Arts and Culture : Development News

Flow Art Space, which hosts juried group shows and the occasional solo exhibit on a monthly basis, recently moved into the Northern Warehouse in St. Paul’s Lowertown neighborhood.  

Gallery owner Melissa Metzler decided to relocate the gallery, which features local and national artists, from the Keg House Arts building in Northeast Minneapolis, where it opened in 2011, due to noise issues. When she was scoping out new locations, she sought a place that was easy to find and that had a strong arts community. Lowertown was a good match and the historic Northern Warehouse is “ideal for a gallery,” she says.  

The building also houses the Black Dog Coffee Shop and Wine Bar.

Already, the 1,200-square-foot space was well equipped for a gallery. The main thing Metzler did was to add more track lighting, she says. Big wood beams, hardwood floors and tall ceilings, along with plenty of wall space, characterize the space. “It has natural materials and has a nice feel to it,” she says.

Also, the building is home to many artists and creative businesses. “I’m benefiting from being in this critical mass. There’s a lot of creative energy and creative people. I like going into that environment everyday.”

In her view, there’s plenty of room for more galleries in the area and beyond. “There needs to be more galleries and places to show artwork,” she says. “Having more galleries together in one area is better for everybody,” she says. “It gives people more options.”  

On top of that, “Lowertown is in a real revitalization time right now,” she says. “There’s so much happening with the Depot reopening and light rail--and the artists continue to be there.”

Source: Melissa Metzler, owner, Flow Art Space
Writer: Anna Pratt

The Blue Ox Art Putt, a $500,000 artist-designed mini golf course, is in the works for a part of the old Schmidt Brewery in St. Paul.

The concept stemmed from an earlier project that a couple of the Blue Ox LLC group members had been involved in at the Walker Art Center in 2004 and 2008, according to Jennifer Pennington, a member of the group. At that time, Blue Ox team member Christi Atkinson led in the making of an artistic mini golf course that was on the Walker grounds temporarily.

Pennington’s husband, Chris, built one of the holes, which turned out to be a popular part of the course, even earning national press, she says. The whole idea was “so fun and engaging,” Pennington says, “We thought, ‘let’s build a permanent one.’”

Beyond that, the mini golf course could also feature other types of arts programming, such as live music, dance, or puppet shows. “We want it to be a community hub,” she says. “It’s really about creating not just an arts destination but a place for people of all backgrounds to come together.”  

In preparation for the mini golf course, the group looked at a variety of locations, finally settling on the brewery because of the arts-focused development happening there, she says. The Schmidt Brewery is being converted into an artist live/work complex, along with a museum and a taproom/restaurant.

For the golf course, artists will work individually or in a team to design each hole. “It’ll be something to discover for everyone,” she says, adding that she expects it’ll be the kind of place that “inspires wonder and amazement and beauty.”

The plan still has to go through a city and state approval process because of the brewery’s historic status, but Pennington expects construction on the clubhouse to start this summer. Around the same time, the group will put out a call out for artists. Further down the line, the holes will be constructed off-site and installed in spring of 2014, she says.

The Blue Ox Art Putt is planned to open in May of 2014.

Right now, the Blue Ox team is waiting to hear back on some grant applications. Pennington is optimistic that the mini golf course will be a draw in the neighborhood. “There’s been so much positive feedback. A lot of people have been very generous with sharing resources. It’s been a lot of fun,” she says.

Source: Jennifer Pennington, Blue Ox Art Putt
Writer: Anna Pratt

Morrissey’s Irish Pub, which opened earlier this month, is helping to transform part of Lake Street in South Minneapolis.  

Scott Schuler, who co-owns the place with several partners, says it fills a unique niche in the area.  “There’s never been an Irish pub in Uptown. It needed a proper pub,” says Schuler, who is also an owner of Pizza Savoy.

In the past, the space at 913 W. Lake St., which housed Viva Brazil and several other restaurants before that, had been “underfunded and undermanaged,” Schuler says. For a long time, along this part of Lake Street, “There wasn’t a lot going on,” he says.

But the new owners are optimistic about things turning around here. “The whole block is being revitalized,” with the pub, the new Golden Leaf Tobacco shop and the soon-to-open Spill the Wine, he says.  

The pub, which features traditional Irish fare with an upscale twist, plus live music, takes its name from Irish co-owner Paul Crilly’s grandfather. In the 1920s, his grandfather, a commander in the Irish Republican Army, went by the assumed name Johnny Morrissey.  

