Walker Art Center Press Room

Arty Pants: Your Tuesday Playdate at the Walker Art Center : Adults and Kids Ages 3-5 Are Invited to Take Part in Art Activities Using Clay, Inspired by the Exhibition Dirt on Delight: Impulses That Form Clay :

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:00:00 GMT

Parents and caregivers with youngsters ages 3-5 have a fun way to find artistic inspiration with Arty Pants: Your Tuesday Playdate, the popular Walker Art Center program designed to nurture creativity and engage a child's mind. Arty Pants programs, presented on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month, feature art projects, films, gallery activities, and story readings. Meet other families for a treat at the Gallery 8 Cafe. The Arty Pants programs in July and August are presented from 11 am-1 pm Tuesdays, July 14 and 28, and August 11 and 25. Activities are free with gallery admission; Walker members and children ages 12 and under always receive free admission.

Knead, smash, coil, create! In July and August, transform a ball of earth into a work of art inspired by the exhibition Dirt on Delight: Impulses That Form Clay. Participants will engage the tactile properties of clay through gallery activities, stories, film--and, of course, by using their hands.

Film: Miriam and the Flood by Riho Unt
US Bank Orientation Lounge
When Miriam's pet hen decides to take a swim in the bathtub, everyone and everything gets soaked in this claymation short.

Art-Making Activity: Play with Clay
Star Tribune Foundation Art Lab
Play with clay alongside staff and a guest artist in a series of hands-on projects:

July 14: Making Mud
July 28: Crazy Containers
August 11: Edible Clay
August 25: Sparkling Sculptures

Story Time: The Dirtiest Hair in the World by Bob McAllen and Tom McClure
Cargill Lounge
In this poetic tale of dirt gone wild, find out what happens when young Claire decides not to wash her hair.

Gallery Activity: Ceramic Cities
General Mills Hennepin Lounge
Create a mosaic of a miniature city from ceramic tiles inspired by the Minneapolis skyline.

Walker Art Center and the Southern Theater Present Skill and Passion of Twin Cities' Dancemakers in Momentum: New Dance Works :

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:00:00 GMT

The Walker Art Center and Southern Theater present the annual Momentum: New Dance Works series, two weekends of premieres by the freshest talents in Minnesota dance, on Thursday-Saturday, July 16-18 and 23-25, at 7:30 pm on Thursday and 8 pm on Friday and Saturday, at the Southern Theater. Providing a snapshot of Minnesota's dance landscape, Momentum illuminates the skill and passion of the next generation's most promising artists. Featuring two companies each evening, the series showcases new voices and ideas that articulate the latest combinations in dance while solidifying the Twin Cities as a hotbed of fresh, experimental, and often under-the-radar talent. Momentum 2009 features performances by Vanessa Voskuil, Sachiko Nishiuchi, Sally Rousse, and Megan Mayer. These new works are commissioned by the Walker and the Southern with the support of the Jerome Foundation. The Southern Theater is located at 1420 Washington Avenue South, Minneapolis. A postshow discussion follows each Friday performance.

Momentum: New Dance Works

July 16-18
Thursday, 7:30 pm; Friday and Saturday, 8 pm
$20 ($16 Southern and Walker members)
Postshow discussion on Friday

Vanessa Voskuil: en masse
Performed by a cast of 80, en masse grapples with the collective animal power of the masses working in perpetual conflict against itself toward an elusive, undiscovered harmony. Vanessa Voskuil, a cofounder of Live Action Set, brings together a physical style of storytelling with a surrealist sensibility, translating simple movements into an impressionistic texture of human experience.

With an approach that is both visceral and interdisciplinary, Voskuil says her aim is to create work that speaks in a unique language, one whose "essence exists not in the movement, sound, image, or lighting within a piece, but in the spaces between those elements."

Sachiko Nishiuchi: The Apple Tree
A member of Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre and Ananya Dance Theater, Sachiko Nishiuchi has created a new dance theater work that employs the riotous lens of flamenco to evoke the illusive "springtime of life," as well as the tragic classifications people use to alienate themselves from one another. Loosely based on John Galsworthy's 1916 romance novel The Apple Tree, as well as personal experiences, she mines flamenco's various expressions of emotionality to tell the characters' stories and chart the paths of their sentiments.

