View the playlist of videos screened at #catvidfest here after the event. And click here for a playlist of honorable mentions.

While normally viewed alone on a computer screen, our unofficial cat-lady-in-residence invites you to come gather together on the field and LOL in the presence of others as your favorite silly cat videos are projected larger-than-life one after the other.  Experience the joy of a surprised kitten or keyboard cat together. Participate in this experiment that tests the social boundaries of the online community with a live, off-line event as we attempt to gather in physical space and real time to enjoy one of the internet’s most popular phenomena.

The night’s festivities started off with Death Metal Drawing Club with mnartists.org, and “_____________ is what we make together” Open Field letterpress poster printing with Lunalux, and then live music from Brain Laidlaw and the Family Trade started 7 pm!

Special thanks to our community partners, Feline Rescue, Animal Humane Society, and The Wildcat Sanctuary, who also had a presence at the event.

Nominations for #catvidfest closed July 30, 2012. The  thousands of nominated videos have been narrowed down and divided into CATegories like comedy, documentary, animated, foreign, etc. The “People’s Choice” vote was open from Aug. 6 – 12. The winner was revealed live at #catvidfest on August 30th to be “Henri, Paw de Deux.”

Henri 2, Paw de Deux

We are currently planning to ‘tour’ the festival to the following locations:

Harbor Gallery, University of Massachusetts – Boston, October 23, 2012, 7:00pm
http://www.facebook.com/events/148147861996072/

Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, November 15, 2012, 7:00pm

If you are interested in #catvidfest, would like more information, or have other program related questions, please contact co-producer Scott Stulen, scott.stulen@walkerart.org

For media inquires please contact Rachel Joyce, Assistant Director of Public Relations at rachel.joyce@walkerart.org or call 612-375-7635.

Read more about #catvidfest on the Walker blog:
Vote for #catvidfest “Best in Show”
How to Attend an Internet Cat Video Festival
Internet Cat Video Festival on Open Field
Internet Cat Video Festival Now Accepting Nominations
#catvidfest: the Cat’s Meow
#catvidefest: I Haz Fan Mail
#catvidfest: Vote for People’s Choice

#catvidfest on facebook

@catvidfest on twitter

Cat Press:

A video from the New York Times

New York Times, “At Cat Video Film Festival, Stars Purr for Close-Ups,” Melena Ryzik, August 31, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/01/movies/at-cat-video-film-festival-stars-purr-for-close-ups.html

Slate, “Apocalypse Meow: A dispatch from the Walker Art Center’s Internet Cat Video Festival.” Seth Stevenson, August 31, 2012

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2012/08/internet_cat_video_film_festival_a_dispatch_from_the_walker_art_center_.html

Jezebel, “I Went Looking for Internet Cat Freaks, But Instead I Found Myself,” Madeleine Davies, September 11, 2012

http://jezebel.com/5939801/i-went-looking-for-internet-cat-freaks-but-instead-i-found-myself

Associated Press, “Cat videos get their moment at Minn. film festival,” Patrick Condon, August 29, 2012
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/cat-videos-get-their-moment-minn-film-festival

Star Tribune, “Internet Cat Video Film Fest draws 10,000 people,” Tom Horgen, August 31, 2012

http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/blogs/168151136.html

Pioneer Press, “Internet Cat Video Festival draws 10,000 (!) to Walker Art Center,” Amy Gustafson, August 31, 2012

http://www.twincities.com/entertainment/ci_21442684/internet-cat-video-festival-draws-10-000

The Village Voice, “We All Wish We Attended the Internet Cat Video Festival in Minnesota,” John Surico, September, 1, 2012
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/09/we_all_wish_we.php

Newsweek, “Cat Videos Go Highbrow at Walker Art Center,” Alexandra Peers, August 27, 2012

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/08/26/cat-videos-go-highbrow-at-walker-art-center.html

L. A. Times, “Film festival to focus on Internet cat videos,” Deborah Netburn, July 10, 2012
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-internet-cat-video-film-festival-20120710,0,1797944.story

Time, Newsfeed, “The Art of the Cat Video,” Olivia B. Waxman, July 11, 2012
http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/07/12/our-nominations-for-the-internet-cat-video-film-festival/#the-art-of-the-cat-video

Wired, Underwire, “First-Ever Internet Cat Video Film Festival Opens for Nominations,” Geeta Dayal, July 11, 2012

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/07/internet-cat-video-festival-announced/