Although the space had good bones, Schuler says, it required a complete overhaul to make way for the pub. “We literally gutted it, down to the studs,” installing new electrical and plumbing systems and going through an extensive build-out, he says. “It was a substantial redo,” he adds. “We’re proud of the outcome.”

Sleek black leather booths, an open-rafter ceiling, wooden beams, an exposed brick wall, a custom-designed bar, and a unique pulley fan system, along with photos of the old country, give the space a warm and comfortable vibe, he says. As a testimony to that, “People say it feels like it’s been here forever,” while even some Irish tourists who’ve come by said it felt like home.  

Already, the place has been well received by the neighborhood, Schuler says. A number of people have been “thanking us for opening, saying it’s just what the area needs.".

Source: Scott Schuler, co-owner, Morrissey’s Irish Pub
Writer: Anna Pratt

St. Paul’s Gremlin Theatre is looking to relocate to another part of the St. Anthony Park neighborhood, an area it has called home for the past five years.

Peter Hansen, the theater’s artistic director, says Gremlin wants to stay nearby because “It’s a great location. We love the businesses and the contacts and we feel that patrons have gotten used to coming here.”

Gremlin will also probably keep its aesthetic and 115-seat house, about the same. “The whole theater is built on the idea of intimacy and closeness to the stage,” he says.

This way, the audience “feels involved in what’s going on,” he adds.  

At the same time, the theater hopes to find a way to improve its situation, in some respects.

For example, the theater has to contend with outside noise on occasion. This has partly to do with other activities happening close to the theater, including the Central Corridor light rail transit construction that’s underway, just beyond the entryway.

Hopefully, a new space won’t have those kinds of sound issues. The idea is, “We want to be able to give our patrons and artists a better experience,” he says.  

Additionally, the building the theater is housed in could be redeveloped at some point, as well, making for an uncertain future for Gremlin.

The building’s lease goes through July, so that’s when the theater will move out. Although signing up for another lease, in the short-term, was an option, “We figured that treading water wasn’t the best option,” he says.

In the meantime, Gremlin is exploring the possibilities for a new venue. “If we determine that a place we’re looking at doesn’t meet the needs or needs more time, then we’re looking at a situation where we need to regroup and mobilize,” he says.

That could lead to more site-specific work in the meantime, he says.

Considering that the theater has gone through this process twice already, “We’d like to be in a place longer, while still keeping the same sorts of values in terms of how we produce shows,” he says.

Source: Peter Hansen, artistic director, Gremlin Theatre
Writer: Anna Pratt

Osman Ali, a native of Somalia who lives in Minneapolis, is spearheading an effort to open a local museum dedicated to the artistic and cultural traditions of his homeland.

Right now, the Somali Artifact and Culture Museum is trying to raise $20,000 for a temporary exhibition space, according to community outreach director Sarah Larsson. Ultimately, the museum envisions a brick-and-mortar location of its own, but in the interim, it hopes to find a place somewhere in the metro area, where it can start showing its 700-object collection. To get to that point, the museum aims to raise $20,000, and it's still scouting out possible locations, she says.  

"It's about creating space for Somali traditions," to give it the attention and credibility it deserves, she says.

In the collection that Ali has amassed, most of the objects relate to the nomadic tradition in Somalia in the first half of the last century, she says. However, more modern pieces, including some contemporary artworks, are also in the mix. Ali has shown many of these items already in a number of traveling shows, she says.

In talking to people about the museum concept, Larsson has found "There's a huge demand for it," especially in Minnesota, where so many Somalis have resettled. Many people "are worried about the tradition getting lost."

It's encouraging that a fundraising event for the museum on March 15 and 16 at Lincoln International High School in South Minneapolis drew a diverse crowd, she says. Looking through some of the objects on view at the fundraiser, "People were sharing with each other about how different things were used in the past," she says. "These are things that people interact with on a personal level."  

The museum is "an opportunity to educate other people and break down stereotypes," and to keep young Somalis connected to their heritage, she says.

The museum hopes to open before the end of the summer.

Source: Sarah Larsson, community outreach director, Somali Artifact and Culture Museum
Writer: Anna Pratt
Photo: Jamal Denman for the Minneapolis Spokesman-Recorder

The Beez Kneez, which delivers local, raw honey by bicycle, has a $30,000 Kickstarter campaign going to fund a new local Honey House.