A longtime practitioner of flamenco, Nishiuchi has also trained in ballet, Indian classical odissi, and Japanese butoh. "I try to make dances I love and to be honest in their creation," she says. The multimedia elements of this evocative performance are highlighted by local guitarist Ben Abrahamson's original score, with vocals by celebrated flamenco performer La Conja.

July 23-25
Thursday, 7:30 pm; Friday and Saturday, 8 pm
$20 ($16 Southern and Walker members)
Postshow discussion on Friday

Sally Rousse: Paramount to My Footage
Drawing from a wide palette of movement and an appetite for extreme theatrical moods, Paramount to My Footage dives into historical fiction and the worlds of celebrity and privacy, grappling with what it is to be known and to know others--over time and distance, through love, fame, death, and rivalry.

In creating the piece, Sally Rousse looked to "the inner cartoon balloon commentaries" that run through her head to reinvent herstory, appropriate that of others, and turn an optimistic eye to the future. "After a 25-year career dancing other peoples' visions, I am figuring out my own," says the 2001 McKnight Dancer Fellow, who performed with the Royal Ballet of Flanders and Ballet Chicago before cofounding Minneapolis' James Sewell Ballet in 1990. "This piece goes beyond the agreed-upon limits of ballet, beauty, and biography." It features such varied artists as poet and writer Heid Erdrich, filmmaker Alek Keshishian, and a cast of distinguished local performers. Rousse hopes to give something indelible to them: perhaps "their own new way of moving or thinking or loving or observing."

Megan Mayer: I Could Not Stand Close Enough to You
In Megan Mayer's I Could Not Stand Close Enough to You, the bold beauty of childhood fantasy collides with the self-conscious trappings of adulthood. Awkwardly humorous in a manner reminiscent of the Smothers Brothers, this piece pits familial/group mentality against individual attempts at autonomy and personal success. "I'm curious about the risks we take when we are alone as opposed to those we are willing to take when we are part of a group," says Mayer. "My work is also about trying to find a comfortable place, both physical and emotional, with often fruitless results."

From her curious site-specific bathroom choreography to prestigious commissions and performances around the Twin Cities and beyond, Mayer's recent work combines her dry wit with the nuance of gesture. For this piece she has created solos for all five performers, and backs the action with a soundtrack of nostalgic, bittersweet 1960s songs that have personal meaning.

Tickets to Momentum: New Dance Works are available at walkerart.org/tickets, southerntheater.org, or by calling 612.375.7600.

Dirt on Delight: Impulses That Form Clay Reveals the Rich History of a Medium That Crosses Fine Art, Craft, and Outsider Practices :

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:00:00 GMT

Art-world, crafts-world, and crossover talents come together in Dirt on Delight: Impulses That Form Clay, a lively presentation, on view at the Walker Art Center July 11-November 29, that features work in clay by 22 artists spanning four generations. Examining the rich history of clay and showcasing some of the medium's most important practitioners, Dirt on Delight embodies a wide range of form and scale by contemporary artists as well as historic and outsider figures who have had a sustained engagement with clay and its processes. The exhibition originated at the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania.

Ranging from modestly scaled pots to figurines to large sculptures, the 88 works on view cross a spectrum that includes fine art, craft, and outsider practices. Collectively they suggest that clay appeals to basic impulses, starting with the delight of building form, coupled with the anxiety of completion. All of the works in the exhibition appear to be in some state of flux or growth.

Clay is a base material. From potsherds to porcelain fixtures, clay is synonymous with the building of industries and cultures. At the same time, its very materiality--its tactile malleability, earthen sensuousness, and humidity--makes it the medium of more elemental associations and expressions. The immediacy with which clay allows one to build form and create ornament underlies its appeal--especially in relation to current modes that seem to take fabrication increasingly out of artists' hands. And indeed the hand is everywhere in evidence--patting, pinching, squishing, rolling, punching, and painting. Inherent to clay's materiality is its invitation to play, but also its requirement of technical skills. An amateur approach can emphasize clay's more raw manifestations, but expert knowledge of clay types, slips and glazes, the potter's wheel, and firing techniques is critical to making objects. More specifically, Dirt on Delight is an opportunity to examine not only clay's appeal but issues surrounding the concept of craft in general.

