ArtSpark Jamestown
Michael Murnane, Under Ice, Northern Spark 2012, photo by Patrick Kelley
On August 25 and 26th, Northern Lights.mn will be in Jamestown, North Dakota to celebrate the opening of Jamestown Art Center’s new Arts Park, a creative downtown development project that has turned an empty lot into an arts-focused park for the community. We’ve been working with JAC for three years to consult on the commission of permanent elements for the park and to help program its celebratory opening.
A flurry of activities are planned for the 2 day event, including live music, art-making, a pep band, and a living sculpture competition. We are presenting four projects by Minnesota artists that you may have seen at previous Northern Lights events:
Dumpling House by Molly Balcom Raleigh and Emily Stover
Make and eat dumplings inspired by local residents’ beloved family recipes in this temporary, communal kitchen. Presented at Maker Day, 2014.
Traffic Jam Scene by Preston Drum
Climb into a cardboard car and become the driver of your destiny as gridlock becomes a drive-in movie theatre. First presented at Northern Spark 2017.
Behind the Seams by Rachel Breen and Nickey Robare
Learn the environmental and human impacts of the garment industry at pop-up garment factory in the streets of Jamestown. First presented at Northern Spark 2017.
Under Ice by Michael Murnane
The Arts Park’s giant wall is transformed by projected images of ice fishing in a moving piece about Murnane’s trips to the lake with his father. Sound score by Evan Murnane and storytelling by Kevin Kling. First presented at Northern Spark 2012.
Jamestown, ND is only 327 miles away from the Twin Cities. Set your GPS and meet us there!
Illuminate the Lock
Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam, Minneapolis, MN
In the summer of 2015 the Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam in downtown Minneapolis ceased operations as the head of navigation on the Mississippi River. While boats no longer pass through the lock, this massive piece of river infrastructure is open to the public as a visitor center operated by the National Park Service.
We’ve long been fascinated by the architecture of the Lock, so were eager to join forces with the NPS and Mississippi Park Connection to support artistic experimentation inside its walls.
Illuminate the Lock is a two-weekend series of artist projections inside the Lock chamber.
Aaron Dysart’s Surface takes years of handwritten data recorded by Army Corp of Engineers staff as the basis for a light show. Daily pool heights will translate into shifting colors projected on atmospheric effects created in the lock chamber. The spectacle will display the 52 year operating history of this iconic Minneapolis space through near daily observations by the people who tended it. September 15-16.
Andrea Carlson’s The Uncompromising Hand engages Spirit Island, a limestone island and Dakota sacred site that was once in the Mississippi River near the current Lock and Dam. A hand–drawn animation based on six photographs of the island at the MN Historical Society’s collection that plot the island’s lengthy dismantling between the 1890s and 1960s will fill one side of the lock’s long wall. Text in Dakota and Ojibwe will accompany the projection. September 29 – 30.
Illuminate the Lock is presented by Northern Lights.mn, Mississippi Park Connection, the National Park Service with support from St. Anthony Falls Heritage Board and the US Army Corp of Engineers. Dysart’s presentation is also part of Here and There presented by The Soap Factory.
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Alyssa Baguss, concept design, Vitamin D
Northern Spark 2017