The company wants to develop a headquarters in Minneapolis’s Longfellow neighborhood, according to Beez Kneez founder Kristy Allen. The reason is, “Beez Kneez needs a space to harvest and extract honey and bottle it,” she says.

As it is now, the company has to go to other beekeepers’ places to do those things. This can get expensive and it’s time-consuming, she says. Also, the company needs “a place to store things and operate,” along with retail space. A regular office space can serve an educational purpose, as well. “It can be a place where we can meet with people and talk about bees,” she says.

The community-minded company plans to rent out space for people to use the facility for a small fee.

Longfellow is an ideal area because it’s an up-and-coming area of the city, she says, adding, “It’s focused on urban agriculture, too. A lot of people have gardens where they plant flowers or vegetables. We want to add to that.” The neighborhood even has a number of beekeepers, she says.

Beez Kneez are catering to people "who want to harvest honey, but who don’t want to do it in their kitchen or to buy the equipment,” she says.  

The Honey House would also make creative use of the bicycle element--as an energy source. “We keep bees in hives with frames, and extracting is the process of taking honey from these frames--by spinning,” its Kickstarter page reads.

So far she’s found that “People are very positive and are very interested in having [this] resource.”

Source: Kristy Allen, Beez Kneez
Writer: Anna Pratt

In honor of its 20th anniversary, Lula vintage shop in St. Paul recently underwent a dramatic transformation.

It all started with a project to upgrade the store’s electrical system and snowballed from there, according to store owner Hayley Bush. She wound up pursuing a larger remodel of the space. On Feb. 15, she closed the store temporarily for construction. Although the store has since reopened, she’s still putting the finishing touches on the place.  

In the past, merchandise hung from the walls and across the windows, which meant a lot of heavy lifting every day. The arrangement was physically demanding for her, plus, “I needed to make it easier for people to shop,” she says.

Overall, she wanted to streamline the store’s setup, so that it’s easier to spot items and move through the space. “It’s complicated having a vintage store, where the items go by decade or size,” she says.
As for those who aren’t familiar with vintage clothing or confident about what works for them, “I want them to feel at ease right away,” she says.

The new design is clean and ultramodern, in neutral tones. Besides new carpet and lighting fixtures and a fresh paint job, “I’m having everything be clear and minimalist, so items can be showcased better,” she says.

To improve the store’s flow, she's displaying fewer items. This means “I’ll be able to restock it more frequently,” she says, adding, “There’s only so much you can look at at a time.”

Additionally, she wants the store to appeal to both men and women. “I have a lot of men’s clothing and it’s a market I have just as much interest in as women’s wear,” she says. Taking that into account, she realized the dressing rooms had to be bigger and the racks could be taller, she says.

Soon, she plans to mount a big metal sign and photos from fashion shoots. and to add an additional accessory wall, she says.  

In April, she’ll be offering expanded hours as well.

“I do have cool stuff and I want people to appreciate it,” she says, adding that the remodel has “already made a huge difference. Sales are good.”


Source: Hayley Bush, Lula
Writer: Anna Pratt

Sandcastle, a new eatery taking over the concession stand at Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis, will open this spring.

The concession stand has been empty for the past couple of years, according to Amy Greeley, who is a co-owner of the restaurant with her husband, chef Doug Flicker, along with Chele Payer (see photo at left).

Flicker is well known for his award-winning restaurant, Piccolo, in Minneapolis.

Greeley and Flicker live nearby in the Longfellow neighborhood.

Greeley says the opportunity came out of a unique relationship with the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board (MPRB), which granted the trio a contract in December.

Construction at the site is planned to start in the coming weeks, according to Greeley.

The existing lakeside structure is getting a fresh look, but the place will "hold true to the concession beach feel," she says. She describes the design as reminiscent of the Boardwalk in New Jersey's Atlantic City, "But it'll feel more modern."

A new full kitchen will be enclosed, with big windows so that people can see food being prepared inside. Heat-treated wood paneling will go on the building's exterior. "The wood will be treated in a unique fashion, like they do it in Finland," she says.

Between the stylized wood paneling and other colorful materials, "At different times of the day, with the way the sun hits it, the reflection or the aspect of the building will look different."

Sustainability, both in the build-out and in the business operations, is a big priority. "We want to get as near to zero waste as possible," she says, adding, "We're talking with people about how to achieve that," including a master recycler.   

