Your Northern Spark back up plan

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It’s unlikely that with all the excitement of Northern Spark you won’t be able to stay up all night, but just in case, Le Meridien Chambers Minneapolis is offering a special Northern Spark rate for the evening, where you can crash for a power nap, if you want to.

As an added bonus, you’ll be able to go directly downstairs to the Burnet Gallery and experience Alexa Horochowski’s, Cloud Cave at any point during the night or listen to the world premiere of Artifact Shore’s Living Cloud Cave at 5 am with no problem. And nearby is The Notion Collective’s Station Identification for a bracing, seldom-seen, wee hours view of the city from the top of the Foshay Tower.

Your call whether PJs are appropriate Festival attire.

Making the Band: Chris Kallmyer composes music for the opening of the Northern Spark

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Reblogged from Walker Art Center.

Chris Kallmyer testing the sound properties of the site.

Chris Kallmyer testing the sound properties of the site.

Los Angeles based composer Chris Kallmyer has spent the last two days walking the Stone Arch bridge, testing survival whistles and sketching plans for new piece as part of the Northern Spark Festival on June 4th and 5th.  for dawn or dusk // homeward is a 10-15 minute sound work for 100+ local musicians playing brass, percussion, piccolos and tiny whistles.  The site specific performance will take place on the Stone Arch Bridge, stretching across the Mississippi playing overlapping melodies derived from the route of the river.  The score is based the route of the river south past St. Louis, Memphis, New Orleans and into the Gulf of Mexico.


Map of Mississippi River over-layed as a guide for the composition.

Community involvement is integral to the piece.

In this spirit, amateurs will work side by side with professionals, as well as community leaders who will run rehearsals. Chris states “The intent of this project is to host a range of musicians involved, and create a unique opportunity for younger musicians to pair with more experienced performers outside of a classroom or traditional band setting.”  The score is written considering players of all levels and experience and will give the performers the unique experience of debuting an original piece created specifically for them.”

If you are curious if this project is right for you, please check out this PDF of the working score!

We are still seeking musicians for the piece.  What would that mean for you…

Participating musicians

Trumpet, Trombone/Baritone/Tuba/Sousaphone, Piccolo, Percussion.

We are looking for musicians age 10 – 110 (amateur and professional) who love playing their instrument, are not afraid to play loud, and have an interest in engaging with their community via music. Folks need to be willing to participate in three rehearsal prior to the performance at the Northern Spark Festival on June 4 at 9:05.  Participants will need to provide their own instruments, and percussionists are encouraged to bring two instruments from this list: marching snare drum, marching bass drum, glockenspiel, metal junk, and bells.

Time Commitment

two rehearsals with your section leader prior to the June 4 concert.

  • Friday, June 3. 6:00 – 8:00 pm //  rehearsal at the Stone Arch Bridge.
  • Saturday, June 4. 9:05- 9:20 pm // Walk-through at 7pm // Performance at the Stone Arch Bridge.

Section Leaders

We are looking for trumpet, trombone, and piccolo leaders who can organize and run two rehearsals with your section prior to June 3.  I’d like you to work on the piece but also general fundamentals and pedagogy.  Starting with a warm-up, playing some chorales, and finishing with the piece at hand.  We are able to have one leader for each section.  We are looking for candidates who have an interest in working with their community, pedagogy, new music, and a sense of humor.

Time Commitment

  • phone meeting with Chris Kallmyer (artist) and Northern Spark on May 20 to look over score and parts.
  • arrange two rehearsals with your section prior to the June 3.
  • Friday, June 3. 6:00 – 8:00 pm //  rehearsal at the Stone Arch Bridge.
  • Saturday, June 4. 8:55 – 9:15 pm // Call time at 6pm // Performance at the Stone Arch Bridge.

Chris is also the music curator for Machine Project, a LA based collective who will be in residence on the Walker Open Field this July.Check out video from their brief visit this winter, including Chris’s Tea Pot Igloo performances.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k87-fFnl1fM&feature=player_embedded

Community conversation @NorthernSpark

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All My Relations Gallery

All My Relations Arts invites you to join us for a community conversation with local Native American artists Mona Smith, Bobby Wilson and Robert Two Bulls. They will be talking with guest artists Rigo 23, whose work Oglala Oyate will screen during the Northern Spark festival at AMRA. Joining them will be Tom Poor Bear from Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Poor Bear worked with Rigo 23 and appears in the video. Curator and poet Heid Erdrich will moderate. Light refreshments will be served.

