by Amanda Vail   September 1, 2005 The Tilsner Artists� Cooperative shines a lovely brick-red in the summer sunlight; in spring and autumn it proves equally attractive to the crowds of people attending the Art Crawl. The building is a converted warehouse with a history dating back to the early 1900�s; thinking of the lives that have passed by and through the building on its corner of Broadway and…

by Ann Klefstad   August 24, 2005 Grand Prize, drawing �Two Cardinals,� charcoal Two small girls approach two caged birds�but is it two girls? There�s only one, but there are two moments in this drawing. The towering space of the alcove and the spare greys of the upper reaches of the drawing dwarf the small person who moves through the space. This is drawing showing what photography cannot: the drama of…

by Ann Klefstad   August 24, 2005 Grand Prize in oil, acrylic, and mixed media �Lake Superior Taconite,� oil on panel Joe Paquet makes his living by painting, and teaching students one day a week in his studio in St. Paul. He worked full time in advertising and design until four years ago, when he left the business to do plein-air painting exclusively. His gallery representation in Cape Cod, Charleston, and…

by Ann Klefstad   August 24, 2005 Grand Prize winner, photography �Trees, Hidcote,� platinum palladium print You find an old photograph in a drawer. It reveals a place where something is about to happen, something odd. Beth Dow�s photos evoke this feeling. Her work in the Fair show seems to hide as much as it reveals. Dow shoots photos of formal gardens in England, where she lived for eight years, working in…

by Ann Klefstad   August 24, 2005 Grand Prize winner, sculpture For �Family,� in bronze on an oak base �Family� is a bronze grouping in the manner of Wilhelm Lehmbruch�a mode of bronze work that is consistently satisfying though little practiced of late. It�s difficult to locate the source of the work�s subtle intensity; much more is going on in the group than is immediately evident. The expressions of…

by Shannon Gibney   August 18, 2005 Can art transform our world and social interactions? Practitioners of art and civic engagement initiatives believe that it can, although they also say that the process is both difficult and demanding. �What we�re finding is that there are a lot of artists who are already engaged in engaging people and getting people to look at issues � whether it�s beautifying an…

by Camille LeFevre   August 15, 2005 �Site-specific,� as an adjective and as a point of reference, has lost its specificity. Today, the term is used indiscriminately (especially in dance) to describe any movement piece that occurs off the concert stage. As a result, �site-specific� has become a catchall. As a recent example, consider the Visible Fringe performance component of this year�s Minneapolis Fringe…

by Dominic Papatola   August 3, 2005 The American musical has had to bear a lot of weight on its slender frame over the years. It�s been lionized as one of the few truly indigenous American art forms. It�s been hailed as device for social commentary. It�s been clung to as the last crutch propping up the fabulous invalid of Broadway theater. That�s a lot to expect from a scrappy little mutt of an art…

by Kim Surkan   August 2, 2005 This year, the Minneapolis Fringe Festival will draw over 50,000 people, organizers say — making it the largest non-juried Fringe Festival in the country, and the third largest in North America (behind Edmonton and Winnipeg). That�s excluding the New York Fringe, however, which is about the same size but preselects its shows. �The New York Fringe is totally curated, so by our…