So far, the community has been receptive to the new restaurant. "What we heard a lot was that people wanted a place to sit down and have a snack and enjoy something close to their homes, that they can bike or walk to."

"We want it to be community-focused, with good, healthy and fun food," and to "be a place where people can spend time and make memories."

The restaurant is slated to open in May.


Source: Amy Greeley, Sandcastle
Writer: Anna Pratt

Bikeverywhere.com, a new interactive mapping website, encourages people to venture out by bike.

The website, which will help people map bicycle routes across the Upper Midwest, will launch later this month, according to its creator Doug Shidell, a Minneapolis resident.

Shidell, an avid bicyclist, has long produced bicycle maps and other kinds of guide books through Little Transport Press.

This project came about because “What I realized was, I wanted to do more. I wanted to cover more area, get more information for people,” he says, adding that a digital format seemed ideal.

He’s targeting bicyclists who are “more of an explorer or trying to get some place,” not hardcore athletes who often take the same routes over and over.

On the website, people can plan their routes by looking at practical issues or they can look for picnic areas, public art or Nice Ride bike-sharing docking stations.

“It’s more about the experience of exploring the area by bike, to see the city and rural areas in ways that people don’t normally see it,” he says. “People can start seeing what the city has to offer.”  

Shidell is working with several developer teams that are helping to generate the sophisticated maps.

He’s also collected information from bicycle clubs, advocacy groups and even individual riders, to make the maps as comprehensive as possible.

Right now, the website is in the testing phase but when it's ready, those who sign up as Bikeverywhere members can print or save or share maps, he says. 

Shidell also has an $8,000 Indiegogo fundraising campaign for the project going to help complete certain mapping features.

Ultimately, Shidell is trying to answer a question he hears a lot. That is, “Where can I ride my bike? My focus is on helping you get around.

The goal is to get more people to ride bikes and hopefully use it for transportation.”


Source: Doug Shidell, creator, Bikeverywhere
Writer: Anna Pratt

Veronique Wantz, a French-born veteran of the art business who studied art history at the Ecole du Louvre and worked as a curator and antiques dealer in Paris for a decade and as an art consultant and gallery director here for fourteen years, recently decided it was time to start an art gallery of her own.

As she was scouting out possible locations, it seemed serendipitous when an 855-square-foot space in a vintage brick building in Minneapolis’s North Loop neighborhood opened up. Wantz jumped at it, opening the Veronique Wantz Gallery on Jan. 15.

The gallery focuses on work from emerging and well-known national and international artists whose work hasn’t been seen in the Twin Cities before.

This includes a range of artists working in different mediums and styles. “I want it to be fresh and different from what you can find in other places,” she says.  

Wantz plans to do six or seven shows a year, including a mix of solo and group exhibits, depending on how large an artist’s body of work is. “My idea is to establish relationships with fewer artists. It’s more about quality than quantity,” she says, adding, “I want to commit to artists and give visibility.”   

Previously, the space had been used as a shipping area for a software company. Although the space needed “a vision for what it could become,” she made mainly cosmetic changes. For example, she upgraded the lighting, cleaned up the floors and put a fresh coat of paint on the walls.

Already, the space had plenty of character, with exposed brick, hardwood floors, and high ceilings and old wooden beams, she says. Behind some boards that she removed, she found beautiful original windows intact. “I wanted the same integrity, to keep it the way it is,” just with added polish, she says. “It was really interesting to see how things fell into place.”  

More broadly, she’s glad to be situated in North Loop, which she calls the little SoHo of Minneapolis, with all kinds of upscale and up-and-coming restaurants, retail shops and galleries. “I think it fits the neighborhood really well. I am very optimistic about it,” she says.
 
Source: Veronique Wantz, gallery owner
Writer: Anna Pratt

Northern Spark, an all-night art festival that’s in its third year, recently announced that in 2013, it’ll take over St. Paul’s Lowertown neighborhood.

The free festival, which is planned for the evening of June 8, continuing into the wee morning hours, offers a wide variety of performances, visual art, projected images, interactive media, and participatory events, according to Northern Spark materials.     

Last year, the festival took place in Minneapolis only, though in 2011 it hosted activities in both cities, including Lowertown. The location has jumped around based on scheduling needs and other factors, according to a post from Knight Arts.
 
Steve Dietz, who is the president and artistic director of Northern Lights.mn, which organizes the festival, says Lowertown is an ideal location because it “has a significant history as a vital center for artists and arts organizations.”  

