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ArtOrg appears on a full page in the 25th Anniversary issue of Public Art Review. The page, located across from the table of contents on page 6, documents all of the work that is going into the “Children’s Gift to Norway” project. The advertisement is structured like a social media stream, but we also add some older forms of “social media” such as the Kensingston Runestone to the stream. Depending on your view on the authenticity of the Runestone, it enters our stream either 116 years or 652 years ago! Congrats to Forecast Public Art and the Public Art Review on this important milestone.

The Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority donated a big hunk of very special material to ArtOrg for future projects. The material was roof material for the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, and has observed many important events from its lofty perch, This fiberglass air-pressure-suppoted roof was deflated for the last time on January 18, 2014 marking an end to this iconic structure. ArtOrg prints with blocks from our Thousand Print Summer educational events, so look for a neat future ArtOrg project printed on this 10-foot-by-30-foot piece of Minnesota sports history.

The trunk that will house the large folded-up Children’s Gift to Norway fabric print has been recently completed. The trunk is big–about double the size of the standard immigrant trunk and measures 66 inches long by 46 inches high by 34 inches wide. It has casters capable of supporting the 250 pound weight of the CGTN print. The trunk was designed by many, but ultimately drawn to scale and constructed artist/woodworker Noel Swanson. The unpainted trunk was then taken to the studio of artist TL Solien of Madison, Wisconsin and he painted the work. Then, a team from the Guild of Metalsmiths lead by Tom Latane added all of the ironwork to the trunk. The blacksmithing was done at the Tunnel Mill facility in Spring Valley, Minnesota. All of the work was done in traditions of European immigrant trunks–even the nails were made by hand using a forge. ArtOrg documented the work on this important part of the Children’s Gift to Norway project in several photosets: 1) Construction and Design, 2) Painting, 3) Blacksmithing, and 4) Completed Trunk. Thanks very much to all of the people that were involved in making this beautiful artwork.

ArtOrg has created a large print on fabric called “A Children’s Gift to Norway” with over 1500 individual contributions from children. The print is 15 meters tall and 30 meters wide, and is transported in a double-size replica of a Norwegian immigrant trunk. The model shown in this video of the print, the facility, and the viewers was made to scale. This is our dream of exhibiting the artwork in Norway. This wonderful stop motion animation was created by artist/animator/director Christopher Fierke, with help from Gretchen Fierke and Greg Mattern of HDMG.

ArtOrg was invited by the New York Mills Regional Cultural Center to provide the foundation for a community Day of the Dead festival in that city. We displayed the 104-foot-long print from our 2006 project, and most of the prints from the 2009 project that was done in Fargo for the Plains Art Museum. A special addition were gallery talks by Xavier Tavera, and the construction of two new panels for his ofrenda, first seen at the Northfield community celebration in 2006. The two new panels were added to the existing four panels and represented inspirations from the heritage of the specific Latino communities near New York Mills.

The Minneapolis Monarch Festival is always a special event, because it is crazy busy. This year, over 400 kids and adults created prints in a span of six hours. If you consider that six hours has 360 minutes, then we printed at an average rate of over one print per minute. To the artists’ credit, the prints were very good and many prints had a Monarch theme. Go here to our page that links shows all of the photos of the art. Thanks to the City of Minneapolis Department of Parks and Recreation for always putting on world-class event! And always thanks to Grupo Soap del Corazón for helping the artists and more.

On the 4th of July 2012, ArtOrg traveled to Rockford, Illinois to take part in artist Roland Poska’s annual event for signing “Declarations of Interdependence”. We performed our small steamroller printing event, at the corner of State and Main, and 45 kids and adults made wonderful paper prints despite some very hot weather. We saved the printing blocks that they created, reprinted the blocks, and placed those reprints inside a 9-foot-tall model of Rockford’s Ziock Building, and unveiled the so-called “Ziock Project” the next year Continue Reading…

ArtOrg submitted several works from our collaborative projects to the DeVos Art Museum in Marquette, Michigan for their yearly juried exhibition called “North of the 45th”. Two large steamroller prints from our 2009 project at the Plains Art Museum were selected from artists Maria Cristina Tavera and Pepe Kryzda.

ArtOrg Director Dave Machacek was a presenter at this year’s Rural Arts and Culture Summit in Morris in a session called “Participatory Artmaking”. Then, after the morning session, the whole ArtOrg crew printed with the little steamroller for the assembled Summiteers. It was an auspicious trip, because the very next day, we printed in Browns Valley, one of the westernmost cities in Minnesota. This event at the Browns Valley Library, as hosted by the Viking Library System, and was the 100th time ArtOrg performed the Thousand Print Summer event!