27 stories from State of the Artist
This is Somewhere from Works Progress on Vimeo. We first met Brian Frink when we saw him give a talk about his pet portraits, realistic large-scale paintings of dogs and cats, many of…
Everyday Ways from Works Progress on Vimeo. After meeting Mankwe Ndosi for the first time, we knew that our process for creating this video would be different than the others in the s…
State of the Artist note: This post, from Laura Zabel, is in response to our Visualizing Artists’ Careers project, which you can see here. I can't stop looking at these graphics…
This is a call out to all the crackerjack arts administrators out there, working behind the scenes to make it happen. Same goes for you"loyal arts patrons, showing up for every show i…
The Topic Was Air from Works Progress on Vimeo. As artists who often work across disciplines, we're excited by efforts to get beyond silo thinking. Thankfully, there seem to be more and more…
One of the fortunate by-products of making documentaries in collaboration with artists is getting to know more about their works in progress. Some of those works have made their way into the…
Skewing the Lens from Works Progress on Vimeo. “It's hard sometimes to think outside your own very complicated, very personal, very busy, life-is-overwhelming lens, but when you go to …
Bog Walk from Works Progress on Vimeo. Artist Christine Baeumler wants us to get our feet wet. When we approached her about creating a short video for McKnight's State of the Artist project …
McKnight Foundation’s Artist Fellowships 30th anniversary celebration from Minneapolis on Vimeo. This summer, we celebrated the 30th Anniversary of the McKnight Artist Fellowship progr…
Last fall, 120 artists sent me their résumés. They were not applying for a job at the Foundation, nor was I creating a hard copy LinkedIn. Artists agreed to share this career documentation…
Poetry in Motion from Works Progress on Vimeo. How can poets collaborate with other artists and communities to bring poetry into the world in new ways? Dobby Gibson is a poet, but he doesn&#…
Over the past two months we’ve been busy working with a handful of artists to develop the remaining videos for our State of the Artist Documentary Project. For those who are new to thi…
The McKnight Foundation announces poet and naturalist John Caddy as the 2012 McKnight Distinguished Artist. For those not yet familiar with John's work, he is a well-respected poet and teach…
Name me any prominent Asian American playwright out there today, and I will quickly be able to point out their "identity" play. We have at least one. For Asian American artists, our ethnicit…
No sooner do we recognize the strength and achievement of the Asian American theater community, than someone raises the specter of "the withering away of the ethnic company." That is, once t…
Asian American theater artists in Minnesota? How did this happen? In New York or LA, San Francisco or Seattle? Sure. But here in the Twin Cities? (I almost feel like breaking into a song fro…
Perpetual Inspiration Machine from Works Progress on Vimeo. What happens when creating work for a gallery audience isn’t enough? During our visit to visual artist Carolyn Swiszcz'sÃ…
Why aren't there more artists of color in mainstream arts institutions? I've been getting this question a lot as I make my way across the Great Lakes region hosting information sessions for …
While we may be graduating tens of thousands of students with arts degrees each year, including some percentage billed as 'professional training' degrees, as everyone in the arts knows, most…
Note from State of the Artist: Thanks for all the thoughtful and provocative comments on Laura Zabel’s thoughtful and provocative post “The Importance of Being Ordinary.” I…
Thanks to our lively mother, my childhood household was full of making things"food, poems, make-believe, sweaters, parties, baskets, candles, music, paintings, dances, costumes. We all parti…
When we set out on our State of the Artist Documentary Project, working with some of the McKnight Artist Fellows of the past 30 years, we immediately saw a chance to satisfy our own curiosit…
As Collaborative Directors of Works Progress, Colin Kloecker and I have been fortunate to work in partnership with artists from many different communities and professional backgrounds. In ou…
Hello! Today State of the Artist highly recommends that you check out Diane Ragsdale's article, "What are the aims of direct subsidies to artists?" on Jumper. To wit, Direct grants to artist…
"Artists aren't special. WE are not special!" I'm in a conference room at a prestigious university with 30 of my colleagues from across the country and the world " most of whom I had just me…