Recently, the area has seen the reopening of the historic Union Depot, the development of an experimental project space for the Minnesota Museum of American Art and a new venue for the Bedlam Theatre. The coming Central Corridor Light Rail Transit and a new St. Paul Saints stadium will add to the momentum, he says.

The festival has a “unique opportunity to engage with an amazing history, remarkable architecture, creative ferment,” he says.

“We’d like Northern Spark to be an integral part of the exciting future of the area” and to show the neighborhood in a new light, he says.

Ultimately, the festival is about building community. It gets thousands of people “wandering purposely aimlessly at odd hours participating in a shared experience,” he says. “It is a way to not just imagine but participate in creating the place where we’d like to live.”

Recently, the organization put out a call for 10 projects, which can be in any medium. The deadline is March 4.

“The types of experiences range from spectacular to intimate to surprising to thought-provoking,” he says, adding that the most memorable works are interactive in some way.  

Although Northern Spark won’t disclose the lineup until March 12, more than 75 projects from 45 organizations will also be showcased at the festival, according to Dietz.


Source: Steve Dietz, president and artistic director, Northern Lights.Mn
Writer: Anna Pratt

Parka, a new café that opened on January 23 on East Lake Street and 40th Avenue South in Minneapolis, has already generated a buzz.

Victory 44 chef Erick Harcey joined forces with Dogwood Coffee and Rustica Bakery to open the restaurant, which shares space with Forage Modern Workshop, a furniture and home goods store.

Spencer Agnew, who works for the Longfellow Community Council, says the neighborhood welcomes the new business. "People are very excited about Forage Modern Workshop and Parka because of the creative energy they are bringing to East Lake Street," he says, adding, "We are thrilled to see entrepreneurs renovate and bring new life to retail spaces" in this area of Longfellow.

The place carries on the design aesthetic of Forage, which features local designers, with clean, spare lines, big wooden booths, and funky artwork.

The result is "a loving tribute to Minnesota and the far North, with its wooden deer-head wall hangings, the ceramic white squirrel perched on the countertop, and the elaborate Bear Fox Chalk rendition of a 1928 portrait of a bundled-up Inuit family," a story in the Longfellow Nokomis Messenger reads.

“The challenge, but also the most exciting part of this project was to create a space that both Forage Modern Workshop and Parka felt was seamless but was very functional,” the restaurant’s Facebook page states.  

Turning around the old carpenter’s union hall involved getting rid of cubicles, partition walls and a dropped ceiling, “to expose the beautiful mid-century industrial architecture,” it adds.

Parka also features some items that the next-door shop sells.

The café, which serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner, has a casual yet upscale feel, the Heavy Table blog notes.

It’s part of a new foodie trend in the neighborhood, emphasizing artisan-quality, locally-sourced fare that Heavy Table says started with Peace Coffee shop in 2010 and has continued since then with Harriet Brewing, Mosaic Café, the Minneapolis location of The Blue Door Pub, and Parka.   


Source: Spencer Agnew, Longfellow Community Council
Writer: Anna Pratt

St. Paul’s Heritage Preservation Commission is looking at the possibility of putting up several “Old Rondo” street signs in the city’s neighborhood of the same name.  

Frank White, a lifelong St. Paul resident and a history buff, put forward the proposal as a way to symbolically recognize the neighborhood’s history, particularly as it relates to some high-achieving black Minnesotans, according to the Pioneer Press.

White has worked to set in motion several other initiatives in this same vein. For starters, he wants to get more name recognition for Toni Stone Field, a baseball stadium in the Dunning Athletic Complex. This includes mounting a related plaque and sign at the stadium, according to a story from the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.

He’s working on similar projects to get more name recognition for Toni Stone, one of the first female players in Negro league baseball, athlete Jimmy Lee, for which the Jimmy Lee Recreation Center is named, and Dred Scott, a slave who famously argued for freedom in a case that reached the U.S. Supreme Court.  

The Heritage Preservation Commission adopted a resolution on February 14 supporting the effort to add and correct the "Old Rondo Avenue" signage, "as it will be a more accurate reflection of Rondo Avenue and allow for greater interpretation of the impacts of the construction of Interstate 94 to this neighborhood," information from the body reads.  

Next, White's proposal will go before the City Council, though the timeline for that is yet to be determined, according to Amy Spong, a St. Paul official who works with the commission.

