Students create mural at Roosevelt

Middle school and high school students collaborate with local artist Greta McLain

by Tesha M. Christensen

  

Students are adding a mural to the front entry of Roosevelt High School.

Not only have they put time and effort into this piece of art, but it’s one that captures who they are. The portraits of several students are part of this mixed-media mural that combines paint and mosaic pieces.

The work in the entryway at Roosevelt caught the eye of junior Jocelyn Pliego one day in early April 2014, and that same day she decided to grab a paintbrush and lend a hand. She’d never worked on a mural before.

What excites her about this project? “It’s going to be here a pretty long time,” Pliego noted.

It was easy to recruit Gilles Mally for the project. “I just love painting,” explained Mally, a junior, who added that he loves not only the colors but everything about painting. “So, I decided to be a part of this amazing art.”

Claudia Valentino

STUDENTS ASSIST WITH DESIGN

Over 44 middle school and high school students partnered with art teachers and muralist Greta McLain and her assistant Claudia Valentino on this mural. McLain (www.gretamclain.com) grew up in Minneapolis, and earned an art degree from the University of California - Davis. She uses muralism as a means of sharing with and drawing from her community. Locally, she created the mural on the Mercado at Bloomington and Lake that was installed last fall.

Artists McLain and Valentino worked with Roosevelt students to come up with visual ideas based on the International Baccalaureate (IB) Program at Roosevelt. “Since Roosevelt is an IB School, the main inspiration was to show students, families and visitors what the characteristics of an IB student are,” explained Roosevelt art teacher Jaci Smolund. They include these traits: responsible, principled, knowledgeable, risk taker, inquirer, open minded, caring, balanced, reflective and communicator; as well as the Roosevelt motto: Enter to Learn, Leave to Serve.

“Our principal Michael Bradley was looking for ways to add more art to the school,” commented Smolund. “He saw some of Greta's other murals and knew it would be a beautiful element to have at the main entrance.”

According to Roosevelt Principal Michael, the learning structure around this project is an opportunity for Green Central and Sanford students to use art to see themselves in the mission and vision of Roosevelt High School and the International Baccalaureate (IB) Program.

COLLABORATIVE PROCESS

In February, students drew their ideas out on large poster paper and those drawings were then taken to Green Central and Sanford so that the middle school students could add their ideas. Then, McLain drew up the overall design and students used her drawings to assemble the mosaic parts of the piece. Roosevelt students worked on it on Mondays and Thursdays, Green Central Students on Tuesdays and Sanford students on Wednesdays.

In April, the drawing was transferred to the wall of the front entryway and the painting began. The mosaic parts, featuring colored tile, dishes, mirrors, marbles and glass pieces, were added next.

“The mural design has actual Roosevelt students posing while portraying the learner profiles,” Smolund said. “For example a girl balancing on a unicycle and a thoughtful student reading a text book. There are also butterflies, a large bird, words and other symbols.

ART FOR EVERYONE

Sanford will be adopting its Middle Year Program next fall and many of its students will attend Roosevelt in the future. “Students have explored the themes of the IB Learner Profile through each stage of the project, reflecting on its meanings and connections to their lives, and to the artwork,” remarked Sanford art teacher Marlene Maloney. “The mural will be a part of our community's daily visual experience of Roosevelt High School, the artwork itself will be in communication with students and staff by underlining the IB Learner identity and its link to a strong and successful school community.”

“Greta is amazing at creating art for communities. She makes it clear that the piece is for everybody to share and everybody is welcome to help,” said Smolund. “The Roosevelt students are getting to create a permanent piece of artwork and the middle school students can look forward to seeing what they've done when they come to high school.

“Most importantly, everybody has been having a lot of fun participating in making something really beautiful.”

Maloney is pleased that this project has given her students the opportunity to work closely with a professional artist and older Roosevelt students in a small-group environment in the after-school Art Club program. 

In March, about 30 parents and staff attended an open workshop at Sanford to experience the process. They used cool cutting tools and added their piece to the project.  “The event demonstrated the high level of engagement and excitement from the students as they taught their teachers and parents about the process and how to use the tools to create mosaic,” said Maloney. 

“It has been an awesome experience for us so far and we look forward to celebrate the unveiling at the end of May.”

The community is invited to attend the unveiling of this artwork and the Connections Gallery (see sidebar) on May 28 from 5-8 p.m. (tentative time).

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Connections Gallery to open this spring at Roosevelt 

A second art project two and a half years in the making will also be finished this spring.

The Connections Gallery by the front door at Roosevelt High School will offer artwork and a bench to reflect.

In collaboration with Forecast Public Art and artist Randy Walker, the Connections Gallery installation will be a permanent structure with changeable components that Roosevelt, Minneapolis Public Schools and the community can enjoy, use and access to make connections through art and across curriculum.

