MnArts Magazine: September 2008
Featured articles this month focus on graphic design, from a mini-history of gallery exhibition fliers to a profile of the design team behind Studio on Fire.
This month’s features highlight Minnesota’s happening design scene, from the letterpress innovations of Studio on Fire which mix handmade craft with the technological advantages of digital design to an engaging microhistory of gallery promotional fliers by our resident observational historian Andy Sturdevant; you’ll also want to catch graphic designer and Mental Contagion founder Karen Kopacz’s business toolkit for freelance designers, “10 Ways to Design Your Life.”
New for the week of September 29, 2008:
DESIGN: Letterpress Art, By Design
Britt Aamodt offers an engaging profile of the up-and-comers behind Studio On Fire, which pairs the charm of old-world letterpress craftsmanship with new technology know-how and design savvy to come up with ingenious, gorgeous innovations in print design.
MUSIC: How Do You Suppose She Got to That Moment?
Alison Morse offers a lyrical profile of internationally acclaimed composer Mary Ellen Childs, whose movement-rich compositions weave between dance, visual art, music, and poetry.
DANCE: Intimate Attacks
Lightsey Darst offers a revealing, eloquent preview of Karen Sherman’s provocative new dance performance, “copperhead,” on stage at the Southern October 2-5.
STORY: Monarchs by John Jodzio
Read an original short story by the summer 2008 miniStories Grand Prize-winner, John Jodzio. It’s a tale of fathers and sons, the perils of young love and even younger nephews, and the joys of a little deviant behavior.
WHAT LIGHT: This Week’s Poem: James B. Livingston
Highway 35 by James B. Livingston, was selected as a What Light winner by poet Maria Damon.
FEATURED COLLECTION: miniStories (September 2008)
Read the final batch of four winning miniStories from the late summer quarter of mnartists.org’s new flash fiction competition. ALSO: there’s a new call for flash fiction going on right now! DEADLINE: October 1, 2008.
Ongoing in the forums:
FEATURED FORUM: Summer Shakeups: What Do All These Changes Mean for Minnesota’s Art Scene?
Finally, be sure to stop by the mnartists.org forums for this month’s featured topical conversation on the spate of recent closures and shakeups in the MN arts community–from this summer’s turmoil in the MIA’s Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program, the Southern Theater, and Minnesota Museum of American Art to the closures of longtime venues like Theatre de la Jeune Lune and Minnesota Center for Photography. Dance critic Lightsey Darst starts our conversation, with a nuanced, thoughtful essay “Diary of a Crisis,” which reflects on the recent tumult at the Southern Theater surrounding the abrupt dismissal of influential artistic director Jeff Bartlett.