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Public Address is a platform for wide-ranging discussion of innovative projects, and practices. Read here for news, announcements, and postings and sign up for our e-newsletter here.

Contemporary art is increasingly “untethered” and moves from the white cube of the gallery to any site – including the virtual – to engage the public in its own realm. Public art is an ever-expanding field of inquiry, with artists of all stripes exploring the public realm. Beyond murals, monuments, memorials (and the occasional mime) public art has become a vibrant and engaging practice. From the spectacular to the quotidian, permanent to ephemeral, sited to virtual, material to performative, conceptual to cinematic, we believe there are unprecedented opportunities for new art practices in our shared environment. This is the critical focus of Public Address.

ARTCOP21
Author
mediachef
Post
12.30.2015

https://vimeo.com/150305837
I recently had the opportunity to be in Paris at the end of the COP21 – the 21st annual Congress of Parties to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change – which resulted in an historic accord on December 12 by 195 countries for planned reductions in CO2 emissions. My primary mission was to look at as much of the parallel arts program, know as ARTCOP21, which accompanied the Congress. While I arrived too late to attend the core cultural symposium, I had the opportunity to experience a number of works and, perhaps more importantly, think about Northern Spark’s focus on climate change in 2016 and 2017. Why? How? To what end? Stay tuned for some additional information about Northern Spark in our January newsletter. In the meantime, here are some thoughts about what I saw in Paris.

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Announcing Northern Spark 2016 and 2017: A Year of Climate Change
Author
Northern Lights.mn
Post
12.9.2015

As a response to the intense global conversations on climate change now taking place in Paris at the COP21 talks, and around the world, we ask an important question: what is the role of art and culture in what some have called Year One of the climate revolution? To explore this question, Northern Lights.mn announces […]

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Listen to the city in a new timbre
Author
mediachef
Post
05.30.2015
Tags

We often talk about how one of the effects of a night of Northern Spark is to “see the city in a new light.” Since year 1, there has also been a remarkable range of sound and music projects from Phillip Blackburn’s festival opening Car Horn Fanfare to Monica Haller’s contemplative Can You Listen to the Same River Twice?

2015 is no exception, starting, of course, starting with Adam Levy, And the Professors, and the Mill City Summer Opera at the opening Northern Spark Launch Party (tickets) segueing to Cloud Cult’s outdoor concert on the Minneapolis Convention Center Plaza presented with tpt Lowertown Line, and ending at dawn with Brian Engel of Hotpants and Hipshaker Minneapolis fame at the Pancake Feed (tickets).

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Skill Share: A Northern Lights.mn Symposium
Author
Northern Lights.mn
Post
02.12.2015

March 27-28 join us for a conversation on art, surveillance and narrative plus an afternoon knowledge-share of strategies and tips every artist working with media in the public sphere needs to know.

Skill Share: A Northern Lights.mn Symposium
March 27-28, 2015 at the Soap Factory
Free, registration required.

Mark your calendars for a weekend of engagement with contemporary digital art(s) in conjunction with Art(ists) on the Verge 6. Part skills fair, part lecture and part happy hour, this gathering aims to build knowledge, peer learning and networks in our arts community.

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fwd://
Author
Northern Lights.mn
Post
02.11.2015

Introducing fwd:// – Ding an Sich When Piotr Szyhalski’s  Ding an sich came out almost 20 years ago, the New York Times said: “Szyhalski’s user-controlled creation is deeply involving and richly allusive. It is his most fully realized work to date and one of the most accomplished pieces of art on the Web.” Since then, […]

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MSAB Awards
Author
Northern Lights.mn
Post
02.9.2015

Congratulations to current and former Northern Lights artists and staff who received Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative support: Alyssa E. Baguss Olive Bieringa Eric W. Carroll Aaron J. Dysart Alison Hiltner Sam D. Hoolihan Colin Kloecker Chris Koza Shanai H. Matteson Benjamin J. Moren Monica Sheets Peter H. Thompson We can’t wait to see […]

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Calling All Food Vendors
Author
Northern Lights.mn
Post
02.9.2015

Northern Spark 2015 food vendor applications are now open: https://northernlightsmn.wufoo.com/forms/northern-spark-2015-food–vendor-application/

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Creative City Challenge Info Session Slides
Author
mediachef
Post
11.25.2014
Tags

Monday, December 1 at 4:30 pm is the deadline to submit your proposal to the Creative City Challenge. Here is the direct link for the online submission form. These are slides from the Information Session about the Challenge. If you have questions, email creativecitychallenge@northern.lights.mn.

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Creative City Challenge Info Session
Author
mediachef
Post
10.30.2014

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Find out about the $75,000 Creative City Challenge. How can you make the best proposal possible? What will the jury be looking for? What are the pragmatic issues of producing a project on the Minneapolis Convention Center Plaza? What does it mean for the public to participate in your project? What are some of the ways to think about site specificity? What has been the experience in past years?

Jeff Johnson, Executive Director of the Minneapolis Convention Center, Gulgun Kayim, Director of the Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy Program of the City of Minneapolis, and Steve Dietz, Artistic Director of Northern Lights.mn will be on hand to talk about the competition and to answer your questions.

Come with your questions. There will be a chance to tour the Plaza at 5:30 pm before the info session at at 7 pm afterwards.

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Call for Performers – Ruination: City of Dust
Author
Northern Lights.mn
Post
09.2.2014

Northern Lights.mn seeks performers for Ruination: City of Dust, an interactive, site-specific game produced with the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District and game designer WriterGuy Ken Eklund, and in partnership with the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board.

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Luftwerk: INsite
Author
Northern Lights.mn
Post
08.4.2014

Luftwerk, INsite test, 2012. Photo: Kate Joyce From October 17-20, 2014 the critically-acclaimed artist duo of Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero, known as Luftwerk, will bring INsite, a temporary public art exhibition, to Farnsworth House, a site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

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Jim Campbell: 8 1/2 x 11
Author
Northern Lights.mn
Post
08.4.2014

Jim Campbell’s new installation at St. Paul’s Union Depot, 8 1/2 x 11, commissioned by Northern Lights, is now up!

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