City Council member Melvin Carter III says, “It went further than what we’ve acknowledged publicly so far to honor the community that exists here in St. Paul. It’s a good thoughtful approach to making sure that we honor our past while building our future together.

“I think Frank has done some important work,” he adds. “It’s always important to understand what history holds.”

It’s about getting a better handle on the future, says Carter, “so young folks who’ve grown up in this community can be aware of the rich set of accomplishments of others and can factor that in as they calculate the prospects for their future.”

Reflecting on White’s hard work, he says, “I appreciate everything he’s done,” adding, “I wish more people were as thoughtful and would look around and come up with ideas to make the city a better place.”

Sources: Amy Spong, City of Saint Paul; Melvin Carter, III, St. Paul City Council
Writer: Anna Pratt

In its latest show, a long-running theater troupe at Pillsbury House + Theatre in South Minneapolis called Breaking Ice is tackling big questions about community development in the area.

The show, which runs through February 26, responds to comments that come up in all types of community forums, online and in person, according to Alan Berks, a spokesperson for the theater company.     

Through its performance and a facilitated conversation that follows, Breaking Ice explores questions relating to a major question: “How can neighborhoods evolve in economically stable and sustainable ways?” according to event materials.

This show is part of the Arts on Chicago placemaking initiative, which includes 20 art happenings. Pillsbury House + Theatre is leading the charge with the help of a number of community partners. (See The Line story about the project here.) 

Often, the improvisational-style troupe performs for companies that are having difficulties in the workplace with communication--difficulties that frequently are rooted in cultural conflicts.

“What we get from it is a multifaceted perspective on the issue, with lots of people’s points of view,” Berks says, adding, “It starts to create a more direct conversation about the issues.”

Basically, it breaks the ice on these tough topics, hence the group’s name, he says.

The show delves into thorny questions related to community development, gentrification, and the displacement of longtime residents, questions that touch on race, economics, and culture. “There’s some tension among different sectors of the neighborhood," he says.

The company addresses these issues in a personal way, “from the perspective of people in the neighborhood,” he says, adding, “It’s about showing the human effects, what people are experiencing.”
The idea is to “create more conversations among communities in the neighborhood.”  

At different times in history, the neighborhood has seen a large concentration of Scandinavians, African Americans, and Latinos. Historically, a lot of people have moved through, Berks says, adding, “It’s one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the state.”

Despite the culture shock that often entails, the neighborhood seems to “have a lot of ability to embrace differences,” he says, adding, “I think a high concentration of artists helps.” Artists are social connectors who help bridge the gap, he says.

Source: Alan Berks, spokesperson, Pillsbury House Theatre
Writer: Anna Pratt

A two-mile swath of Hennepin Avenue that runs through downtown Minneapolis is becoming a cultural district.

On Friday, the City Council approved a plan that lays out a vision for the cultural district, with specific goals for the next decade. The planning document came together through a yearlong process called Plan-It Hennepin, which was a collaboration of the Hennepin Theatre Trust, which owns four area theaters, the Walker Art Center, the artist-minded developer, Artspace, and the city.

Plan-It Hennepin drew over 1,500 people to its workshops and meetings, according to project information.  

An “Our Town” creative placemaking grant in 2011 from the National Endowment for the Arts helped make it happen.

Tom Hoch, the president and CEO of the Hennepin Theatre Trust, says it was a robust process. “We’re really trying to think of Hennepin for the next generation,” a younger, more diverse group coming up, he says.

The partners will form a Cultural District Alliance to carry out the multilayered plan, which aims to make the avenue green, creative, safe, and pedestrian-friendly. This will contribute to the Minneapolis Downtown Council’s 2025 Plan, as well.

Basically, the plan centers on how “Arts and culture are playing a role in the connective tissue up and down the avenue,” he says.  

For example, walking from the Walker Art Center to the Mississippi River, “You could have a series of wonderful experiences,” he says.

The alliance hopes to expand on that with greater coordination and consistent branding. “We want to have people come to the cultural district, love it and not want to leave,” Hoch says.

Part of the plan is already underway. A storefront project called “Made Here,” is in the works in the former Witt Mitchell building at 7th and Hennepin. It features work from local artists who design furniture. “The idea is to use storefronts that may be in transition and to showcase Minnesota artists,” he says.

Already he's found that many people have "an affinity for the street," he says, adding, “We have a lot of positive momentum behind what we’re doing here."

Source: Tom Hoch, CEO and president, Hennepin Theatre Trust
Writer: Anna Pratt