All My Relations Arts
1414 East Franklin Ave.
5:30 pm – 7:30 pm, Saturday, June 4, 2011

Rigo 23, Oglala Oyate, 2010 01SJ Biennial

Mississippi Megalops tickets

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Jonathan Padelford at night

Mississippi Megalops is a floating Chautauqua featuring performances & presentations of history, art & science aboard an authentic paddle steamer riverboat. Tickets are free, but limited! To pre-book a ticket visit bit.ly/megalopstickets.

Call for trumpet, trombone / baritone, percussion and piccolo for unique community band.

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Would you like to be part of a unique musical performance?  Do you like the standing above/between the banks of the Mississippi?  Do you play a brass instrument or percussion? Do you like bridges? Are you free the evening of June 4th?   Do you like sparklers?  Do you want to be part of something you will talk about for years? Do you have friends that fit the above description too?  If so…we have something you are going to love.

Los Angeles based composer Chris Kallmyer has been invited curator Scott Stulen and  the Northern Spark Festival to create a gigantic brass and percussion piece for the Stone Arch Bridge.  Chris is also the music curator for Machine Project, a LA based collective who will be in residence on the Walker Open Field this July.  The performance for Northern Spark will serve as an opening “fanfare” to the nightlong festival and is sure to be a highlight of the event.

The piece itself is conceived specifically for the site of the Stone Arch Bridge, taking advantage of the space and its perch above the Mississippi. The instrumentation is for brass section, percussion battery and a small choir of piccolos.  Below is further information on the piece, and the potential time commitment. Click here for Northern Spark’s page on the project. The piece has the potential to be a cultural event for the local music community, and if this fits you,  we hope you consider participating.

1. Time Commitment:

– Friday, June 3. 6:00 – 8:00 pm //  rehearsal at the Stone Arch Bridge.

– Saturday, June 4. 8:55 – 9:15 pm // Call time at 6pm // Performance at the Stone Arch Bridge.

2. Open to musicians of all levels and abilities

3. We are looking for candidates who have an interest in working with their community, pedagogy, new music, and a sense of humor.

Full Description

Stone Arch Bridge

for dawn or dusk // homeward is a 10-15 minute sound work for 100+ local musicians playing brass, percussion, woodwinds and tiny whistles.  The site specific performance will take place on the Stone Arch Bridge, stretching across the Mississippi playing overlapping melodies derived from the route of the river.  The piece follows the route of the river south past St. Louis, Memphis, New Orleans and into the Gulf of Mexico.  Community involvement is integral in this piece. I am interested in how we can create a forum of equal participation and creative input, much like the brass bands in Europe and community bands that used to populate the United States.  In this spirit, local amateurs will work side by side with professional musicians, and local community leaders.

Interested?

Please RSVP to curator Scott Stulen at scott.stulen@walkerart.org to sign-up and for full details or pass this information along to anyone you know.

For context, here is a short video of one of Chris past projects.
http://vimeo.com/17313416

Support Mississippi Megalops

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And receive reserved tickets for one of the more than 90 highlight events of Northern Spark.

Mississippi Megalops – A Floating Chautauqua by Works Progress is a night of sparkling performances, illustrated presentations, and other works of artistic and scientific expression, which will take place aboard the Jonathan Padelford stern wheeler as it makes its way down the Mississippi River, illuminating the shores of Saint Paul, on June 4-5, during the Northern Spark Festival.

Jonathan Paddleford

More artists selected for Northern Spark

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We recently juried a number of open calls, and selected an amazing group of artists to present work at Northern Spark on June 4-5. This is not a complete list, yet. These projects will join those presented by Northern Lights and our more than 40 partners, many of which are listed on the Northern Spark website. Congratulations to these artists and thanks to everyone who submitted proposals.

Emily Darnell, Molly Roth, Terese Elhard. The Snap Shot Shanty is a portrait studio and multipurpose art space used to facilitate projects with its attendees, which are documented in photo, video, and sound formats and then archived online. Beyond documentary-style portraiture,  past activities have included mask-making, caricature drawing and musical performances. New activities will be introduced for The Snap Shot Shanty’s new context including long exposure photographic experiments, illuminated storytelling, and choreographed light shows.

Daniel Dean and Ben Moren. Mobile Experiential Cinema is a roving, bicycle-mounted cinematic experience that takes advantage of the specific sites at which a film is created. A short narrative film will be created and then projected at at least 5 specific sites within Zones A,B, C & D with audience and projection team travel via bike between sites as part of the narrative arc of the film. Props and actions will be included at the physical site that mirror the content of the film and draw the audience into the experience of the film.