In addition to a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board and an anonymous donor, 152 community members donated $8,583 through a Kickstarter Campaign.

In 2012, students at Roosevelt began exploring issues of community art with artist residencies facilitated by Forecast Public Art, a non-profit organization that connects artists to communities through public art. As the discussions developed, students and faculty hatched the idea of having a permanent public art installation at Roosevelt. Artist Randy Walker, a fiber and mixed media artist who has created temporary and permanent installations throughout the United States (including the rocket at Brackett Park in the Seward neighborhood), was selected by students and staff to be the lead artist on the project.

The final design shows 14 metal frames radiating outwards like wheel spokes from a large circular open air gallery. Like a rice paper screen or stained glass window each metal frame is divided into a smaller cells of acrylic panels. Within these panels students will be able to insert pictures, words or anything that they can create on paper. Attached to each panel a strand of colored fiber will be woven through the top of the sculpture connecting to another panel elsewhere on the sculpture. These fibrous connections will be moved and rewoven to make different connections as the art and content in the frames is changed.

It is designed for people to use it as an evolving and ever changing gallery and record of art making and relationships among people and ideas -- reflecting the community’s past, present, and future. 

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This story was printed in the May edition of the Longfellow/Nokomis Messenger.

http://www.longfellownokomismessenger.com/students-create-mural-at-roosevelt/

NEIGHBORHOOD NOTES | Contemporary art performance planned at The White Page

By Tesha Christensen, Neighborhood Notes

March 03, 2014

 

 

Plan to attend “Bring in the Indigo” at The White Page, a collectively-run art gallery, on Sunday, March 16 at 8 p.m.

Expect an evening of contemporary performance, spanning dance, theater, visual art performance, relational practices, music and hybrids of all of the above. The event is curated by Fire Drill (Emily Gastineau and Billy Mullaney).

There will be performances by Fire Drill (Minneapolis), Panoply Performance Lab (NY),  Future Death Toll (NY/PDX),  Hiponymous (Minneapolis), Samantha Johns (MPLS), Valerie Kuehne (NY), Glow Mechanics (Minneapolis), Beasthead (Minneapolis), and Dustin Maxwell (Minneapolis).

The sitting section (dance, theater, visual art performance) starts at 8 p.m. At 9:30 p.m., the standing section (music, performance installation, relational performance) begins.

Tickets: $10 to enter at 8 p.m., $5 to enter at 9:30 p.m.

The White Page is located next to Chris and Rob’s at 3109 E. 42nd St. in Minneapolis.

EVEN IF IT KILLS YOU
There’s still time to catch the exhibition “Even If It Kills You” by artist-in-residence Bryan Thomas Daly, which is up until March 8.

He says this about his work: "When I was a teenager and I wanted to leave society, I tried to use rock n' roll as an escape hatch. So I tried to build a library of Alexandria from record stores, house shows and liner notes. I believed for a while that I was unearthing a secret lexicon: the true stories of race, class, sex and taste. For a long time I thought I had uncovered a more earnest mode of care, in opposition to the mainstream. Instead I had mystical visions of purity surrounded by only things I had bought. My version of rock n' roll, I found, was not a secret but a merchandised path. Instead of escaping society, I became a more voracious consumer, a hard materialist, a secluded elitist and disenchanted with even pure experience. This work is of a love I built and found false, and a gambit to reclaim the feeling of something sincere."

Daly grew up in Northampton, Mass. He attended Alfred University and received an English degree in 2011. Currently he resides in Minneapolis and is working as a teacher.

ABOUT THE WHITE PAGE
The White Page opened in the neighborhood last fall, filling the space emptied by the Mighty Swell vintage shop.

The art gallery is the dream of four young artists: Kathryn Sheldon, Alanah Luger-Guillaume, Alexis L. Stiteler and Rebecca Spangenthal.

Sheldon is from Upstate New York. She studied painting at Alfred University. After school she spent a year in Sydney, Australia and then settled in Minneapolis.

Luger-Guillaume grew up in Waterbury, Connecticut. She went to Alfred University for art and education. She's currently a lead toddler teacher at People Serving People.

Stiteler grew up in western Pennsylvania and northern Texas. She received her BFA from Alfred University focusing in ceramics; she works in a variety of mediums now.

Spangenthal is originally from western Massachusetts. She studied sculpture at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y. where she received her BFA. She moved out to Minneapolis on a whim and found the cities to be a perfect place for artist growth.

These four artists have studio space in the basement. The fifth studio is filled by an artist-in-residence who changes every few months. Each artist-in-residence exhibits upstairs in the gallery space and collaborates with the four regular artists, as well as other Minneapolis artists. Apply online for the residency program.

