ArtOrg has purchased the building at 214 4th Street N. in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, and this location will be our primary home. We consider ourselves a regional group, and we will continue to serve customers in Northfield and throughout the state. The new ArtOrg building is very unique because it has a 5000-square-foot wide-open area for studios, ample space for our offices and meeting rooms, three apartments which will eventually serve as artist residencies, and a large outdoor space for public art installations. The site adjoins two restaurants, and the Cannon Valley Bike Trail, as well as more great amenities of the growing and vibrant downtown Cannon Falls. ArtOrg overlooks the Little Cannon River rapids and a city park.
The purchase of the facility was supported through important friends of ArtOrg, and also through the help of the Economic Development Authority of Cannon Falls that provided a development loan from the city’s Revolving Loan Fund. We hope that ArtOrg can become an important strategic tenant as Cannon Falls continues to develop its downtown. Cannon Falls is located midway between the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul and Rochester, Minnesota on Highway 52 and driving time is about 45 minutes to both. Cannon Falls is also on Highway 19, and driving time to Northfield is 15 minutes, and to Red Wing is 30 minutes. Please watch us as we create plans to improve and renovate the building.

ArtOrg appears in the current issue of the Public Art Review on page four. Three ArtOrg projects are shown: the 2006 Northfield Day of the Dead Steamroller Prints, the 2008 Twenty Views of Dundas, and the 2012 Seat Suite. The topic for this particular issue was “About Place: Putting Art at the Heart of Placemaking”. Here is a photoset showing some of the work we did to get that special photo for the ad.

The ArtOrg 2012 Thousand Print Summer is well underway and we have already printed for well over 1000 kids and adults. Highlights from this summer are many, but check out the completed photos for details. If we had to single out some highlights, they would invariably include: the completion of a special “History of Mexican Printmaking” piece from the MIA parts of which that we give to each participant (English here, Spanish here), the record-breaking 380 prints in 6 hours at the Minneapolis Monarch Festival, the great turnout on a cold day at Culturfest in Owatonna, and the video of a somewhat obstinate llama at the Wadena County Fair. Continue Reading…

The ArtOrg project “Seat Suite” has been recently exhibited at two venues, and ArtOrg also recently hosted Illinois artist Roland Poska and his “Great Human Race Initiative”. First, the Seat Suite was presented at the day-long ArtFaire event in St. Cloud Minnesota in early August, and then at the Minnesota State Fair in late August. Later at the end of the State Fair, ArtOrg hosted Poska and his initiative which incorporated signings of his “Declarations of Interdependence”. The response was great for all three events, and for the two State Fair events we made use of a large inflatable A-Frame to announce the exhibits. You can see the photos here Continue Reading…

Mac Gimse’s contribution to the ArtOrg “Five Sculpture” project was installed on September 1, 2012 as a part of the St. Olaf College “Artists On The Hill” exhibition. This is the fourth public installation of works from this project, and was preceded by installations at the Lampe Law Group plinth of works from Sharol Nau, Juan Jose Palacios, and Ed White. Continue Reading…

ArtOrg Executive Director Dave Machacek recently completed the 4-week summer workshop on Aluminum Plate Lithography at the Tamarind Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Here is a small sample of the photos from the course. ArtOrg’s mission statement centers on collaboration: “ArtOrg impacts individuals and communities through visual arts projects and events primarily centered in the print, with public art, commissioned work, and experiential-based education initiatives”, and the course is hoped to increase ArtOrg’s knowledge in the area of printmaking. So far, two ArtOrg collaborative printmaking projects have been accessioned to the permanent collection of the Weisman Museum at the University of Minnesota and one Continue Reading…

ArtOrg has brought together artists Judy Onofrio, Mary GrandPre and Kari Alberg to create seating for the popular Flint Hills International Children’s Festival at the Ordway Theater. The art will be exhibited for the first time at the Festival on Saturday, June 2 and Sunday, June 3rd in downtown St. Paul. The project is called the “Seat Suite” and the main page for the project is located here and will contain photos of the exhibit and creation of the works. Please come enjoy the Festival, and sit on some great public art. Thanks very much to Continue Reading…