ArtOrg

Second Five Sculpture Placed

Dave Machacek — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:30:21 +0000

The second installment of ArtOrg’s Five Sculpture project was installed last month from artist Juan Jose Palacios and is called “To Thine Own Mother Be True”. The first sculpture was from Sharol Nau, and the upcoming works are from Ray Jacobson, Ed White, and Mac Gimse. Thanks to Switzer’s Nursery and Landscaping for a shop to build the work in, and for help in transporting and installing the work. On our main page about the project, there is a stop-action video about the trip to the Lampe Plinth. Thanks again to Lampe Law Group for a wonderful location to display public art!
Juan writes his thoughts about the piece: “On November 7, 2011 my mother would have celebrated her 80th birthday. At the age of 40 she left her familiar surroundings, and as a widow she made a living for herself and her children by designing and making dresses. As her son, I made this figure to represent the spirit and the physical beauty of all women. In other words I wanted to create an expression of human value, honor, creativity, and caring: the heart of all activity. Doing this figure has given me a passage to harmony with in myself, my family, our community, and the world.”
This activity is funded by the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council through the Minnesota arts and cultural heritage fund as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008. Thanks, Minnesota!

Glen Hanson: Now & Then Opens

Dave Machacek — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 14:48:40 +0000

[Note: A closing party has been scheduled from 4 to 8pm on Saturday, November 5.] On Sunday, October 2, 2011 over two-hundred artists and fans came together to celebrate the opening of the exhibit at ArtOrg called “Glen Hanson Gallery: Now and Then”. The open hours of the show are Thursdays from noon to 8 pm, and Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 6 pm. Hours continue to November 6. Please click here to see photos and a short video of the opening event, and more information about the Glen Hanson Gallery. Thanks to everyone who made this event such a huge and wonderful success!

Glen Hanson Gallery October 2

Dave Machacek — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 02:39:28 +0000

On Sunday, October 2, ArtOrg is honored to open an exhibit of 13 artists called “Glen Hanson Gallery: Now and Then”. The Glen Hanson Gallery ran from 1978 to 1982 and anchored the Minneapolis Warehouse District along with the next-door New French Café. Please go to our main page that tells about the exhibit; here we show some historical references, a photoset of the opening preparations, and two videos about Glen Hanson himself.

All of the artists in the exhibit continue to work today: Bruce Anderson, Steve Beyer, Richard Cooper, Harmony Hammond, Glen Hanson, Steve Hartman, Philip Larson, Mike Manzavrakos, John Marshall, Stuart Nielsen, Tom Rose, T.L. Solien, and Steve Sorman. We will be exhibiting one new work and one old work from each artist. The opening event for the exhibit will be on Sunday, October 2 and will start at 3 pm. There will be a performance by the Glen Hanson Band about 4 pm, followed by food at 5 pm, and then comments in the gallery at 7 pm. Please join us.

The ArtOrg Gallery is located eight miles north of Northfield and five miles south of Farmington on Highway 3. ArtOrg shares its location with the Switzers Nursery and Landscaping business. The best exit off of Interstate 35 is exit 76 “Elko / New Market”. Go a short distance east from that exit to the next road (Highway 46), then one mile south onto County Road 86 (280th St. W). Go about six miles east to Highway 3 (also called Chippendale Avenue), turn north one mile to the gallery.

1000 Print Summer 2011 Recap

Dave Machacek — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 19:54:22 +0000

The small steamroller printing event for kids and adults that we call the “Thousand Print Summer” has come to an end for 2011, and we are pleased with the results. ArtOrg officially counted 1985 (one-thousand-nine-hundred-eighty-five) prints at 26 (twenty-six) events during the course this summer. On Saturday, September 10, in fact, we set a new record for the number of prints made at one event at the Minneapolis Monarch Festival. In that single event, a team of artists printed for 335 people–nearly at a rate of one print per minute. Of course, it is not really about the numbers, so we ask you to browse through photos of a few of the artists as photographed holding their original print. A big round of thanks go to all artists, ArtOrg’s artist/workers, and the sponsoring organizations for making the summer of 2011 truly special. Ask us about the moose that almost ran into us near Hallock, Minnesota–we have the photo to prove it!

First Five Sculpture Placed

Dave Machacek — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 05:21:10 +0000

The first artwork from ArtOrg’s activity called the “Five Sculpture” project has been successfully placed at the Lampe Law Group’s office at 105 East Fifth Street in Northfield, Minnesota. The Five Sculpture project exhibits five new works from five different artists over the course of about one year. The first sculpture of the Five Sculpture project was installed on Sunday, August 14, 2011 with a work called “Cementitious Fall(s)” from the artist Sharol Nau. Please watch for ongoing events surrounding the Five Sculpture project. The other four works are awaiting their time on the plinth, and they are from artists Ray Jacobson, Mac Gimse, Juan Jose Palacios, and Ed White. Four of the five sculptures are eight feet tall, and the fifth sculpture grew to about fourteen feet tall! Please go here to learn more about the Five Sculpture project.

ArtOrg created the sculpture pedestal (or plinth) about three years ago and the first sculpture placed there was Mac Gimse’s stainless-steel “Between Art And Sky” sculpture. This sculpture is awaiting some additional work before being placed at its permanent home, on the Dundas trail head of the Northfield-Dundas bike trail. A special thanks go to Mac and his wonderful sculpture; we are sad to see it go, but are looking forward to its reemergence in Dundas.