The artists represented include the current generation (Nicole Cherubini, Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Jeffry Mitchell, Sterling Ruby, and Paul Swenbeck), artists who emerged during the 1990s (Ann Agee, Kathy Butterly, Jane Irish, Beverly Semmes, and Arlene Shechet), those who established clay as a critical material during the 1960s and 1970s (Robert Arneson, Viola Frey, Ron Nagle, Ken Price, Adrian Saxe, Beatrice Wood and Betty Woodman), and historic and outsider figures (Lucio Fontana, Rudolf Staffel, and Peter Voulkos, as well as George Ohr and Eugene Von Bruenchenhein).

Art on Call: Free Audio Tour
Use your cell phone to find out more about the art and artists in the exhibition. Call 612.374.8200 and enter the four-digit codes for specific works of art or download Art on Call to your iPod at newmedia.walkerart.org/aoc.

In the Shop
A fully illustrated exhibition catalogue features essays by ICA senior curator Ingrid Schaffner, associate curator Jenelle Porter, and art historian Glenn Adamson. $35 ($31.50 Walker members).

RELATED EVENTS

Opening Day

Gallery Talk
Saturday, July 11, 2 pm, Free with gallery admission

Join the Dirt on Delight curators for a tour through the terrain of contemporary sculpture by way of an age-old material. Tactile, malleable, and at times unpredictable, clay offers inexhaustible territory for artistic experimentation. Listen in for new perspectives on the historical and current impulses that propel the use of this primary medium.

Target Free Thursday Nights

Thursday, July 16

Sound Bites: Spotlight on Nicole Cherubini, 6:30 and 7 pm
Meet in the Bazinet Garden Lobby

Contemporary art and artists are the focus of these 15-minute gallery conversations led by Walker tour guides. Each highlights selected artworks, artists, or themes that serve as topics for illuminating discussions.

Thursday, August 20

Sound Bites: Spotlight on Lucio Fontana, 6:30 and 7 pm
Meet in the Bazinet Garden Lobby

Contemporary art and artists are the focus of these 15-minute gallery conversations led by Walker tour guides. Each highlights selected artworks, artists, or themes that serve as topics for illuminating discussions.

Thursday, October 8

Panel: There's Just Something About Clay, 7 pm
Cinema
Free tickets available at the Bazinet Garden Lobby desk from 6 pm

Dirt on Delight artists Ann Agee, Kathy Butterly, and Beverly Semmes describe the process of working in clay as malleable, sensual, and open to interpretation. It's no wonder then that their vessels have attracted the public's eye for more than a decade. Hear these artists in conversation with Andria Hickey, Walker curatorial fellow and coordinating curator for the exhibition, as they discuss their practice and the desire to work with clay. Copresented by the University of Minnesota and Northern Clay Center.

Target Free Thursday Nights sponsored by Target.

Free First Saturdays are for Families

Down with Dirt
Saturday, August 1, 10 am-3 pm, Free
Minneapolis Sculpture Garden

This day of exploration and discovery is inspired by the exhibitions Dirt on Delight: Impulses That Form Clay and The Quick and The Dead.

Art-Making for the Entire Family: Vibrant Vessels
10 am-3 pm

Sculpt a functional form using colorful, nonhardening clay.

Crochet Workshop: The Institute For Figuring
12 noon-3 pm

Join LA-based artist Margaret Wertheim from the Institute For Figuring to make crocheted forms from plastic bags.

Free First Saturday is sponsored by Ameriprise Financial. Program support by Medtronic Foundation. As part of the Walker Art Center's Raising Creative Kids Initiative, additional support is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Raising Creative Kids

Arty Pants: Your Tuesday Playdate
Tuesdays, July 14 and 28; August 11 and 25, 11 am-1 pm
Free with gallery admission; Walker members and kids ages 12 and under are always free

What do hip kids and their (possibly) cooler parents do to spark creativity?
Knead, smash, coil, create! Mold, sculpt, and transform your own ball of earth into a work of art inspired by the exhibition. Parents and children explore the tactile properties of clay through gallery activities, stories, film--and, of course, by getting their hands on the actual stuff.