Ben Garthus. Creative Outpost is a nomadic social gathering point that unpacks from a car trailer and is devoted to facilitating creative, self-determined activities. Inspired by the free open-ended play of adventure playgrounds, which are common in much of Europe but are a rarity in the United States, Creative Outpost will not have a specific program but instead will have a variety of loose parts, old building materials, tools and open ended equipment that challenges participants to come up with their own activities.

Leslie Kelman and Mark O’Brien. Domestic Storefront is a small hut resembling a Minneapolis mixed-use building and having fabric over the windows, lit from within. Working from within through the night modifying the shape of the windows using needles, thread, wooden strips and staple guns our silhouettes are visible from outside for curious observers to follow the progress.

Osman Khan. Ceiling places a horizontally scanning laser at a city site. Apart from a drawing a line approximately 10 ft in the air on surrounding buildings , the laser is invisible, except when particulates pass through the beam, such as fog, mist, dust, steam from sewers, laundromats, individual smokers or strategically placed fog machines.  Oscillating between visibility and invisibility, Ceiling plays with the public’s perceptions and fantasies of invisible forces.

Mina Leierwood and Mike Haeg. Paradice on the Mississippi is a pair of dice shaped shanties that host many opportunities for families, friends and even total strangers to connect through gameplay. Activities include The Holy Roller, which alternates between transportation and game board; a table game based on the Art Shanty Projects; and play and pick up plans for some Scandahoovian yard games.

Norbert Lucas, Jerry Riess, Craig Mary Verhoeven. GPS Shanty is an octagon-shaped shanty. Visitors use the direction of a large three foot compass in the center of the octagon shanty to determine Norht, South, East or West, and then locate their town and place a note on the wall including their town’s name, what the town is most known for, or why they like the town. Maps and photos decorate the appropriate walls of the North, East, West, and South suburbs.

Aaron Marx. MAW Mobile Hotspot creates a mobile 4G hotspot and human-powered projection unit used to allow other artists or participants free wireless access. The unit will also be used for projection experiments utilizing live streaming technology.

Megan Mertaugh. To pull up. is a mobile film installation to be projected on homes that are in the process of foreclosure or are foreclosed within festival Zone D of Northern Spark. Moving from one house address to another using MAW’s mobile projection platforms to project onto the structural features of each property, To pull up. is designed to provide a visual voice for those individuals and families within our community who have recently lost or are in the midst of loosing their home, to tell their story.

The Notion Collective (Andy Dayton, Jason Bahling, Michael Eckblad, Candice Heberer, Jon Wohl). Station Identification is an audio installation on the Foshay Tower Observation Deck, which will serve as an aural map of Twin Cities  AM/FM radio broadcasting as well as transform the historic skyscraper into a broadcast tower for transmitting information about participants’ relationship to the radio landscape.

Angela Olson. wanderlust will be a night of journey, wander, and search. A group of wanderers travel from site to site, observing the events around them. and searching for their end destination.

Stephen Rife. Firefall is a live-action, pyrotechnic display involving a modified grain shovel marking regular intervals of the Northern Spark nuit blanche.

Carissa Samaniego and Bridget Beck. GLOW-a-BOUT is a nightlong city game meant for large-scale participation that combines the spirit of nostalgic night games and the Holi Festival to create a new event specific to Northern Spark and involves fortresses, flags, pigmented powders, teams, and glowing orbs.

Skewed Visions (Charles Campbell, Gulgun Kayim, Sean Kelley-Pegg). Please Remain Seated is a performance tailored for 15 bus drivers, driving the 15 Festival buses for the duration of Northern Spark. The material for the performances will explore the inner thoughts and intimacies in the urban environment as seen through the eyes of the driver and the routine of driving a bus.

Angela Sprunge, Dana Maiden , Julie Kesti , Scott Kesti, Kaara Nilsso. In Art Swap Shanty adults and children are invited to swap an object of their creation for someone else’s. Our mantra- “if you call it art, we call it art.” Art Swap is fun, interactive, community building, economically and resource friendly, recession trendy, and contagious.

Paris along the Mississippi?

