A new audio
tour created jointly by
Minnesota Public Radio and the city of Minneapolis, called Sound Points, allows listeners to go behind the scenes of 14 recently commissioned public artworks.
Anyone who happens upon the sites, which are indicated with signs, can access the tour around the clock, either by making a phone call or by scanning a QR code with their smartphone.
The Line recently featured a similar audio tour of the Mississippi River, called Ranger on Call,
here.
While the cell phone tour is modeled after similar museum tours, it takes advantage of readily available technology, MPR producer Jeff Jones explains.
There's no need to check out equipment or stick to visiting hours and the artworks can be enjoyed in any order.
“You can just stumble upon these things now,” he says. “That’s what’s taking the tour outside the walls [of the museum]. It lets people find them on their own.”
And, unlike a video or a brochure, it doesn’t substitute for the experience. “It’s meant to enhance the experience of place,” he says.
Many of the Sound Points can be found near bus stops, making it convenient for those who are already lingering.
For example, one part of the tour features the “Blossoms of Hope” bus shelter that artist Majorie Pitz created in conjunction with Catalyst Community Partners.
She turned the busy bus shelter at Penn and Broadway avenues in North Minneapolis into an oversized vase of flowers, with colorful petals that look like sails.
After the July tornado that hit North Minneapolis, Jones says, “It became a rallying point for the community,” with services, food, and other assistance being handed out there.
“It was literally a bright spot. It’s a playful piece of art that can be seen from a long way off," says Jones.
Another of his favorite Sound Points centers on an artistically designed water fountain at 21st and Lake Street, titled “3 Forms: The Lake Street Bubbler.”
Water is the fountain’s theme, embodied grotto-style, so that “there are lots of tiny hidden objects and forms throughout the piece."
It’s one of the most satisfying aspects of an audio tour--to learn something that not everyone is privy to, he says.
To take things a step further, the tour encourages people to respond, either with questions or personal anecdotes, in writing or verbally.
Other tour highlights include Wing Young Huie’s “Lake Street USA,” which is displayed at the city’s Public Service Center downtown, the 35W Bridge Remembrance Garden, by landscape architect Tom Oslund, and “Enjoyment of Nature,” on Third and Nicollet, by artist Kinji Akagawa.
Source: Jeff Jones, Sound Point Producer, MPR
Writer: Anna Pratt