News & Articles

Guess what: 2012 was an exciting year in the arts here in the Northland. It really is time to pay attention. And it’s happening on both sides of the bridge.

Superior has its Art in the Alley and Duluth has Art in the Skywalk. (picture of lift bride)

Artist/critic Ann Klefstad made this observation: “People are finally filling up the Sheraton and casino parking ramps in the evening. That never happened before this year, in my memory. And there are more galleries: Ochre Ghost, PRØVE, the potential Nordic Center, along with the established Washington Center, Lizzards, Duluth Art Institute (DAI), and others.”

Backdoor murals like this one will help customers find Superior businesses in 2013-14.

This energy is not just in the visual arts but across a full spectrum of expressions, from theater to music to poets and publishing. “I was trying to count up the number of performance venues/performing companies in town to a friend from out of town who was asking about this, and ran out of fingers,” Klefstad continued. “Considering our size, this is all pretty extraordinary. And the music, that’s even better than it was a few years ago, and it was good then.”

Photographer/musician John Heino, who has actively served on various boards and organizations focused on community development, agrees. “The Twin Ports arts scene does seem to be especially vibrant right now. The past few years have been about a number of energetic local leaders trying to make other key factors as friendly to artists as the place itself.

New galleries like the PRØVE (above) and the Ochre Ghost offer proof that the art scene is heating up.

“Not coincidentally, interaction and cross-pollination have been steadily increasing since the Knight Creative Community Initiative’s Art Works team brought 300 arts, business and community leaders together for a focused dialog on how the arts could help drive economic activity in the region. Kat Eldred, Art Works co-chair, is now the executive director of the Duluth Art Institute. Countless spinoffs from the Art Works conference continue to this day, producing tangible results such as the Phantom Galleries project in Superior.

Steampunk Unit BW (A Night of Steampunk, courtesy John Heino)

“By any measure, Art Works was a catalytic event that facilitated thinking and action to boost the local arts scene. I’m not going to wade into the question of whether Art Works was made possible by a game-changing emergence of leaders or Art Works was the catalyst for that leadership. I suspect it was a bit of both. Certainly, Art Works would have not attracted the critical mass it did unless many players in the community were already thinking about new possibilities.”

Richard and His Creations (A Night of Steampunk, courtesy John Heino)

In the Twin Ports, a whole host of formal and informal leaders who are promoters and advocates of the arts has been emerging. Mayor Ness and several city councilors have supported the arts to a much greater degree than many of their predecessors. As a modest but important example, local art is now rotated through the City Council chambers.  

Art brings color to a drab Northland winter

One of the major steps forward in 2012 was the creation of Twin Ports Arts Align, which formally kicked off early in the year. Through monthly meetings and an active Facebook community, TPAA has been spearheading a number of initiatives, including the launch of an officially recognized arts month for the city of Duluth in May 2013.

One of the key players in the development of TPAA was William Payne, who began the year as interim dean for UMD’s school of fine arts. A product of the Chicago theater scene, Payne and his vision for the arts dovetailed nicely with the new chancellor’s vision to see UMD more integrated into the community. By year’s end, Payne had been officially designated dean of the fine arts program. Crystal Pelkey, who has been co-chair, deserves a nod here as well.

The Duluth Art Institute has also seen a leadership transition this past eighteen months. With Kat Eldred as new director and the energetic Annie Dugan serving as curator, the DAI has played an instrumental role in a variety of ways.

“One piece I’m really excited about is our enhanced audience engagement,” said Dugan. “We introduced a new partnership with the Zinema Theater and had a great turnout to the Robert Hughes Series ‘Shock of the New.’ We’ll be continuing this winter with the ‘American Visions’ series. Our artist lectures and summer engagement programs continue to grow. We are constantly adding chairs to artist talks and community lectures.”

The DAI year always kicks off in January with its Member Show, which had 30 percent more participants in 2012. The year concluded with its juried Biennial, which is still on display. In between were exhibitions featuring everything from experimental art to traditional painting, illustration and poster art, and even a Polaroid show. It was a privilege to see the range.  

There were some added DAI surprises worth mentioning. This spring “A Night of Steampunk” became a true spectacle with a steampunk-themed fashion show, genre-specific visual arts, fire dancers, and a fascinatingly decked-out participatory crowd inside the Depot train museum. It was a costume ball that transported everyone, from hard-core enthusiasts to the tangentially curious, to a Victorian, Jules Verne-era fantasy. (Special nod to artist/steampunk craftsman Richard Rosvall and the Friends of Industry circle.)

There were also the usual DAI traditions that reached still further into the community, such as the annual Empty Bowl benefit that supports Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Bank. 2013 will be the 20th year for this event.