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MPR’s Chris Roberts interviews Northern Spark Artistic Director Steve Dietz. Chris did a great job of zeroing in on some of the key questions about why Northern Spark and why the Twin Cities? Ultimately, only the Festival itself can make the case, but listen here for some initial thoughts. And start “training” now to stay up all night on June 4.

url for Northern Spark submissions

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Post your submissions to Northern Spark here

http://submissions.northern.lights.mn/northernspark

Deadline March 7

midnight CST

Imagining Northern Spark

Imagining Northern Spark, maquette and photography by Rasun Mehringer

Northern Lights and our partners are sponsoring more than 20 calls for participation in the Northern Spark nuit blanche. Some are based on specific locations, some on specific media, and others are free form. The deadline for submitting proposals is March 7, 2011. Any artist – or in the case of some of the calls, curator or organization or business – may submit a proposal, but all projects must take place within one of the 6 Festival Zones.

Imagining Northern Spark

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maquette and photography by Rasun Mehringer | northernspark.org

Maquette and photography by Rasun Mehringer | northernspark.org

It’s always hard to imagine something new before it happens. Rasun Mehringer’s fanciful photo of Northern Spark taking place on the banks of the Mississippi with the downtowns of Minneapolis and Saint Paul on either side playfully hints at the transformation planned for the Twin Cities between sunset on June 4 and sunrise on June 5. See the cardboard construction maquette from which she worked her magic.

An early version (and lighting test) of the maquette. | northernspark.org
Detail of maquette in process. | northernspark.org
Detail of maquette in process. | northernspark.org
Detail of maquette in process. | northernspark.org
Detail of maquette in process. | northernspark.org
Detail of maquette in process. | northernspark.org
Maquette and photography by Rasun Mehringer | northernspark.org

Imagined projects include Roman Verostko’s Three-Story Drawing Machine on the Gold Medal Silos where Debora Miller’s MURMUR will be projected; the giant white flag, which Piotr Szyhalski will raise at sunrise during the performance of “Empty Words” (Towards Surrender); Janaki Ranpura’s Egg & Sperm Ride; a sound installation from the top of the Foshay Tower; Barbara Claussen’s migrating phone booths; the glow of bioluminescent algae beneath a ceiling veil of living light; Andrea Stanislav’s Nightmare on the Mississippi; projections onto Landmark Center and the Saint Paul Public Library; and Jim Campbell’s Scattered Light. Just some of the more than 60 projects planned with our partners for Northern Spark.

Houseboat wanted

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"Lagoon," Photo Craig Simcox

"Lagoon," Photo Craig Simcox

The BodyCartography Project seeks houseboat for a performance commissioned by Northern Spark Festival. It is an intimate performance work for small audiences in a boat that travels on the Mississippi from Boom Island through the lock and dam and back again. Looking for a boat with character, electricity and a working toilet. Size of boat from 30-60 feet. The boat is needed for roughly a week, end of May until June 4th, with performances happening on one night only. We are looking for donation but can pay a rental fee if necessary.

Please see this web link for more details about the festival and performance:
http://northernspark.org/projects/houseboat.html?org=p

Please contact Otto Ramstad
otto@bodycartography.org
612 822 3397

Open call for Northern Spark projects

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Northern Spark Open Calls

Northern Lights and our partners are sponsoring more than 20 calls for participation in the Northern Spark nuit blanche twin cities. Some are based on specific locations, some on specific media, and others are free form. The deadline for submitting proposals is March 7, 2011. Any artist – or in the case of some of the calls, curator or organization or business – may submit a proposal, but all projects must take place within one of the 6 Festival Zones. More information here.

Northern Spark nuit blanche

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Northern Spark

Northern Spark homepage

For one night only, more than 60 regional and national artists together with the Twin Cities’ arts community will display new art installations at public places and unexpected locations throughout the city. Directed and produced by Northern Lights.mn, Northern Spark takes place this summer from sunset on June 4 (8:55 p.m.) until the morning of June 5, 2011 (sunrise 5:28 a.m.).

The Northern Spark event will include a wide diversity of art forms and projects including multi-story projections, audio environments with vistas, installations traveling down the Mississippi on barges, houseboats and paddleboats, headphone concerts, and the use of everything from bioluminescent algae and sewer pipes for organs to more traditional media such as banjos and puppets.

The event is a collaboration of more than 40 partners, each of which will sponsor one or more projects for the duration of the night. The goal is to showcase the urban splendor of the Twin Cities in a unique way, introducing a broad and diverse audience to innovative local and national talent in an inspiring journey through the night.