Arty Pants: Your Tuesday Playdate is sponsored by Ameriprise Financial. As part of the Walker Art Center's Raising Creative Kids Initiative, additional support is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Gallery Tours

Saturday, July 18, 2 pm
Sunday, July 19, 2 pm
Thursday, July 30, 2 pm
Saturday, August 15, 2 pm
Sunday, August 23, 2 pm
Thursday, August 27, 2 pm

Teacher Workshop

Dirt on Delight
Tuesday, August 18, 9 am-4 pm
$45 ($30 Walker and Northern Clay Center members)

The Walker and Northern Clay Center offer a workshop designed for teachers of ceramics, teaching artists who work with clay, and K-12 educators who wish to expand their experience with clay beyond function to expressive forms. The program begins at the Walker with an interactive tour of the exhibition followed by a visit to Northern Clay Center for a hands-on exploration of ceramics from a conceptual point of view. For more information, call 612.375.7614 or e-mail walker.registration@walkerart.org.

mnartists.org

Local Dirt: Exploring the Minnesota Ceramics Community
September-October 2009

This fall mnartists.org will feature a special series of articles and profiles exploring the historical context and diversity of artists whose work shapes Minnesota's own distinctive ceramic arts tradition--from the elegantly functional wares of the Northern Clay Center and the acclaimed ceramic arts program at the University of Minnesota to local artists whose work lies at the intersections of fine craft and contemporary sculpture.

mnartists.org is an online database of Minnesota artists and organizations from all disciplines developed and maintained in partnership with the Walker Art Center and the McKnight Foundation.

Artist Talk

Beverly Semmes
Wednesday, October 7, 7 pm, Free
University of Minnesota Regis Center for the Arts

Multidisciplinary artist Beverly Semmes discusses her practice and unique approach to working with ceramics as well as her work on view in Dirt on Delight.

Co-presented by the Walker Art Center and Northern Clay Center.

Demonstration and Talk

Ann Agee
Friday, October 9, 1-5 pm, Free
Northern Clay Center, 2424 E. Franklin Avenue, Minneapolis

Originally interested in painting, Ann Agee turned to clay after taking classes at Greenwich House Pottery in New York in 1985. Since then, she has continued to "be endlessly interested." Join Agee for a talk and demonstration on her working process. For more information, call 612.339.8007.

Co-presented by the Walker Art Center, the University of Minnesota, and Northern Clay Center.

Gallery Admission, Hours

$10 adults; $8 seniors (65+); $6 students/teens (with ID)
Free to Walker members and children ages 12 and under.
Free with a paid ticket to a same-day Walker event.
Free to all every Thursday evening (5-9 pm) and on the first Saturday of each month (10 am-5 pm).

Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday 11 am-5 pm
Thursday 11 am-9 pm
Closed Mondays

Target Free Thursday Nights: Summer Edition at Walker Art Center Continues in July with Teen Poetry Slam, Outdoor Concerts, and Workshops :

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:00:00 GMT

The celebration of summer continues at the Walker Art Center with Target Free Thursday Nights in July, featuring a series of concerts and workshops designed to get visitors discovering, questioning, and creating art outdoors. Target Free Thursday Nights: Summer Edition keeps the beat going with two Skyspace/Soundspace concerts merging music and sculpture. Local bands venture out of the club for performances inside and around James Turrell's meditative Sky Pesher, 2005 chamber in the greenspace on the west side of the Walker. These exclusive, one-night-only sets feature some of the area's hottest music-makers in experimental concerts unlike any other, including sets by Mandragora Tango Orchestra on July 2 and Machinery Hill on July 23. Seating capacity inside the Turrell sculpture is limited; please arrive early for seating inside. Patrons are welcome to bring a blanket and listen to the sweet sounds drift out onto the Walker's grassy hillside. Refreshments available at the outdoor cash bar, located on the greenspace near the Angus Fairhurst gorilla sculpture.

July also sees the return of Remake, Revamp, a workshop series that harnesses the creative talents of some of the Twin Cities' most creative, forward-thinking fashion designers. In the FlatPak House on July 9, from 6-9 pm, participants will take tips from designer/artist Rebecca Yaker as she demonstrates how to "upcycle" old clothing into new and delightful attire.

Taking place indoors are the Fifth Annual Quest for the Voice Youth Poetry Showcase presented by Walker Teen Programs and the Minnesota Spoken Word Association on July 2, at 7 pm; the Mack Lectures series Visions of the Unknown on the subjects of time travel (July 9) and hyperbolic space (July 30); and Sound Bites gallery talks focusing on the exhibitions The Quick and the Dead (July 2) and Dirt on Delight: Impulses That Form Clay (July 16), and Spoonbridge and Cherry in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden (July 23).