The White Page hosts artist talks, performances, movie screenings, critiques and other events in addition to regular exhibitions.

Over $9,000 was raised through a kickstarter campaign to open The White Page.

Hours are Friday to Monday from 1 to 5 p.m.

For more information, browse www.the-white-page.com or email thewhitepagecollective@gmail.com. 

 

 

Published at Twin Cities Daily Planet. http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2014/03/03/contemporary-art-performance-planned-white-page

COMMUNITY VOICES | Meet Lindsay Walz of courageous heARTS

By Tesha Christensen, Community Voices

December 30, 2013

 

Get to know Lindsay Walz, the leader of courageous heARTS, Standish-Ericsson's own arts program for kids. Courageous heARTS opened in 2013 at 4164 Cedar Ave. in Minneapolis. For more information and class schedules, browse http://www.courageous-hearts.org or call 612-729-2483.

- Why did you decide to start this non-profit?
Lindsay Walz: My dream of opening a youth center started when I was still in high school myself when I had the opportunity to be on the founding board of a nonprofit in my hometown community.  The idea ebbed and flowed for many years until 2007, when I was on the 35W bridge when it collapsed.  I nearly drowned in my car (still don't know how I got out) and while sitting on the bridge "island" waiting for help it occurred to me that the dream I had always carried with me might be the reason I survived.  A few weeks after the collapse, when I was sitting at home with a broken back, I received a community education flyer and found a class called Soul Painting.  That class became a catalyst for my healing over the next 5 years and I knew that my dream had to be rooted in the healing power of art-- not for the product, but for the process.  There is another synopsis of this on my website, if you want additional information: http://www.courageous-hearts.org/roots-of-a-dream.html. 

- What is your background? Degree? From what college? Past experience? Etc.
Walz: I graduated from the U of M in 2005 with my bachelor's in Family Social Science and minor in Youth Studies.  I recently completed my Master's of Education in Youth Development Leadership- also at the U.  I have worked at Lutheran Social Service of MN since graduating in 2005.  I first worked at a group home for youth with emotional and behavioral concerns.  After some time away following the bridge collapse, I was rehired with LSS as an Educational Support Advocate for a supportive housing program.  I now supervise the Empowering Students to Achieve program and a team of Educational Support Advocates.  I also participated in the 2012 MN Youth Worker Walkabout Fellowship through the University of MN Extension.

- What will courageous heARTS offer?
Walz: We want to create a safe space for youth to express themselves. We want to be a home away from home and we also want to create meaningful and lasting connections to the surrounding community.  I want to partner with schools and business leaders and city officials to create meaningful opportunities for youth to find connection to the neighborhood.

Classes at courageous heARTS range across a spectrum of expressive arts-- from painting and sculpture to music and writing classes.  All are aimed at emphasizing the process of creating rather than the product created. 
"I hope to co-facilitate these classes with mentoring artists who are willing to  share their time, expertise and passion for the arts with the youth who walk through our doors," said Walz.  

There are two elements of programming that won't be tied to a particular activity, but rather are integrated into everything we do.  They are restorative practices and a trauma-informed approach.  I am a trained circle keeper and have volunteered for many years with the Seward Longfellow Restorative Justice Partnership as a conference facilitator.  These practices are imperative to building and maintaining community and will be embedded into all our programs.  By taking a trauma-informed approach to our work we will ensure that all of our staff and volunteers understand what trauma is and that it has a pervasive impact on our communities (and I'm not talking about the obvious traumas like a bridge falling down, I'm talking the more everyday traumas such as bullying or community violence). Being trauma-informed helps us to recognize that anyone who walks through our doors might have a heart wound and that we can take pre-cautions to ensure a safe space for all.

- What do you hope to accomplish? What are your 5/10-year goals?
The courageous heARTS vision statement is:  Youth will discover, heal, and strengthen their hearts so they can thrive as active, engaged, and courageous members of the community.

We want to build courage through expressive arts, build community through restorative practices, and build leaders with our Youth Advisory Board. 

It's hard for me to say what the 5/10 year goals are because I am so steeped in the present.  Everyday offers a new opportunity or challenge and it has been the thrill of a lifetime.  My biggest goal right now is to secure operation dollars so this can be my one and only job and we can keep the lights on!  Right now, everything's purely voluntary-- both of my time and my money-- but my heart is filled to the brim with all the kindness and positive energy I've felt and that makes it all worth it.  I hope that we can eventually offer programming for children and youth from 0-18.

 - Why did you decide to locate the nonprofit at the corner of Cedar and 42nd?
Walz: It was really important to me to stay connected to my own neighborhood (I'm an Ericsson resident).  The power of connection has been a constant theme in my life-- from growing up in a town of 250 people, to watching the world stop for everyone the day the bridge fell down. Our connection to one another is vital and I hope that courageous heARTS can serve as glue for this community.