BBC News, “Cat video film festival to celebrate web’s furriest virals,” July 11, 2012
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18795123

Kansas City Star, “More than 7,000 enter first cat video festival,” Lisa Gutierrez, July 31, 2012
http://www.kansascity.com/2012/07/30/3732685/cat-videos-and-images-are-taking.html

MPR News, “Walker to host Cat Video Film Festival, Internet LOLz,” Jon Collins, July 11, 2012
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/state-of-the-arts/archive/2012/07/the-walker-is-made-of-cats.shtml

The Guardian, Shortcuts, “The Internet Cat Video Film Festival: my idea of heaven,” Laura Barton, July 12, 2012
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/shortcuts/2012/jul/12/internet-cat-video-film-festival-heaven

Huffington Post, “Internet Cat Video Film Festival To Be Held In Minneapolis,” July 11, 2012
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/11/internet-cat-video-film-festival-minneapolis-_n_1665369.html

Mashable.com, “Lights, Camera, Meow! Cat Videos Get Their First Film Festival,” Emily Price, July 10, 2012
http://mashable.com/2012/07/10/cat-film-festival/

Buzzfeed, “Finally! An Internet Cat Video Film Festival,” Katie Notopoulos, July 10, 2012
http://www.buzzfeed.com/katienotopoulos/finally-an-internet-cat-video-film-festival

Gawker, “And So It Begins: Internet Cat Video Film Festival to Take Place Next Month in Minneapolis,” Neetzan Zimmerman, July 10, 2012
http://gawker.com/5924892/and-so-it-begins-internet-cat-video-film-festival-to-take-place-next-month-in-minneapolis

June 9– 10, 2012
9pm–6am

Walker Art Center is keeping the lights on again for this year’s Northern Spark festival with a gathering inspired by the convivial, collaborative, and ephemeral atmosphere of Open Field. Gather around the campfire for concerts and storytelling performances by local writers and musicians. Grab a glow stick and join in a NIGHTclub edition of Drawing Club, or stroll around the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden and Walker campus, where you’ll stumble upon artist interventions and other surprises. Inside, the exhibitions are on view for free and feature exclusive, one-night-only viewings of artworks from the collection, while whiteonwhite:algorithmicnoir, an experimental, ever-changing film noir from artist Eve Sussman, screens in the Lecture Room. Fuel up for the night with the Garden Grill by D’Amico’s food and beverages, including s’mores, before crashing on the hill to watch the sun rise over the city skyline.  All activities and gallery admission are free.

www.walkerart.org/openfield
http://northernspark.org
facebook.com/walkeropenfield
@openfield
@mnartistsdotorg
#nspk



Acoustic Campfire
Open Field
9pm–1am

Gather around the campfire for a series of intimate acoustic concerts by The Prairie Fire Lady Choir (9pm), The White Whales (10pm), Dear Data (11pm), and closing with Brian Laidlaw and the Family Trade (midnight).

Fire Works
Catalog Projects with Chris Larson, Bruce Tapola, Sarah Ann Burns, Aaron Dysart, John Fleischer and Jennifer Danos.
Cargill Lounge/Open Field
9pm–3am

In conjunction with Northern Spark and Open Field, Catalog Projects presents Fire Works, a one-night exhibition and performance featuring six Minnesota artists.  Each artist is creating a new work for the festival.  However, in the spirit of Alan Kaprow, the art objects will not be accumulated by the institution but rather liberated by a sacrificial act of burning upon the Open Field Campfire. The event provides the opportunity to investigate our cultural tendencies toward acquisition while emphasizing a visceral experience of the present moment.
Presented in partnership with mnartists.org and Catalog Projects.

Drawing NIGHTclub
Open Field Grove
9pm–3am

Join in making collaborative drawings under the twinkling lights of the Open Field Grove. Like the very popular daytime edition, drawing NIGHTclub invites local artists and the public to grab a pencil and add their contributions to an involving pool of pieces over the course of the night. Think glowsticks and blacklights for this nocturnal round of social art making. www.mnartists.org/drawingclub

Where the Chill Came From
Nathan Lewis
Midnight–1am
James Turrell Sky Pesher

Minnesota and the Midwest in general is a hotbed for paranormal activity.  From the Stillwater Bigfoot to the ghosts of the MIA, nearly every town in our state plays host to a supernatural guest.

Join us to hear local stories of the strange and unexplained, as well as share your own. Be careful though, once you find out what’s in your neighborhood you may not want to return home until morning! A paranormal investigator with the TCPS (Twin Cities Paranormal Society) for nearly half a decade, Nathan Lewis will be your guide through the legends of the region and share his personal investigation experiences.