Participating artists

Participating artists involved in the nuit blanche include Christopher Baker, Phillip Blackburn, The BodyCartography Project, Bart Buch, Jim Campbell, Barbara Claussen, Wing Young Huie, John Kim, Suzanne Kosmalski, Debora Miller, MAW, Ali Momeni, Janaki Ranpura, Red76, Rigo 23, rolu, Jenny Schmid, Andrea Stanislav, Piotr Szyhalski, Roman Verostko, Diane Willow, Works Progress,  Marcus Young, and others.

Participating organizations

Northern Spark participating organizations include: 1419 Artists in Residence, All My Relations Art, American Composer’s Forum, The Art Institutes International Minnesota, Art Shanty Projects, Beijing Film Academy, Black Dog Cafe + Wine Bar, Burnet Gallery at Le Meridien Chambers Minneapolis, College of Visual Arts, The Film Society Minneapolis/Saint Paul, Forecast Public Art, Franklin Art Works, The Friends of Saint Paul Public Library, Highpoint Center for Printmaking, Intermedia Arts, Kulture Klub Collaborative, Landmark Center, Macalester College, MAW, McNally Smith College of Music, Le Meridien Chambers Minneapolis, Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota Museum of American Art, mn original, mnartists.org, Mpls Photo Center, Northern Lights.mn, Northrop Concerts and Lectures, Public Art Saint Paul, Rain Taxi Review of Books, Regis Center for Art, Saint Paul Public Library, Schubert Club, Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory,  Science Museum of Minnesota, Soap Factory, SooVac, W Minneapolis-The Foshay, Walker Art Center

Supported by

Northern Spark is made possible in part by a grant provided by the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature from the Minnesota arts and cultural heritage fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.

Connect to Northern Spark

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Bring to Light

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nvas of light as leafy forms, birds, and other designs transformed the structure. via Hyperallergic

On October 2, 2010, the first ever nuit blanche, Bring to Light, took place in New York’s Greenpoint. Hyperallergic has a nice photo essay of the event.

Minnesota’s first ever nuit blanche, Northern Spark, takes place June 4, 2011.

Northern Spark

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Northern Spark is a new MN Festival modeled on a nuit blanche or “white night” festival – a dusk to dawn participatory art event along the Mississippi and surrounding areas.

Save the date!

Northern Lights.mn received start up funding from the MN State Arts Board and Northern Spark will take place the evening of June 4 (sunset 8.55 pm) till the morning of June 5, 2011 (sunrise 5.28 am).

Our goal is make Northern Spark a world-class event that focuses on Minnesota-based artists, pushes the boundaries of contemporary art, transforms the urban environment into a city-wide art gallery, includes a diversity of participating organizations from partner non-profits to commercial sponsors to “mom and pop” businesses, involves a broad and diverse audience who are not regular attendees of traditional art venues, and showcases the natural and urban splendors of the Twin Cities.

In addition to a number of invited local, national, and international artist projects, there will be open, juried calls for at least 10 additional artists and 10 venues to each receive support for projects at Northern Spark.

Presented by

Northern Spark is directed and produced by Northern Lights.mn in collaboration with the Spark Festival and with the support of numerous participating organizations and institutions.

Northern Lights.mn

Northern Lights.mn is a roving, collaborative, interactive media-oriented, arts agency from the Twin Cities for the world. It presents innovative art in the public sphere, both physical and virtual, focusing on artists creatively using technology, both old and new, to engender new relations between audience and artwork and more broadly between citizenry and their built environment.

Spark Festival

Now in its eighth year, the Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Arts gather creators and performers of new media arts from around the world to the Twin Cities to showcase their groundbreaking works of music, art, theater, and dance that feature use of new technologies.

Participating Artists

Participating artists to date include: Christopher Baker, Body Cartography, Jim Campbell, Barbara Clausen, Phil Hanson, Wing Young Huie, Minneapolis Art on Wheels, Ali Momeni, Janaki Ranpura, Jenny Schmid, Andrea Stanislav, Piotr Szyhalski, Diane Willow, Roman Verostko, Marcus Young, and others.

Participating Organizations

Participating organizations to date include: Forecast Public Art, Intermedia Arts, Kulture Klub, Le Meridien Chambers, Macalaster College, McNally Smith College of Music, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota Museum of American Art, mnartists.org, Public Art Saint Paul, ro/lu, Soap Factory, SooVac, The W Foshay, Walker Art Center, Weisman Art Museum

Supported by

This activity is made possible in part by a grant provided by the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature from the Minnesota arts and cultural heritage fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.

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