Community photo night University Avenue Project

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Wing Young Huie, The University Avenue Project, Project(ion) Site, 1433 University Ave.

The Community Photo Night

This Sunday, October 10, 6:30 pm
The University Avenue Project(ion) Site on 1433 University Avenue, across from Walmart
Come see photos and video taken by community members!

There’s still time to submit your photos-absolute deadline is this Sat, 6 pm! (See info below)

Submit photos

The University Avenue Project invites you to submit photos for our Project(ion) Site!

Have your photos of St. Paul’s University Avenue neighborhoods projected on our forty-foot screen on the evening of Sunday, September 19 for our “COMMUNITY PHOTO NIGHT.” This is open to all photographers, amateur of professional, University Avenue resident or not.

All types of photography will be considered, including photos of people, things, landscapes, conceptual, or family snapshots (but only your family snapshots if you live in a University Avenue neighborhood). The photos should be taken in the area north of I94, south of Pierce Butler, East of Emerald Street (two blocks west of Hwy 280) and west of 35E.

Send a maximum of 3 jpgs (around 1.2 mb) to: info@wingyounghuie.com
Or drop off a CD (maximum of 3 jpgs) at the Project(ion) Site anytime during projection hours: Wednesday – Sunday, 8:30 – 10:30 pm, 1433 University Avenue (across the street from Walmart, next to the Town House Bar).

This is not a photography contest, rather a way of creating an epic family album from all points of view! Photos selected will be at the discretion of Wing Young Huie.

The University Avenue Project

The University Avenue Project, produced by Public Art Saint Paul, is an extraordinary, large-scale public installation of hundreds of photographs that reflect the incredible diversity of its neighborhoods–taken by Wing Young Huie–that are exhibited along six miles of University Avenue in Saint Paul in store windows and on sides of buildings.

Project(ion) Site

The centerpiece is the Project(ion) Site where a giant, outdoor slide show of Wing’s photographs are projected on a 40 foot screen, accompanied by a soundtrack from 40 local musicians. The last Saturday of each month, we invite local talent to take the stage for The University Avenue Project Cabarets.

Conceived by Steve Dietz of Northern Lights.mn and designed by Meyer, Scherer and Rockcastle, Ltd. (MS&R), the site is built from cargo containers.  2 large towers along the edge of University provide for projection of images that will be visible for a mile in each direction.  Entering the site, visitors can view the nightly show that will be projected on a 40 foot screen.

Food for Thought: Continuing the Discussion on “Creating A Sustainable Public Art Practice”

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Panelists Christine Baeumler, Seitu Jones, Nicholas Legerous, and Ralph Nelson of Loom Studio shared their recent projects as well as views on the latest concerns and trends in sustainable public art practices (including the desire for a word to replace sustainable!). An inquisitive group of students from Vesper College and a hearty group of Twin Cities based public artists spurred the discussion along.

Forecast collaborated with NEMAA, Vesper College, and The Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Minnesota to host the evening to celebrate and promote the newest issue of Public Art Review which focuses on the same theme.

As is always the case with good dialog many more questions were raised than answers given. Forecast collected written questions from the audience and encourages you to continue the discussion online. Feel free to add your thoughts to the questions posed below! Or just read them as food for thought.

Does the future of sustainable art making lie in the manipulation of living organisms as a medium – moving away from the static?

How can (public) art inspire “mainstream” America to act?- Brad Baso

What change needs to occur within (public) art as a practice in order to be even more sustainable? What is holding the field back?  – Brad Baso

Where can one learn more about reusing water on one’s own property? Do you know of any city funded programs to encourage property owners to set up these types of projects? (related to a discussion on watershed art projects).

What are the negative & positive effects of the current economic downturn on sustainable public art & artists?  – Laurie Phillips

Sustainability demands scientific, technical knowledge of creative professionals. Will “Sustainability” in art eventually lead us to merge the studio with the laboratory (or field studies) in a seamless synthesis? Where might this lead?

Nick differentiated between his world before and after being involved in a community. Could everyone comment on their experience working as part of a greater community?  – Susannah

Please speak a bit more to how initiatives, community collaborations, and community history can become a part of sustainability.

How can public art be utilized better, especially concerning business as usual? Do you think art can help to change people value systems and help to work for social change?

How do beauty and emotion (of the work and process) help to build community and a better world?

When you envision a project that cuts across disciplines and public entities, is it best to approach them separately or together?

What skills, experiences, and insights do aritsts contribute to the sustainability community of scientists, government business, etc? Why should they be at the table? – Brad Baso

Does public art create change within or in spite of the system?  – Brad Baso

What is being sustained in sustainability? – Jon Spayde

“Sustainability” – overused indeed, so what buzz word should we start using instead?

How do you break into public art “creating sense of place” when pigeon-holed by commercial sense of place?

How do you get started in public art if your background is in commercial art but your heart is public?

And the winner is . . .

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Every year the Museums and the Web conference awards “Best of the Web” in various categories. This year, in the Innovative or Experimental Site category, the winner was My Yard Our Message.

My Yard Our Message was part of Northern Lights’ UnConvention collaboration.

The jury said about the project:

  • Awesome … brilliant job
  • leveraging a local event with national implications
  • the quality of the final slogan boards were as good if not
  • better than a corporate ad agency
  • the content worked during election season but also stands up beautifully now, post-election, both in terms of interest and also as a historical snapshot of the thinking of the time

Yard signs are as ubiquitous and familiar to the American political landscape as baby-kissing and stump speeches, combining catchy images and pithy campaign slogans to increase visibility for vying candidates and their parties’ messages. In honor of this election season, My Yard Our Message turns this tradition of political ephemera on its ear with a unique national competition: we’re putting the message and the creative design for these political yard signs in the hands of artists and then—in true democratic fashion—you, the people, will vote among the entries to determine a selection of fifty winners, whose designs will be made available to order as full-sized political yard-signs after August 1.

More details about the project and the process of putting it together are here.

My Yard Our Message, a project conceived by Scott Sayre, is produced by the Walker Art Center and mnartists.org in collaboration with The UnConvention.

The UnConvention is a non-partisan collaboration of local and national cultural organizations and citizens, initiated by Northern Lights, exploring the creative intersection of participatory media and participatory democracy. It exists as a counterpoint to the highly scripted and predetermined nature of the contemporary presidential nomination process and conventions.