Midnight Padhandling

Scott Sayre and Vanessa Voskuil
Open Field
1am – 1:20 am

Midnight Padhandling combines the shimmer and potentiality of a large-screen video display with the fluidity and independence of human movement. Twenty performers gather to tell an animated story through movement and visual transitions by manipulating Apple iPads accompanied by an acoustic sound score.

Midnight Panhandling is made possible with support by the Smaby Family Foundation.

Bedtime Stories
2am
Open Field

Wind down your Northern Spark experience with surprise readings by local authors within the intimate space of the James Turrell Sky Pesher. Dreamlike visions await! Presented in partnership with Rain Taxi Review of Books.

All Night Programs
The Eye of the Walker
Rachel Knoll & Michael Selle
Hennepin Avenue
9pm–6am

Local artists Rachel Knoll and Michael Selle transform the Skyline Room with an animation of a giant eye watching over Minneapolis from dusk ‘til dawn.

The Eye of the Walker is made possible with support by the Smaby Family Foundation.

whiteonwhite: algorithmicnoir: A film installation by Eve Sussman/Rufus Corporation
9pm – 6am
Lecture Room

whiteonwhite:algorithmicnoir is a noir-ish film that never ends, and never really begins, either. A computer dubbed “The Serendipity Machine” continuously shuffles 3,000 shots, 80 voice-overs, and 150 pieces of music, creating an ever-changing story involving Holz (Jeff Wood), a geophysicist stuck in a 1970s-era metropolis called City-A. Just as the citizens are subjected to time manipulations, Holz’s own fate is dictated by the machine editing this film. 2011, video.

Artist’s Cinema is made possible by generous support from Elizabeth Redleaf.

Exhibitions: One Night Only
9pm-6am

The exhibitions Midnight Party and Absentee Landlord open for a special late-night edition, spiked with rarely seen work from the Walker collection that will be installed for one night only in conjunction with Northern Spark. Works include an appearance by Franz Marc’s Die grossen blauen Pferde (The Large Blue Horses), 1911.

Nearby Programs
mnartists.org and Springboard for the Arts CSA pick-up
Lunalux (Loring Park)
8pm–11pm

mnartists.org and Springboard for the Arts celebrate the launch of the third season of Community Supported Art (CSA) with a pick-up event in conjunction with the Northern Spark festival, featuring a special behind-the-scenes look at Lunalux and its practice. Even if you’re not a shareholder in CSA, we invite you to come to Lunalux and appreciate our vibrant local art community, learn about new economies in the arts, and enjoy Northern Spark.

Developed by mnartists.org and Springboard for the Arts, the CSA program supports artists and the engaged local arts community. CSA supports artists in the creation of new work, by helping them establish relationships with local collectors and patrons, and by providing an exciting new model of art distribution. CSA member benefits include multiple works of original art from emerging and midcareer artists at a fantastic value. CSA shareholders have the opportunity to develop relationships with local artists, discover new artists, explore a variety of disciplines, directly support artists’ careers, and actively participate in a vibrant arts community.  www.mnartists.org/csa

Phenologist-in-Residence: Abbie Anderson
Tune in to the temporal with amateur naturalist and phenology fanatic Abbie Anderson. Phenologists study the timing of natural phenomena such as plants flowering, insects emerging, and birds migrating. How do these phenomena unfold on the Walker campus? Find out by following my Flickr photos at bit.ly/PhenologyFlickr or my Twitter feed at @openphenology.

Tool Kits
We’ve asked special people in the community to create custom-made Tool Kits for Open Field. Designed to excite the creator and thinker in all of us, Tool Kits will be available to check out from the Tool Shed.  Keep your eyes peeled for a string figures kit built by Mike Haeg and a personal postal service kit designed by Jenni Undis of Lunalux.

Little Free Library
Take a Book, Return a Book.  Enjoy some literary alone time or read aloud to a friend with our very own on-site Little Free Library.  Visit littlefreelibrary.org to learn more about the Little Free Library movement spreading across the country.

Jim Hodges
Untitled (2011)
This new addition to the Walker campus comprises four massive boulders, each ranging in weight from eight to 13 tons. Transformed with veneers of high-gloss stainless steel in pink, blue, gold, and lavender, the sculpture generates an entrancing interplay of natural light and reflection, weight and buoyancy.