Target Free Thursday Nights: Summer Edition
July 2, 9, 16, 23, 30
Galleries open 5-9; special events follow.
Free

Thursday, July 2
Sound Bites: The Quick and the Dead: A Comparison of Two Works, 6:30 and 7 pm
Meet in the Bazinet Garden Lobby

Contemporary art and artists are the focus of these 15-minute gallery conversations led by Walker tour guides. Each highlights selected artworks, artists, or themes that serve as topics for illuminating discussions.

Fifth Annual Quest for the Voice Youth Poetry Showcase, 7 pm
McGuire Theater
Free tickets available from 6 pm at the Hennepin Lobby desk

Each year hundreds of youths battle it out in a series of poetry slams, vying for a spot on the Minnesota Quest for the Voice Team. This year's team will represent the state at the Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam in Chicago. Featured performers include the Quest for the Voice Poets, El Guante, Khary Jackson (6 is 9), and Onante Erolin. Presented by the Minnesota Spoken Word Association.

Walker Teen Programs sponsored by Wells Fargo. Support provided by Best Buy Children's Foundation. Walker Teen Programs are also supported by the Surdna Foundation.

Music: John Cage's Organ2/ASLSP, 7 pm
Basilica of Saint Mary, 18 North 17th Street, Minneapolis

As part of the exhibition The Quick and the Dead, Cage's Organ2/ASLSP will be performed by Christopher Stroh, principal organist at the Basilica.

Skyspace/Soundspace: Mandragora Tango Orchestra, 8:30 pm
James Turrell's Sky Pesher, 2005 and Walker greenspace

This vibrant collective is dedicated to preserving tango music as well as translating it into fresh yet nostalgic forms.

Thursday, July 9
Remake, Revamp: Upcycling is the New Recycling, 6-9 pm
FlatPak House

Turn those tired pants you wore all winter into a skirt! Designer/artist Rebecca Yaker--noted for re-fashioning the iconic sock monkey doll into chic apparel--shows how to "upcycle" your clothes into new and delightful attire. Some garments will be provided, but participants are encouraged to bring their own apparel to transform. (Coats, hats, scarves, and other winter wear will also be accepted for donation.)

Mack Lecture: Visions of the Unknown
Ronald Mallett, 7 pm
Walker Cinema

This talk takes off on the artistic experiments with time and space in the exhibition The Quick and the Dead. Free tickets available at the Bazinet Garden Lobby desk one hour before the event.

Ronald Mallet has dedicated his life to something most people consider a science fiction dream: time travel. A childhood trauma followed by a chance encounter with a comic book based on H. G. Wells' The Time Machine set him on a path to becoming a theoretical physicist at the University of Connecticut, where he has designed a time machine based on Einstein's theories. Pending key technological breakthroughs and funding, he believes that human time travel could occur within this century. Join Mallet for a lecture on the mysteries of space and time and a reading from his memoir, Time Traveler: A Scientist's Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality.

This lecture is made possible by generous support from Aaron and Carol Mack.

Thursday, July 16
Sound Bites: Dirt on Delight: Spotlight on Nicole Cherubini, 6:30 and
7 pm
Meet in the Bazinet Garden Lobby

Contemporary art and artists are the focus of these 15-minute gallery conversations led by Walker tour guides. Each highlights selected artworks, artists, or themes that serve as topics for illuminating discussions.

Thursday, July 23
Sound Bites: Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen's Spoonbridge and Cherry, 6:30 and 7 pm
Meet in the Bazinet Garden Lobby

Contemporary art and artists are the focus of these 15-minute gallery conversations led by Walker tour guides. Each highlights selected artworks, artists, or themes that serve as topics for illuminating discussions.

Skyspace/Soundspace: Machinery Hill, 8:30 pm
James Turrell's Sky Pesher, 2005 and Walker greenspace

Deftly combining ska, klezmer, Celtic music, rock, and American folk, Machinery Hill's style "hurtles all over the musical map with impish delight" (Star Tribune).

Thursday, July 30
Mack Lecture: Visions of the Unknown
The Institute For Figuring
Lecture: Walker Cinema, 7 pm
Workshop: Star Tribune Foundation Art Lab, 5-6:30 pm

This talk takes off on the artistic experiments with time and space in the exhibition The Quick and the Dead. Free tickets available at the Bazinet Garden Lobby desk one hour before the event.

