Minneapolis Institute of Art

The Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program just launched new Artist Salons at Mia! These Friday afternoon gatherings are free and built entirely for Minnesota artists. Join curators, peers, and fellow makers for informal sessions built around conversation, inspiration, and practical insight. Connect directly with curators, learn how to navigate and utilize Mia’s vast collection as a creative resource, or simply kick back during happy hour and connect with other artists. Learn more and register: https://lnkd.in/eiq8aUFf Upcoming sessions: Working with Curators, July 17 Artists Books in the Print Study Room, August 21 Museum-Ready Framing Techniques, September 25 Image: WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE no10 (detail), 2023. Tia Keobounpheng (2023 MAEP Artist), American, born 1977. Pencil, colored pencil, thread on wood. The David and Ruth Waterbury Endowment for Contemporary Craft. 2023.74.1.

LGBTQ+ artists have always enriched the art world using their talents, experiences, vision, and creativity, even when the art world didn’t love them back. Here are a few pieces at Mia celebrating queer artistry.

Something bad happened in Nik Nerburn’s family. “We don’t have all the details,” he says, “but my great-grandmother was found dead, most likely pushed down the stairs by my great-grandfather.” It was the 1920s. Nerburn’s paternal grandfather’s family had moved from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to Oak Lake Park, a now-nonexistent Minneapolis neighborhood near what is today the Walker Art Center’s Sculpture Garden. After the incident, “My great-grandfather disappeared, and my grandfather and his siblings were scattered to different orphanages across the Twin Cities,” says Nerburn. The tragedy became an entryway for the artist. He began weaving this family history together with a lighter, though no less complicated, maternal story: his grandmother in Grand Forks had had a child with the local milkman. Investigation revealed the milkman had actually fathered children with a number of different women in the town. “And I was just fascinated by that story,” Nerburn says. “It’s kind of a classic American story. I talked to my uncle, whose dad was the milkman, about it, really learning everything I possibly could. And then it sort of went from there.” In his Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program (MAEP) show, “Nik Nerburn: The Milkman,” now on view at Mia, he merges moving image, sculptural installation, and sound to explore the private corners of a troubled household. At its heart is The Milkman, a multichannel film installation composed of projected vignettes and immersive audio. Continue reading the story behind Nik Nerburn's exhibition: https://lnkd.in/eMafWH8C See the exhibition at Mia through June 21st.

Mia is seeking Discovery Day volunteers to play a vital role in providing engaging and educational experiences for PK-6 students visiting the museum! Volunteers facilitate discussions and activities with young people and inspire them to explore and appreciate art. This position offers a unique opportunity to contribute to the cultural enrichment of children through volunteer service. Education staff prepare talking points, discussion questions, and activities for volunteers. Training will be provided on art engagement techniques and strategies, grade-age characteristics, DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion), and content specific to Discovery Days. Discovery Days Volunteers commit to a minimum of one year of volunteering, renewable each year. Shifts are typically four hours long on Wednesdays and/or Saturdays, up to two times per month throughout the year, especially January through May. Interested? Learn more & apply: https://lnkd.in/eHsuZiSi

On Sunday, June 7th at 2 pm, Mia welcomes three professors from the University of Minnesota to the stage for a public discussion of “Modern Art and Politics in Germany 1910–1945: Masterworks from the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin.” Tickets are going fast, get yours for free: https://lnkd.in/e7-TvAij Tom Rassieur, Mia’s John E. Andrus III Curator of Prints and Drawings, along with Priyanka Basu, Katerina Korola, and Matthias Rothe from the U of M, dive into the turbulent period that saw the rise of new styles of art in a political environment that included imperialism, revolution, democracy, fascism, war, and genocide. Taking on issues such as the intertwined nature of politics and aesthetics, the relationship of painting to other art forms, ambiguity in art, and the idea of the New Woman, this conversation promises to be a lively exchange. Image: George Grosz, German (active United States), 1893–1959. Pillars of Society (detail), 1926. Oil on canvas. EL2026.2.52. © Neue Nationalgalerie, Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin

“Teen Perspectives: Yesterday and Today” is now on view. This exhibition features artwork by Twin Cities high school students exploring the connection between art and wellness. The teen artists look at how mental and behavioral health, identity, and creativity have been linked over time, and how people today use creative tools to heal, express themselves, and care for their communities. They met with artist-mentors at Mia for seven weeks this winter. Alexandra Beaumont, Shea Maze, and BakiBakiBaki shared their experiences and approaches to art making and contributed their own works to the exhibition. Facilitator Lissa Karpeh provided art therapy directives, or prompts, to guide the creative process. See it for free on the first floor through August 30th. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/eKGNXwAS Funding for this project is provided by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, as part of its commitment to investing in community-led solutions so everyone has the opportunity to achieve their healthiest life. Pictured: Untitled by Ellie Gaffney Foundation by Estrella Vail Perez Untitled by MJ Hasty

Recent conservation of the Pillsbury Owl was entrusted to Japanese conservator Keisuke Sugimoto, widely respected for his expertise in restoring Chinese bronze masterpieces for museums and private collectors. This conservation work on the owl revealed some things we didn’t previously know about this significant work. Read more about the conservation: https://lnkd.in/eC5CxF6U Restored and resilient, the owl is back on its perch in gallery 214.

Join us for a lecture and conversation about Mia's "Containing Multitudes” exhibition featuring Makeda Best, Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Oakland Museum of California Art, and Casey Riley, Chair of Global Contemporary Art at Mia. Like other American thinkers of the 19th century, Walt Whitman, through his writing, poetry, and the production of his own likenesses, envisioned an almost divine role for the daguerreotype—that its material and pictorial properties could contribute to a broader cultural project to recover proof of and to promote the validity of the nation’s providential origins and divine mission. Whitman declared himself devoted to “what is real about America”—to the people whose diversity of skills were literally constructing the nation in their image. This lecture draws on the photographs featured in “Containing Multitudes” to explore the omissions and legacies of visions such as Whitman’s, and the ways practitioners have envisioned and interpreted their truths about America and its promise. Thursday, May 28 at 6 pm. Learn more and get free tickets: https://lnkd.in/ehXUmS2B

Many of the artists in Mia's current exhibition “Built to Last: The Shogren Meyer Collection of American Art” received as little recognition for their artistry in their time as they did for their day jobs—working for the government, as commercial illustrators, or, in the case of artists like Jack Steele, in the very industries whose shadow their art depicted. Led by a shared interest in the history of the Great Depression, Dan Shogren and Susan Meyer collect art centered around American industry. Their collection includes works by some of the most significant American artists of the early 20th century—Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Ben Shahn, to name a few—but Dan and Susan take pride in elevating the careers of artists whose creativity has been all too often overlooked. “Built to Last” brings together paintings and photographs from the Shogren-Meyer collection, spanning the late 1920s through the early 1940s—a period marked by economic hardship, social unrest, and the dominance of industrial manufacturing. Read this Q&A with Spencer Wigmore, Mia’s Patrick and Aimee Butler Associate Curator of American Paintings, to explore the context and themes that shape the show: https://lnkd.in/g4eKq9iR

We’re proud to support Teen Perspectives: Yesterday and Today at the Minneapolis Institute of Art—a collaboration that centers youth mental health through creative expression. This year, PiM Arts High School students are sharing personal stories with guidance from professional teaching artists and an art therapist, allowing them to process trauma, build connection, and find their voices. Read the full story here: https://lnkd.in/gTC-MBQx