by Hugo Ball   December 31, 2002 From time to time we run quotes or excerpts from historical sources relevant to the site’s current focus (now, on how artists survive). What follows is a series of short excerpts from the diary of the Dada founder and impresario Hugo Ball. Hugo Ball was a German philosophy student, playwright, dramaturg, and vaudevillian who was one of the founders of the Dada movement in…

by A. Klefstad   December 22, 2002 Justin Schaefer, 22, notes that being optimistic is a very healthy tool. Schaefer is a brilliant maker of visuality—paintings, fabric sculptures, installations, environment, graffitti, drawings, and more—and is also a talented creator of partnerships, a curator of shows in Minneapolis and New York. All this sounds high-flying, and in terms of its aesthetics, it is, but it’s…

by mnartists.org   December 4, 2002 9:00 Connie Evingson 9:05 Chris Faust 9:10 James Sewell Ballet 9:15 Tom Rieschick 9:20 Chuck Olsen 9:25 Mika Turner 9:30 Michael Markos 9:35 Marcia Engeltjes 9:40 Judy Kay Allen 9:45 Murphy Design 9:50 Richard Paske 9:55 Gabe Heller 10:00 A. Eric Heukeshoven 10:05 Diane Syme 10:10 Lisa D’Amour 10:15 Matthew Keefe 10:20 Benjamin Johnson 10:25 Holly Schramm 10:30…

by Paul Lundgren   December 1, 2002editor@mnartists.org. “Thanks for coming out, everybody. Don’t forget I’ve got CDs for sale up here. And check out the new MP3s on my website.” Just one decade ago, those remarks were seldom heard in your local nightclub, coffee shop or basement keg party. Websites and CDs were for established artists with recording contracts. Today, they’re for everybody. Over 90 percent of…

by Peter S. Scholtes   November 27, 2002 Is there a “Minnesota Mafia” in rock criticism? Rock critics who have lived in Minnesota don’t have a shared email list or a secret handshake or an underground lair. If they did, it would have been a snap to write this introduction to their history and influence—plus I’d have a place to put my shark tank. As it is, I’m weeks behind getting this piece in, and the…

by Caroline Palmer   November 4, 2002 During the summer of 1991 I held the position of Publicity Director at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts. In many ways, the job was enviable. My role was to promote the offerings of a venerable institution founded by Ted Shawn during the early 1930’s. Situated in the Berkshire Mountains, the festival grounds offered gorgeous vistas and a rustic…

by Michael Fallon   October 25, 2002 It’s not easy for a working art critic to discern what the role of art criticism is in a living art community. But I have tried to figure out what I intend my role to be over the five years that I’ve been writing criticism locally. That is, what am I doing, exactly? Am I here to support and prop up a community that seems constantly on the edge of disaster, or to…

by Kim Surkan   October 23, 2002 Leslie Ball only meant to try curating a midnight cabaret for six weeks while she was home in Minnesota one summer, having relocated permanently to New York City three years before to pursue a graduate degree at NYU. That was eleven years ago, and she hasn’t looked back since. At the time, Ball pitched her idea to the Jungle Theater (then on Lake Street) as a late-night…

by Kim Surkan   October 2, 2002 The cabaret has been described as perhaps the most democratic form of performing arts venues; its history includes American vaudeville and variety acts, stand-up comedy shows, and open mic nights. In the Twin Cities we are blessed with a phenomenal assortment of regularly scheduled cabarets to choose from, a testament to how many writers, performing artists, and musicians…