The physics of snowflakes, the hyperbolic geometry of sea slugs, and the mathematics of paper-folding are all fodder for Margaret and Christine Wertheim, whose crocheted models of hyperbolic space feature prominently in the exhibition The Quick and the Dead. Through their Los Angeles-based Institute For Figuring, the duo conducts projects aimed at illuminating the poetic and aesthetic dimensions of science and mathematics. The preceding crochet workshop (needles and yarn provided) teaches simple techniques for making hyberbolic forms. All skill levels welcome.

This lecture is made possible by generous support from Aaron and Carol Mack.

Walker Art Center and Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board Present Summer Music & Movies: Newman Rocks : Popular Outdoor Series Celebrates Another Year with Films Featuring the Legendary Paul Newman and a Diverse Lineup of Musical Guests :

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:00:00 GMT

Summer Music & Movies, the Walker Art Center and the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board's popular annual series of free concerts and film screenings in Loring Park, celebrates another year with Newman Rocks, Mondays, July 20-August 10. On the big screen, the Walker salutes one of Hollywood's greatest film stars--the legendary Paul Newman. Spend your hot summer evenings with some of the actor's coolest '60s rebels: the brooding foil to sensuous Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (July 20); the ruthless cowboy in Hud (July 27); the anti-establishment hero of Cool Hand Luke (August 3); and the smoldering pool shark in The Hustler (August 10).

The films will be paired with a diverse selection of international and local bands, including Minneapolis-based favorites Halloween, Alaska (July 20), who mix ambient electronic sounds with alt-pop sensibilities; the folk, bluegrass, and early country sounds of Roma di Luna (July 27); Northfield's power-pop trio Gospel Gossip (August 3); and Hanggai (August 10), featuring young musicians from Beijing and Inner Mongolia who combine traditional Chinese folk music with the anthemic sound of rock. DJs from 89.3 The Current spin music between the bands and films.

Lunds will have picnic fare available for purchase in Loring Park. In case of rain, events will move to the Walker Cinema. Seating is first-come, first-served. Visit walkerart.org for details and updates.

Copresented by the Walker Art Center and the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board. Summer Music & Movies is sponsored by Lunds. Additional support is generously provided by Elizabeth Redleaf. Media partners: City Pages and 89.3 The Current.

SUMMER MUSIC & MOVIES: NEWMAN ROCKS
MONDAYS, JULY 20-AUGUST 10
LORING PARK, FREE
MUSIC BEGINS AT 7 PM; FILMS BEGIN AT DUSK (APPROX. 8:45 PM)

Monday, July 20
Music: Halloween, Alaska

"Moody guitar and keyboards bric-a-brac atop subtly quaking beats . . . glassy drones, worried groove glitch, a shy come-on cribbed from an old Prince song."--Blender

Drink in the summer sun and crafty pop, pure and now, by members of such esteemed local outfits as Love-cars, 12RODS, and Happy Apple. Mining the breaks between electronic and organic, Halloween, Alaska ignites a gorgeously layered atmosphere of heady lyricism, indie hooks, and articulate beats. Featuring James Diers (voice, keys, guitar), Matthew Friesen (bass, sampler), Jacob Hanson (guitar), and David King (drums).

DJ: Steve Seel

Movie: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Directed by Richard Brooks
Plagued by secrets and financial ambitions, a wealthy Mississippi family wrestles with truth and desire in this lush Tennessee Williams adaptation that oozes old money and Southern charm. Newman, in his first of 10 Academy Award-nominated performances, plays ex-football star Brick--a sardonic, alcoholic, and impotent husband to the ambitious and conniving Maggie, "the cat" (Elizabeth Taylor at her sultry best). 1959, 16mm, 108 minutes.

Monday, July 27
Music: Roma di Luna

"Evoking an old-timey Americana vibe riddled with scary hints of neo-Gothic mayhem, Roma di Luna play sparse tunes that squirm and fret under thriving uncertainty." --City Pages

Compelling and stark, lovely and dark, Roma di Luna cooks a lush hash of early folk, bluegrass, and old-time country shot through with an ethereal edge. From busking on the street to basking in the glow of critical acclaim, Roma di Luna is the wife-husband duo Channy Moon Casselle (vocals, violin) and Alexei Moon Casselle (guitar, vocals) with Ben Durrant (electric guitar), James Everest (bass guitar), Ryan Lovan (percussion), Jessi Prusha (backing vocals), and Michael Rossetto (banjo).