Thanks very much to Switzer’s Nursery and Landscaping for providing a space in which to work, and for the various tools we needed to get the job done. Thanks also go to sculptor’s assistant Ben Finley for all of those long hours with the grinders, chainsaws and, of course, the huge ice saw. Thanks also to Mark Meggitt for the help regarding finishing the sculptures, and also to Brian and Jim Machacek for providing steel and and constructing the bases for each sculpture. And last but not least, the artists themselves for their drive and passion in creating five outstanding works. Thank You!

“This activity is funded by the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council through the Minnesota arts and cultural heritage fund as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.” Thanks, Minnesota!

Thousand Print Summer Update

Dave Machacek — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:27:17 +0000

“Is this ArtOrg traveling to Inkster, North Dakota in a last ditch attempt to get their cruddy projects on the Printeresting blog?”, well apologies to Frank Zappa’s Ruben & the Jets album aside, ArtOrg has completed 21 events and printed for over 1200 kids and adults already this year in our event we call the Thousand Print Summer. On this trip nearly 3000 mile trip, we saw many great young artists, and you can see the photos of their art here. We also saw Sandhill cranes, buffalo, bittern, badgers, and a single young moose almost hit our vehicle. We saw a driveway immortalized in the movie Fargo, a 7-foot-tall 125-year-old oil painting from Alphons Mucha, and a town named Inkster. (The popular blog about printmaking called Printeresting has a fellow named Inkster as a mascot.) Thanks to the wonderful places we have visited so far, and the hospitality of all. Check out our remaining schedule and come make a print.

This is ArtOrg’s 4th year of Thousand Print Summer events and our print total now numbers over 5000. At each event, the artists leave the events with a wonderful paper print, but we keep the printing blocks. Out of these saved printing blocks, we have created three very large works: The Big Print, The Peace Caterpillar, and The St. Cloud Cult Print. The Big Print was recently recognized by the journal “Public Art Review” in a section about recent projects and that made us very happy.

Hosting Grupo Soap del Corazon

Dave Machacek — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 15:30:44 +0000

ArtOrg has worked on two big projects with Grupo Soap del Corazon in the past, and we are now is hosting information on their upcoming 11th anniversary exhibit called “El Milagro (The Miracle)” on our website. The exhibit’s opening event is Saturday, August 20 at Intermedia Arts on Lyndale Avenue in Minneapolis, and more information on the show can be seen here. Many of the Grupo Soap del Corazon artists that we worked with in 2006 Northfield and 2009 Fargo large steamroller printing projects are in this show. Felicidades!

ArtOrg in Public Art Review

Dave Machacek — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 21:10:52 +0000

ArtOrg’s The Big Print appears in the current issue of Public Art Review on pages 12 and 82. The project is mentioned in the U.S. Recent Projects section and also in full-page size across from Suzi Gablik’s Soap Box editorial. By happenstance, the opening words from Ms. Gablik’s editorial seem appropriate to The Big Print: “like the Tao running wild as a dragon in heat, art is everywhere. In a critical shift from the idea of art as monologue and self-expression, I have defended a more decentralized creativity that is dialogic, interactive and participatory.” More of her writings can be found here. ArtOrg wishes to thank everyone who was involved with the project, including the 1180 artists from the ten participating venues from 2008: Walker Art Center, Anderson Center in Red Wing, Just Food Co-op in Northfield, Owatonna Arts Center, ArtReach Alliance St. Croix in Stillwater, The Unconvention in Minneapolis by Northern Lights, Rochester Art Center, and the St. Cloud Arts Commission. We also thank the staff from Buntrock Commons at St. Olaf College for such a wonderful venue, and Forecast Public Art.

A Busy 1000 Print Summer

Dave Machacek — Tue, 31 May 2011 21:27:10 +0000

ArtOrg is gearing up for a active summer and has no less than 15 small steamroller printing events scheduled in June alone. Please go to our calendar on our main website for the specifics, or if you prefer Facebook, there is a complete event list there, too. The small steamroller printing event we have named the “Thousand Print Summer” and we printed at 32 venues from Rochester to Warroad last year for 2348 kid and adult artists. There were also three projects last year that made use of printing blocks from the Thousand Print Summer to create larger collaborative works. The Big Print, The Peace Caterpillar, and the St. Cloud Cult Print were all examples of the artist print blocks living on after they were first created. Some of these projects were organized by the Minnesota regional library system, and some were funded all or in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. For events in the northwest corner of Minnesota, please see our page devoted to the Northwest Regional Library, and for events in the center of the state near Fergus Falls, please look to our Viking Library System page.

GrandPre in St. Cloud Cult Print

Dave Machacek — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 16:30:21 +0000

On Friday, April 15 from 4 to 6pm the Harry Potter illustrator Mary GrandPre will be painting live and in person on ArtOrg’s collaborative project called the “St Cloud Cult Print”. This will happen as a part of several other events in the Halenbeck Fieldhouse of St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Mary’s special painting will be near the top of the 30-foot-wide by 16-foot-tall artwork. The St. Cloud Cult Print will be finished off by the stage painters from the band Cloud Cult, Connie Minowa and Scott West, the next day on Saturday during their live concert at the end of this year’s Mississippi Music Fest. The St. Cloud Cult Print is comprised of these three special paintings and about 250 reprinted print blocks created by kids and adults at 17 venues near St. Cloud last June. All events are free and open to the public, and everyone is invited on stage after the concert for a group photo!