Avenues: Made Here commemorates and reflects upon the last five years of Made Here by showcasing a collection of previous Made Here artists that have participated since its inception in 2013. Their works explore the theme “avenues” through window displays and large-scale photography exhibits on the exterior of downtown buildings. Avenues will also include the new Made Here Alumni Gallery in the PNC Encore Lounge at 900 Hennepin, featuring works by 11 past Made Here artists.

View a printable map or learn more about our Arts Advisory Panel.

Showcase 100: Anthony Chapin + Erin Lavelle
Title: Whose Street?

In the wake of Hennepin being ripped up and redeveloped, we honor the people, systems and movements that have traversed the avenue and called it their home throughout time. What ghosts of the past still linger? Who are its current caretakers and residents? And how do we plan for an inclusive future?

From mobsters to Teamsters Hennepin Avenue has been the locus of all kinds of activity: legal, illicit, changemaking and righteous. It has served as a platform for protest and a place for shelter. An original artery to the city – and the first to cross the Mighty Mississippi – this historic pathway has ushered the flow of streetcars, automobiles, bicycles and the feet of the original indigenous people whose land we criss-cross every day.

Using a deconstructed bed as the ‘home’ of the avenue, we represent the systems tangled below and spirits haunting above, asking questions of ownership. Is there a place for us all? Whose street is this?

As we stand on this avenue – once a footpath – what can we envision for the future?

Photo by Steven Lang

Showcase 101: Sarah White
Title: Decussation

Decussation.

How can we more deeply Intersect?

How can Intersectionality really live as we all struggle to cling onto our rituals and community in times where the systems take our homes, our culture, and our ways to remember who we ARE?

Coming together is a beautifully complicated dance. We learn, We fall, We get back up.

I wanted to highlight some powerful work that is necessary for the survival of all of us.

I want to try harder to join forces towards the growth of us all, and give thanks to the BRAVE ones.

Sarah White
Fotos For Barcelona
www.fotosforbarcelona.com

Photo by Steven Lang

Showcase 102: Ta-coumba Aiken
Title: SEE FOR YOURSELF # 2
(a weaving of Spiritual Pathways)

Ta-coumba T. Aiken’s installation depicts his “Visual Voice,” a journey of his past, present, and beyond. He considers his work an interactive dialogue with the viewer, a silent uninterrupted dialogue between the viewers experiences and the art.

“I create my art to heal the hearts of people and their communities by evoking a positive spirit.”

Aiken’s public artist role is comprised of community building and beautification. He gives the audience a continuous experience that is subtle and dynamic. Aiken believes his role is to listen, interpret, inspire, and be a weaver of ideas.
Ta-coumba T. Aiken has received numerous awards and honors including a commissioned installation at the McKnight Foundation 2017-18, the Bush Foundation Visual Arts Fellowship, Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellowship, Minnesota State Arts Board Cultural Community Partnership grant, Knight Arts Challenge Award with Walker West Music Academy and Aiken is a Sally Award winner. His painting entitled, “Forever Saint Paul” was awarded the Guinness Book World Record for the most Lite-Brite pegs ever used (596,000+) to create a painting. This piece is permanently located in the Saint Paul Union Depot. He has exhibited and lectured nationally and internationally including USA, Brazil, Nigeria, Ghana, and China.

He currently serves on the board of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

To learn more, visit tacoumbaaiken.com.

Photo by Steven Lang

Showcase 103: Kulture Klub Collaborative

Title: Obstacles & Overcoming

We all face obstacles. We all have road blocks on our journey through life. One moment our paths feel wide and inspired. We’re on our way to reaching our goal and the end result is in sight! Then suddenly, the path narrows and closes in. Obstacles are thrown into the center and we’re forced to climb, jump, adapt, and be vulnerable to the challenges we’re faced with. Alleyways are dark. The city becomes a monster that may swallow you on your path. The people in the buildings have the power to decide who gets what they need to get by. Who are these people? We don’t have access to the buildings…or do we?

Our reactions and learned abilities to overcome these obstacles are key to our success. We all have strengths, what are they? How can we work together to overcome these obstacles? Who has helped you along the way? How can you pass that help on to others?