There was a practical reason for my decision as well.  Often times, youth programs seem to concentrate in areas of the city with the most poverty.  This is essential, but having worked for a housing program (It's All About the Kids) for the past 5 years that actively seeks to move families out of the city's highest poverty zones, I know that the opportunities for youth living in Standish-Ericsson and other neighborhoods further south are limited.  There is room for more opportunities for youth beyond the public sector (parks, libraries, schools).

- How can neighborhood residents get involved?
Walz: People power will be critical and so will be donations of money, services or materials (http://www.courageous-hearts.org/support-our-work.html). Artists with an interest in teaching a class or helping with a one time project should fill out our volunteer registration form on the website so I can add them to the artist directory.  My hours at the building are somewhat limited right now as I balance a paying job with this work, but if you see me there stop by and say hello-- that kind of moral support is the stuff that keeps me going!

 Published on Twin Cities Daily Planet. http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2013/12/30/meet-lindsay-walz-courgeous-hearts

Art in all directions

Utility boxes on East Lake St. feature 20 Longfellow artists

Longfellow is home to some amazing artists. And now more people know about them thanks to an art installation along East Lake Street that features 20 artists.

Earlier this year, 10 utility boxes along East Lake Street and five on the Midtown Greenway were covered with artwork. The 10 boxes on East Lake Street are under the "I'm A LoLa Artist" theme, which is a series of public art installations the Longfellow Community Council (LCC) and the League of Longfellow Artists (LoLa) have coordinated throughout the neighborhood.

In 2012, a series of 56 posters were placed in storefronts along East Lake Street that included an image of a LoLa artist, an image of their art, and a quote from them as to why they do what they do. This idea was replicated on the utility boxes.

"I believe there are double benefits to the art on utility boxes: it takes what can be an eyesore and makes it visually interesting," said Longfellow artist Bob Schmitt of Laughing Waters Studio. "But also it is featuring not just the work of artists, but the work of artists who live/work in this particular Minneapolis neighborhood."

"The primary goal of the project is to prevent and reduce graffiti," noted Spencer Agnew of the Longfellow Community Council (LCC). "Utility boxes in their natural state are a blank canvas for graffiti and are frequently tagged. Other neighborhoods, like Kingfield, have had success preventing graffiti by installing public art. LCC has taken a similar approach in the past through mural projects at neighborhood commercial buildings, but this is our first utility box art project."

Schmitt was responsible for selecting which artists were featured on the utility boxes. With an eye to whose work would look good enlarged to that scale, Schmitt also factored in compatibility with another work and coolness of their quotes.

His own work is featured at Lake and W. River Parkway. Schmitt is a landscape painter, art teacher, designer, gardener, with a passion for children and their families.

“I paint the landscapes I love (Lake Superior, Minnehaha Falls) but in the traditions of Chinese brush painting. I hope to convey hope and peace in my work,” said Schmitt.

Before pursuing art full-time by opening Laughing Waters Studio, he owned a graphic design business for 25 years. See more at http://www.laughingwatersstudio.com.

“The whole experience of LoLa has been this uncovering of an incredible group of artists residing in this little corner of the city,” observed Schmitt. “In the past, Lowertown, NE Minneapolis, Seward were known to be hotbeds of artistic talent and showcased in their art crawls. Who knew that this quiet little corner of Minneapolis contained so many and such a variety of art and artists.”

He added, “Another richness of LoLa, and by extension this great streets project, is that it represents people who are professional artists and making their living that way, to people who are just creating for the love of creating, to inexperienced or young artists who are just beginning to show their work.”

The utility box project was funded by a grant from the city of Minneapolis Solid Waste & Recycling Division through the "Innovative Graffiti Prevention" program.

ABOUT LOLA
The League of Longfellow Artists is dedicated to bringing to light the treasures of artistic expression created by artists living or working in the Greater Longfellow neighborhood of south Minneapolis (the geographic area defined as east of Cedar Avenue to the Mississippi River, and south of 28th Street to the Crosstown).

Having begun in the summer of 2009 as a small grassroots effort initiated by artists Anita White and Bob Schmitt (and creatively named by neighborhood activist Shirley Nielson), LoLa now flourishes as an annual art crawl that is managed as an artist-run community.

During its first year, 42 artists were featured at 20 different sites. Last year, it had grown to 69 sites and 115 artists. This year, expect 150 artists at 80 sites.

LoLa is committed to raising the visibility of local artists in the Longfellow neighborhood and to building a true sense of community for these artists.

Throughout the year a variety of informal gatherings are offered to support neighborhood artists around topics, types of work, use of electronic media and more. Learn more at lolaartcrawl.com.