DJ: Mary Lucia

Movie: Hud
Directed by Martin Ritt
Newman demolishes the cowboy myth as Hud Bannon, an unprincipled, ruthless lothario in Texas' windswept cattle country: "tremendous--a potent, voracious man, restless with all his crude ambitions, arrogant with his contempt, and churned up inside with all the meanness
and misgivings of himself" (New York Times). And when disease threatens to wipe out the herd, things definitely come to a head. Based on a book by Larry McMurtry, the film received seven Oscar nominations, including a nod to Newman and an award to Patricia Neal as Alma, the family's tough-talking housekeeper. 1963, 16mm, 112 minutes.

Monday, August 3
Music: Gospel Gossip

"It's fuzzy, pretty, and uberrhythmic--that midtempo, incredibly danceable pop that Fugazi and Nation of Ulysses popularized in Washington, D.C., in the early '90s."--Bitch Magazine

Northfield's Gospel Gossip crafts beautifully sprawling, buzzed-out power pop with cathartic melodies, necessary noise, and playful bounce all fully realized through Sarah Nienaber's inimitable vocals. Take in 60 minutes of fun and fierce songs that "harken to the finer, headier days when brainiacs like the Velvet Underground and New Order were called party music" (City Pages).

DJ: Barb Abney

Movie: Cool Hand Luke
Directed by Stuart Rosenberg
Newman's spirited portrayal of an unruly Florida prison camp inmate created a quintessential anti-hero of the rebellious late '60s. With memorable lines such as "What we've got here is failure to communicate," and the classic scene that sparked egg-eating contests among young Americans everywhere, Cool Hand Luke remains Newman's most unforgettable characterization of youthful defiance. 1967, 16mm, 126 minutes.

Monday, August 10
Music: Hanggai

"Distills everything powerful about Mongolian folk music and makes something new from the ingredients . . . transcendently powerful music that anyone from anywhere can understand." --Pitchfork

Frenetic and foreign, ancient and avant-garde--it's called "Chinagrass," and we think you'll like it. This Beijing-based sextet with members from China's Inner Mongolia province has a decidedly eclectic take on East meets West roots and rock with an inspired blend of disparate sonic elements. Horsehair fiddles, surf guitar, traditional throat singing, two-stringed lutes, electronics, and an ex-punk rock singer take on centuries-old song forms. Wow.

DJ: Mark Wheat

Movie: The Hustler
Directed by Robert Rossen
Newman's Fast Eddie Felson, an up-and-coming pool shark, meets his match in the legendary Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason) in a battle of skill and character. Awash in drink, the humbled Felson takes up with pretty alcoholic Sarah (Piper Laurie) and falls under the thumb of a crooked gambler (George C. Scott). With riveting pool scenes and hazy black-and-white cinemascope photography, "the characters one meets in the succession of sunless and smoky billiard halls . . . in the course of this tough film are the sort to make your flesh creep and whatever blood you may have run cold" (New York Times). 1961, 16mm, 134 minutes.

Robert Irwin Recreates Ethereal Scrim Piece First Shown at the Opening of the Walker Art Center's 1971 Barnes Building :

Fri, 5 Jun 2009 17:00:00 GMT

A powerful and ethereal site-specific installation by Robert Irwin--an oblique plane of translucent scrim fabric-- will be on view August 6, 2009-November 21, 2010, in the Walker Art Center exhibition Robert Irwin: Slant/Light/Volume, organized by curator Elizabeth Carpenter with the full cooperation of the artist. Commissioned by the Walker in 1971 for Works for New Spaces, the inaugural exhibition of its Edward Larrabee Barnes-designed building, the untitled work will be reconfigured for a new audience in a gallery with a slightly higher ceiling than the original space in which it premiered. By lowering the coffers in Friedman Gallery, the dimensions for the original work, which is 15 feet high, has a span of approximately 48 feet across, and slants at an almost 45-degree angle, will remain exactly the same. The piece has not been on view since 1989.