Kulture Klub Collaborative is a nonprofit arts organization that engages art and artistic practice to provide enriching opportunities for youth experiencing homelessness and artists to grow individually and to transform community.

Photo by Steven Lang

Showcase 104: Quinn Rivenburgh

Title: is seeking us

This papercut documents, in a fractal, branching way, my personal exploration of healing from vicarious trauma. The work is driven by the question, “in instances of psychic pain, what is the body’s suffering trying to communicate to the mind?” Through this introspective process, informed by adrienne maree brown’s groundbreaking work Emergent Strategy, I came to understand how to integrate these overwhelming experiences. As adrienne maree brown writes in her poem a complex movement, “the peace we seek / is seeking us.” Similarly, I undertook a process of letting my nervous system catch up with my thoughts, over and over again, moment by moment. Throughout this process, I looked to creative nature, my own body, and Tarot wisdom to make meaning from otherwise devastating events.

Photo by Steven Lang

Showcase 105: The Illuminated Reef Collective

Title: The Illuminated Reef

The Illuminated Reef pays homage to world coral reefs weaving together the tools of art and science.

In full installations, the public is invited to swim a myriad of sea creatures around a dome teeming with otherworldly life. While participating in the reef, guests witness a whimsical array of sculptural elements made of discarded and repurposed materials designed to emulate a living coral community.

For the Made Here, Avenues, we showcase the abundant biodiversity present in coral reefs and bring attention to human impacts. Through giant whorls of plastic and rising carbon dioxide levels that lead to destructive coral bleaching, we see our impact.

All things are interconnected. It is our hope that through witnessing the the intricate beauty of coral communities and the harmful effects of human behavior that a spark to shift will occur. We invite you to take action to protect the health of our planet and future generations.

Created by: Peter Schulze, Terry McDaniel, Mina Leierwood, Janet Groenart, Tara Fahey, and community volunteers

First presented at Northern Spark, Minneapolis, 2016 and by invitation at InLightIn, Indianapolis. Ongoing installation at Can Can Wonderland, St.Paul

Photo by Steven Lang

Showcase 106: Juxtaposition Arts

Title: Love is Law

Our installation explores themes of diversity, safety, potential future and individualized space. We are interested in how to make a neighborhood that can accommodate a variety of people from different backgrounds with different needs, while still fostering a strong community.

Main + Side Window Display

• Tiered platforms escalating from front to back decorated as hills, grass, and trees
• Buildings placed throughout as dioramas that show themed spaces and characters
• Center area with a fountain, park, community center, and various characters
• Paths will connect all the buildings to the town center
• Using mixed media: clay, found objects, acrylic paint, lighting
• Animals, humans, living objects

Bottom Window Vignettes

• Small scenes displaying intimate interactions in public and private spaces, showcasing an array of peoples and cultures
• Home Vignette
  • In the kitchen with a family consisting of multiple generations
• Celebration Vignette
  • People and animals dancing to music played by a DJ
• Bakery Vignette
  • A bakery display of many cultural treats
• Park Vignette
  • Children playing sports, a BBQ on the side

Photo by Steven Lang

Showcase 107: Sayge Carroll & Katrina Knutson

Title: Minnesota, we are here.

Sayge Carroll and Katrina Knutson are born and raised Minneapolis working artists and educators, they paint murals, make music and create all kinds of art out of all kinds of things.

We created 3 pieces representing the state of Minnesota, where we are, where we are from and where we create.

One door is a mosaic, loosely based on the topography of our state, indicating land masses, large bodies of water, the mighty Mississippi, and urban centers.

One door pays homage to the tribes of the original inhabitants of this land. Before borders and states, or countries. When we are in Minnesota, we are on Lakota/Dakota and Ojibwe/Annishinabe land.

One door highlights some of the historic examples of resistance and occupations in Minnesota. The 4th precinct resistance to the murder of Jamar Clark, the occupation to stop Highway 55, and the truckers’ strike of 1934.

Photo by Steven Lang

Showcase 108: Soozin Hirschmugl

Title: Avenue of Saints

“Avenue of Saints,” my Made Here showcase, is a nod to all who spend their time on Hennepin Ave. I wanted to create a new work that celebrates those that call Hennepin home and acknowledge the call to “please help.” This display is a created from my favorite medium: cardboard, mache, and paint.

