uses handmade paper created through the practice of soaking sweetgrass, transforming traumatic documents into art that fosters healing.
Fong Lee and Kevin Yang
Featured Exhibition Gallery
Join artists Fong Lee and Kevin Yang in the gallery for a khi tes ceremony, an important Hmong spiritual practice symbolizing connectedness, renewal, and blessing. The artists will guide you in tying white strings to another person’s wrist, representing bonds of care and spiritual well-being. Whether it’s a long-time friend or a stranger, this simple yet profound gesture fosters a sense of community and shared humanity. Kevin and Fong envision this act as “a foundation for a world where people can better care for each other.”
Reading Library & Reflection Space
Riverview Gallery
SEEN illuminates the stories and creative expressions of artists both within and beyond the carceral system. Developed collaboratively by the exhibition’s contributors, this curated collection of books, essays, and articles explores themes of incarceration’s human impact, systemic injustice, and the transformative power of art and storytelling.
We invite you to reflect and engage deeply with the content as you explore the works in the exhibition. What’s coming up for you? Share your thoughts and creativity by leaving your written responses or drawings here for others to see, adding your voice to this collective conversation. Please keep the books in this space and return them to the shelf when you're finished.
SEEN is supported in part by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Art Dealers Association of America Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. 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. General operating support is generously provided by Ameriprise Financial and the Art and Martha Kaemmer Fund of HRK Foundation. Special thanks to the KHR McNeely Family Foundation, thanks to Kevin, Rosemary, and Hannah Rose McNeely, for their support of the Weisman’s exhibitions and exhibition-related programming.
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.
The Andy Warhol Foundation

Art Dealers Association of America

National Endowment for the Arts

Minnesota State Arts Board Legacy Grant logos

Ameriprise Financial

HRK Foundation

KHR Family Foundation
