Art(ists) on the Verge 1

• Avye Alexandres
• Aniccha Arts
• Christopher Baker
• Kevin Obsatz
• Andrea Steudel
• Krista Kelley Walsh
• Art-a-Whirl 2009
• AOV Grantees Selected

The Jerome Foundation and Northern Lights, a new Twin Cities-based arts agency, with fiscal sponsor Forecast Public Art, announce Art(ists) on the Verge (AOV), a new two-track fellowship and mentoring program for Minnesota-based, emerging artists working experimentally at the intersection and technology, with a focus on practices that are social, collaborative and/or participatory.

Art(ists) On the Verge at Weisman Art Museum

On the right is video documentation of Andrea Steudel’s “Mobile Shadow Projection Theater” over the course of the fellowship. On the left is the entrance to Avye Alexandres’ “Once,” and glimpsed at the end is the installation of Kevin Obsatz’s “The Gate to the Enclosure.” Photo Rik Sfera.

Art(ists) On the Verge at Weisman Art Museum

Left, entrance to Avye Alexandres’ interactive installation “Once.” Left, on the floor, Christopher Baker’s “HPVS (Human Phantom Vibration Syndrome) and on the wall his “Murmur Study.” Photo Rik Sfera.

Art(ists) On the Verge at Weisman Art Museum

Entrance to Avye Alexandres’ interactive installation “Once.” Only one person can enter at a time, when the door knob is illuminated. Photo Rik Sfera.

Art(ists) On the Verge at Weisman Art Museum

Entering Avye Alexandres’ interactive installation “Once.” Photo Rik Sfera.

Art(ists) On the Verge at Weisman Art Museum

Avye Alexandres, “Once,” 2009. Photo Rik Sfera.

Art(ists) On the Verge at Weisman Art Museum

Avye Alexandres, “Once” (detail), 2009. Photo Rik Sfera.

Art(ists) On the Verge at Weisman Art Museum

Avye Alexandres, “Once” (detail), 2009. Photo Rik Sfera.

Art(ists) On the Verge at Weisman Art Museum

Christopher Baker, “Murmur Study,” 2009. Photo Rik Sfera.

Art(ists) On the Verge at Weisman Art Museum

Christopher Baker, “Murmur Study” (detail), 2009. Photo Rik Sfera.

Art(ists) On the Verge at Weisman Art Museum

Christopher Baker, “HPVS (Human Phantom Vibration Syndrome),” 2009. Photo Rik Sfera.

Art(ists) On the Verge at Weisman Art Museum

Christopher Baker, “HPVS (Human Phantom Vibration Syndrome)” (detail), 2009. Photo Rik Sfera.

Art(ists) On the Verge at Weisman Art Museum

Christopher Baker, “HPVS (Human Phantom Vibration Syndrome)” (detail), 2009. Photo Rik Sfera.

Art(ists) On the Verge at Weisman Art Museum

Kevin Obsatz, “The Gate to the Enclosure,” 2009. Photo Rik Sfera.

Art(ists) On the Verge at Weisman Art Museum

Kevin Obsatz, “The Gate to the Enclosure,” 2009. Photo Rik Sfera.

Art(ists) On the Verge at Weisman Art Museum

Kevin Obsatz, “The Gate to the Enclosure,” 2009. Photo Rik Sfera.

Art(ists) On the Verge at Weisman Art Museum

Aniccha Arts, video documentation of “Cloud Turn,” and “Weather Oracle,” interactive sound sculpture (Mark Fox), from ‘The Weather Vein Project.” Photo Rik Sfera.

Art(ists) On the Verge at Weisman Art Museum

Aniccha Arts, “Weather Oracle,” interactive sound sculpture (Mark Fox), video documentation of “Cloud Turn,” and “wecanchangetheweather.org” website, from ‘The Weather Vein Project.” Photo Rik Sfera.

Art(ists) On the Verge at Weisman Art Museum

Aniccha Arts, “Weather Oracle,” interactive sound sculpture (Mark Fox), from ‘The Weather Vein Project.” Photo Rik Sfera.

Art(ists) On the Verge at Weisman Art Museum

Krista Kelley Walsh, Public Eye Action, a series of public interventions. Collage drawings and computer with Internet access to live performance on Northrop Mall.

Purpose of Art(ists) on the Verge

The Jerome Foundation supports several world-leading organizations such as Rhizome and Turbulence, who foster new media art practice and are important champions of such work. In addition, technological considerations increasingly expand all artistic practices, including literary, visual, and performing arts, the moving image, architecture and design. While there are many students and practitioners of so-called new media art in the Twin Cities and Minnesota, there is a paucity of opportunities and support to critically develop and present such work. The ultimate goal of the AOV Fellowship and Mentorship programs is to create sustainable habitat for the local ecology of experimental art practice with the following key elements: critical support and evaluation, monetary and technical resources, audience development, and institutional recognition.

Twin Tracks: Fellowships and Mentorships

A total of six commissions will be awarded. Three of the six commissions are outright fellowships for the production of new work and a joint exhibition in the spring/summer of 2009 at a site to be determined. The other three commissions are part of a 9-month, experimental Art(ists) On the Verge for the development, production and exhibition of new work. The Mentorship program begins in September 2008 followed by an intensive 3-day “Boot-Up” Camp, October 10-12, co-presented with MCAD. Over the ensuing 9 months, artists will have bi-weekly individual and group mentoring sessions and critical workshops by visiting curators and artists on multiple occasions followed by a joint exhibition in the spring/summer of 2009 at a venue to be determined.