For 50 years, Robert Irwin has been a pivotal influence in contemporary art as an artist, theoretician, and teacher. His mid-1960s transformative pieces helped to define the aesthetics and conceptual issues of the West Coast Light and Space movement (as did the work of fellow artist James Turrell) by exploring how phenomena are perceived and altered by consciousness. Irwin orchestrates the act of perception. His seemingly simple architectural interventions are philosophically rich exercises in the physical, sensory and temporal experience of space. Throughout the 1970s, he repeatedly worked with translucent scrim, a fabric routinely used in theatrical stage productions. Appearing opaque unless lit from behind, this material is often used to situate actions taking place in the foreground and background; or to metaphorically frame the action in the past and present, or distinguish realms of consciousness versus dream-states. In Irwin's hands, scrim becomes a formally divisive yet supremely gentle and ethereal (dare one say spiritual?) agent of transformation. This almost anti-sculptural material objectifies light and space, creating volume from both of these intangibles.

The Walker's exhibition will contain a single, untitled work of art which Irwin's preparatory drawings and notes refer to as Slant/Light/Volume. Site-specificity, a core tenet of the artist's practice, has been both a dream and a curse. "All those things that I did in the '70s, basically no one's ever seen them," he once remarked. "I exist as some myth, which is the worst thing I could be, because I'm talking about reality, not myths. If you can't experience the works they have no meaning."

Irwin is cognizant of the paradox in making short-lived artworks that rely on the visitor's physical presence and perception to complete them--but for him, it's a necessary one: "From a phenomenological viewpoint, to make the observers necessary to complete the quality quotient of art is probably the most human, the most emotional, the most sensory thing to do."

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Family Fun: Walker Art Center Presents Free First Saturday on Fourth of July : Fantastic Fourth! Festival Features Outdoor Concert and Art Bike Parade and Contest :

Fri, 5 Jun 2009 17:00:00 GMT

The Walker Art Center invites the Minneapolis and St. Paul community to a free celebration of America's birthday at Fantastic Fourth!, an expanded Free First Saturday event from 10 am-3 pm on Saturday, July 4, in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. A happy hybrid of Independence Day and one of the Walker's most popular events, this all-ages daylong holiday spectacular marks the Fourth of July with artful adventures highlighted by a concert featuring the eclectic world sounds of Sumunar Gamelan Ensemble, singer-songwriter Haley Bonar's country-tinged indie folk, and Afrocentric hip-hop from Ghanaian rapper M.anifest. Add to that an Art Bike Parade and Contest, hula-hooping workshops, art-making activities, food and beverages for sale at the Garden Grill by Wolfgang Puck, and free gallery admission. Activities are free and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Summer at the Walker is truly a must-do!

Free First Saturdays are for Families!

Fantastic Fourth!
Saturday, July 4, 10 am-3 pm, Free
Minneapolis Sculpture Garden

Art-Making for the Entire Family: Spin Art Surprise, 10 am-3 pm
Tent on Walker greenspace
Make a painting that looks like a fireworks explosion with the help of a salad spinner.

Art-Making for the Entire Family: Fill Your Plate, 10 am-3 pm
Tent near Spoonbridge and Cherry
Craft a sculpture that's good enough to eat in this mix-media workshop. Second Harvest Heartland will be on-site to teach families how to take action against hunger.

Family Tour: WAC Garden Packs, 10 am-2 pm
Available for free check-out at the WAC Garden Cart on the central corridor
Check out a WAC Garden Pack, a kit containing fun hands-on activities to engage you and your child's imagination on a self-guided tour of the Garden.

Performance: Family Jam Session
11 am: Sumunar Gamelan Ensemble
1 pm: Haley Bonar
2 pm: M.anifest
Main Stage, near Spoonbridge and Cherry
Rock out to eclectic world sounds, country-tinged indie folk, and Afrocentric hip-hop at this special holiday concert.

Movement Workshop: Harmony Hoops, 10:30 am and 12:30 pm
Belvedere sculpture
Wiggle and twirl at hula hoop workshops led by Harmony Hoops' Jessica Bessette.

Art Bike Parade and Contest, 12 noon
Near Spoonbridge and Cherry
Bring your bikes! Decorate your ride at home, and then bring it to the Spoonbridge and Cherry for a bike parade. Winners will be announced at 1 pm. (Secure bike storage will be provided.)