Northfield’s ArtOrg
MEDIA ALERT: 10/9/2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Day of the Dead Celebration includes 100-foot-long Steamroller Print

Day of the Dead Celebration Northfield Armory, 519 Division Street S., Wed., November 1, 6 to 9:30 pm

Steamroller Printing: Public Event, Parking lot of Mueller-Dahl Remodeling, 527 Professional Drive, Saturday, October 14, 11 am to completion (please check www.artorg.info for changes due to weather, etc.)

Gallery Show: ArtOrg Moving Walls Gallery, 200 Division Street S. (riverside entrance), opening reception Sat. October 21, 6 to 10pm, show runs: October 21 – November 8.

Ray Gonzalez Poetry Reading: ArtOrg Moving Walls Gallery, 200 Division Street S. (riverside entrance), Thursday, October 26, 7:30 pm.

Juanita Garciagodoy Talk: ArtOrg Moving Walls Gallery, 200 Division Street S. (riverside entrance), Wednesday, November 8, 7:30 pm.

Contact: Dave Machacek, ArtOrg Executive Director, 507-261-8086, 507-645-2555

The Latino community from Northfield, Minnesota in cooperation with ArtOrg (a community-based arts group) and Grupo Soap del Corazón (a Twin Cities-based Latino arts group) will be unveiling a 100-foot-long collaborative print made with a steamroller as a part of a month-long series of events. The celebration will be held at the Northfield Armory on Wednesday, November 1 from 6 to 9:30 pm, and will include traditional Day of the Dead breads, flowers, crafts, a community-built Ofrenda (altar) and artwork. Food will be served and music provided. Mexican Food will be served and music provided. Everyone is invited to this night of celebration.

The Northfield community has a working-class Latino population, many of which hail from one small town the State of Veracruz, Mexico (Father Denny Dempsey has visited there, see his post on the trip and see photos at Luigi and Andy Sison’s site under “Maltrata”), a college-based population sometimes international in nature, and a native Minnesotan component. This event seeks to integrate the different groups by having fun and learning about the cultural and spiritual traditions of Day of the Dead through art and activities.

The steamroller print event will be a collaboration of about a dozen Minnesota-based Latino artists who will create printing blocks by carving four-foot by eight-foot sheets of plywood. The plywood blocks will be laid end-to-end in a one-hundred-foot-long row, then rolled with ink, special long paper will be set down, and a 20,000 pounds steamroller will roll over the blocks, creating pressure and making the print.

Additional events include a Day of the Dead art exhibition at ArtOrg, a poetry reading by University of Minnesota’s Ray Gonzales, and a talk on the origins and nature of the Day of the Dead by Macalester College’s Juanita Garciagodoy. The gallery show will include artists from the Northfield community and the Twin Cities, and include Douglas Padilla, Xavier Tavera, and others. A community ofrenda or altar will be constructed starting for the gallery show opening and and then moved and re-installed at the Nov. 1 celebration.

ArtOrg is a community-based arts organization which creates gallery exhibitions, provides facilities to artists, and holds art classes. The ArtOrg fall 2006 schedule includes over 250 hours of art instruction. Grupo Soap del Corazón (Soap of the Heart Group) was created in 2000 to celebrate and expand understanding of local Latino culture It has exhibited a show entitiled “Fontera lake Street” at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, an exhibit at the Mira gallery, a show called “A Day with the Dead on Lake Street” on the side of the then-vacant Sears Building, and art in the streets of Chile.

This month of activities is the first Dia de los Muertos celebration in Northfield. Please feel welcome in taking part. We hope to see you there!

Participating steamroller-print artists: Claudia “Billy” Baca, Kendall Bohn, Paloma Barhaugh-Bordas, Anselmo Cornejo, Betto Limón, Gustavo Lira, Steven “Nuno” Nuñez, Maria Christina O’Brien, Douglas Padilla, Juan Jose Palacios, Christina Perez, Richard Swearer, and Xavier Tavera. With additional works by: various Northfield and regional artists including Dawn Zero Erickson and Luis Fitch.