“We also put the spotlight on the importance of youth art with the reinstatement of an annual Youth Art Month exhibit,” Dugan added. “This is so important when you look at the devastating cuts in the arts at the Duluth Public Schools. We’ll be expanding our reach and including students from across our region with this year’s exhibit in March 2013.”

The contributions of Sacred Heart, Washington Galleries, Clyde Iron, Zeitgeist Arts, and the Zeppa Foundation all deserve acknowledgements beyond what space permits here. Thank you for your contributions.
 
“It’s Just a Bridge—Get Over It!”
The Superior side of the bridge has seen some exciting developments. Phantom Galleries Superior entered its second year of bringing artists to public spaces with numerous exhibitions in various locations on Tower Avenue. Some of the highlights included these:

~ Formed new partnership with Art for Earth Day Gallery Hop Group to become part of the Gallery Hop.
~ New alliance with the Twin Ports Gallery Group started by Anne Dugan of the DAI.
~ Acquired new “gallery” location at 1412 Tower Ave after the late fall 2011 lease of 1410 Tower Ave.
~ Fresh Art events in April as part of the first Twin Ports Gallery Progressive and Art for Earth Day Gallery Hop.

According to Erica Mock, grant money from the WI Arts Board and Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation and funding from Superior BID have helped contribute toward bringing art to the streets of Superior. The innovative Back Door project was initiated in anticipation of the tearing up of Tower Avenue over the next two years. Artists painting murals around the rear entrances will help keep commercial establishments solvent as customers are forced to find parking and doors on the alley side of these facilities.    

The big thrill in Superior has been seeing the various, usually isolated constituencies working together for the common good of the community. Political support along with the various projects bringing artists and the business community together have captured the attention of legislators and influential people far beyond our region. In September the Wisconsin Arts Board met in Superior with the members being surprised by a Random Acts of Art event, with live painting by Jeredt Runions, live quilting by Angela Haworth, and improvised music by Adam Sippola. The numerous murals and expressions of creative energy in public spaces have made an impact.

Actually, Runions has been a connector and informal leader for a variety of public arts initiatives on both sides of the bridge, including the semi-controversial mural project in Duluth’s Central Hillside.

There are so many people quietly working below the media radar to advance the arts here that we can’t list them all, but a few should be cited. Nora Fie of the Superior Library has been actively using space at the library to promote the works of visual artists. Her Love Your Local Artist event the past two years has been very successful at giving Superior artists a higher profile. Andrew Perfetti, who turned his Goin’ Postal shipping business into an art space, has also been instrumental in assembling music events that involve live painting, such as the August Harvest Fest in the art park at Hammond and Broadway. Look for more from Eris Vafias/Limbo Gallery, whose pop-up art shows and annual Artist Kamikaze events at Pizza Luce have echoed two strong contemporary themes: the power of collaboration and art in public spaces.

The Red Mug continues to host the works of new artists on a monthly basis, and other discussions are currently in the works for continued development on the foundations laid these past few years.

Up at the Tweed
The Tweed Museum of Art at UMD, with its permanent collection of over 6,000 art objects representing a range of cultures and periods of art history, has been a quiet and abiding resource for the arts for so long that we almost take it for granted. But even the Tweed is getting into the action as it transitions toward the future. According to director Ken Bloom, a number of important exhibitions were held this year, and a Minnesota Legacy Grant was awarded to the museum to catalog and digitize its collection and make it publicly searchable, an exciting development.
Over the past few months, the Tweed conducted focus groups and held a retreat that included members of the Tweed board, the public, and involvement by local leaders to help plan its future. “My impression is that we heard some profoundly encouraging views and were provided some voices of support from a wide range of interested people,” said Bloom. “Also, I think that getting the word out that the Museum is not fully supported by the University and that its programming depends greatly on public contributions to provide services was important.”


CLOSING THOUGHTS

Certainly there are far too many other names that ought to be listed here, unsung heroes who have spent years quietly bringing creative expression in all its forms to the Northland. This short summary can’t possibly list all the photographers, painters, ceramicists, sculptors, filmmakers, musicians, and theater players who have done so much, and continue to do so.

In mid-November, Mayor Don Ness held a press conference to share the findings of a task force involving national urban planning experts who made trips to our city in 2005 and 2011. After the 2011 trip, these outsiders were greatly impressed at the progress Duluth had made in six years. Their report concluded with these words:

“The Duluth Creative Corridor will reposition Duluth as one of the country’s great urban places. As evidenced by its exceptional progress to date and the continued support for a bold, shared vision, the city has the requisite public and private leadership and fortitude to make that happen.”

The energy displayed in 2012 revealed the power of the arts community to make a difference in our region’s future.