As an artist, I work from a Social Justice lens to call attention to what is sometimes unseen. Every day within a 5 block radius of 10th and Hennepin, more than 1,200 men, women, and children seek emergency shelter.

I am very thankful for this opportunity and so thankful for all the work that Made Here has done to create ten rounds of showcases on the Hennepin Avenue

Photo by Steven Lang

Showcase 109: Minneapolis MAD DADS: Keynon Starks & VJ Smith
Title: Celebrating 20 Years of Hope Dealing

MAD DADS is an acronym: Men Against Destruction, Defending Against Drugs and Social Disorder.

Now in its 20th year of serving the community, the Minneapolis chapter of MAD DADS has:

• Served over 87,000 families.
• Spent more than 1,000,000 hours in the streets working to reduce violence in our communities.
• Responded to over 600 shootings. Our presence promotes peace, helps resolve conflict, and offers alternatives to criminal and violent retaliations.
• Offered life-skills coaching to over 88,000 inmates at the Hennepin County Detention Center and other correctional facilities.

As we enter our 20th year of service, we continue our fight against drugs, gangs and violence. We continue to work towards restoring our beloved communities and deterring youth from a life of violence and destruction.

Help us continue these vital services by making a tax-deductible donation to Minneapolis MAD DADS by visiting our website at minneapolismaddads.org or mailing a donation to Minneapolis MAD DAD, P.O. Box 8980, Minneapolis, MN 55408.

For more information, contact us at 612-455-4630 or minneapolismaddads.org.

Photo by Steven Lang

Showcase 110: Richard Yang

Title: The Journey

Many of us from all walks of life call the Twin Cities home. It is a place of familiarity, refuge, sanctuary, and resilience. For some, this land has long been home. For others, the journey here has been met with arduous twists and turns. Regardless, this is what we now share together.

As I explore this notion of Avenues, I conjure up images of transport: how we navigate the perplexities of everyday life and how this journey shapes our collective experience. Since the late 1970s, countless Hmong immigrants have settled here in the Twin Cities as refugees of war. This is where my journey started. Life has brought with it its share of crossroads, forks, dead-ends and u-turns as we have come to adapt to change, unfamiliar terrain, diversity, and new ways of being. Despite it all, our existence as we know it now could never have been imagined.

Richard D. Vibsawm Yang

Photo by Steven Lang

Showcase 111: Erik Pearson

Title: The Weight of Whispering Boughs

When an avenue of trees become activated with song,
The weight of the experience is compelling,
It draws you near with a whisper and a nod,
And shines bright through the din of today.

This installation explores the juxtaposition of the natural and the human-made construction that we experience every day. We wander through a forest of construction zones to seek the incredible that lingers right around the corner. If we’re lucky, we find the secrets that the avenue reveals.

1. 10 South 10th Street (The FAIR School Downtown)

FAIR School Downtown is the Downtown Minneapolis premier community school. Rooted in arts, equity, innovation and creativity, The FAIR School provides rich programming, relevant instruction, and fosters high achievement, cultural understanding, global citizenship, and a robust network of partnerships that help engage and empower students in personalizing their learning experience.

3. 900 Hennepin Avenue (Hennepin Theatre Trust)

Colin Michael Simmons is a photographer and visual artist who has had his work featured on the cover of City Pages and other publications. Colin worked for Saturday Night Live as a photographer and archivist in 2012 and 2013.

5. 528 Hennepin Avenue (The Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts)

Coco Connolly, established Minneapolis artist whose background includes art director at Carmichael Lynch Advertising Agency, owning her own design studio, and creative manager for Target Corporation. She has won national and regional awards for her advertising and design wor

k and her work has been recognized in Communication Arts, Print and Creative Quarterly magazines. Coco has been a featured speaker at venues in Baltimore, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Washington DC for the American Institute of Graphic Artists. She has also been a guest speaker at the Perpich Center for Arts Education, sharing her love of art and design with High School students. Pursuit of her personal work has been ongoing. From three-dimensional work to book forms, with an abundance of drawing and painting in between. She’s taught watercolor workshops in the Midwest and Italy, and in the Twin Cities leads art activities with kids at Children’s Hospital and Ronald Mcdonald House for Breanna’s Gift foundation.