Kitchen Lab: A Mobile Hearth for Collectivist Action

Today’s kitchen is something of an oddity. Many people do little if any actual cooking there, yet it remains the heart of the home, and an inevitable center at most any social gathering. During a two-week residency, Carl and Betsy DiSalvo, a design-and-research duo from the Georgia Institute of Technology, explore the evolution of the kitchen as a place where knowledge, culture, and community are shared. Teaming up with University of Minnesota scholars and students, they will consider it from an array of vantage points—studio art, landscape architecture, food systems, urban planning, design, ceramics, public health, cultural studies, theater, engineering, and more—and reconceive its components, structure, and functions. Ultimately they will design and build a new kind of kitchen as a modular, public “lab” that can go anywhere. They envision a place that welcomes people for experiences with food, and in the process sparks new kinds of social interaction and civic engagement.

When Does Something Become Something Else? The Apparent is the Bridge to the Real.

Adjust your perceptions with ROLU. For their two-week residency, they have developed a series of hands-on public activities organized around the ideas and people that have influenced them, as well as their wide-ranging interests: landscape and architectural design, urban planning, furniture design, modern and contemporary art history, collaborative public art, and more. Your contribution to the residency is not a coincidence or a passing moment of interaction with ROLU; to the contrary, you are a necessary and important part of ROLU’s art exploration at Open Field.

Making as Thinking
ROLU invites you to help re-create artworks from the Walker’s collection to be staged on Open Field. The collective believes that by remaking an artwork, you add to its life and its meaning, as well as your own. Pay homage to and learn about works by Richard Serra, Carl Andre, and many other artists in ways that traditional art-viewing doesn’t allow. Pick up a power tool and join ROLU in these daily explorations of “making as thinking.”

Attention as Place
Imagine that you physically exist wherever it is that you focus your attention. For instance, when you are Facebooking, aren’t you really with your friends? To demonstrate this notion, ROLU’s favorite thinkers and makers, scattered all over the world, appear at Open Field via Skype and also through works they have contributed to the residency. By listening, watching, and participating, you and the contributors—among them, Jo-ey Tang, Mary Manning, Matt Connors, Andreas Angelidakis, Uta Barth, and John Fleischer—create a third space where your collective attention resides. ROLU thinks of your “attention as place.”

Participation as Performance
What is the difference between being on stage and wearing a brightly colored outfit to work? Maybe we are all performers more often than we think. Step outside of yourself and into an original garment designed for ROLU by Various Projects—the design collaboration between Elizabeth Beer and Brian Janusiak—and experience what it feels like to be seen as an art object. The garments will let others know of your “participation as performance.”

Join ROLU at Open Field anytime during gallery hours (Tuesday–Saturday, 11 am–5 pm; Thursdays, 11 am–10 pm) or visit the Open Field calendar for the latest details.

About ROLU
ROLU is an experimental design studio located in Minneapolis that’s focused on exploring the relationship between life, our surroundings and the objects and ideas that fill those spaces. Its practice was founded and continues to have a strong connection to landscape design but also extends to furniture design and collaborative architectural projects as well as urban planning work and public art. The studio, founded in 2003, consists of Matt Olson, Mike Brady, Sammie Warren and intern Claudette Gacuti. The studio believes in learning something every day and blogs daily about art, design, and visual culture. For more information visit rolu.terapad.com.

Open Field Drawing Club with mnartists.org is a free weekly Walker Open Field program that invites participatory and collaborative drawing and discussion. Drawing Club will meet every Thursday from 4pm to 8pm at the picnic tables on Open Field from June 7 – August 30, 2012.

Drawing Club is about the social experience of art-making, collaboration and play. Come add your creative touch during weekly sessions open to local artists and the public alike.

Here is how it works: Art supplies are provided on large tables in shaded areas of the outdoor Open Lounge. Start a new drawing or select one in progress from the table. Slide it back into the pool, pass it around, and alter, edit or amend it until the group declares it complete. All ages, abilities, and aesthetics welcome. The finished works are collected and displayed throughout the summer at future sessions. There are no assignments, structured projects or formal processes for drawing club. This idea is to make collaborative works…however that manifests itself and what can beat making art under a grove of trees with a cold drink!

Drawing club is open to anyone and everyone, with the intention of building our community of local-artists-regulars who continue to come back all summer long and mixing in healthy does of the rest of us. Drawing club is intended to be a social event where local artists and Walker visitors alike may meet, interact, share ideas, and collaborate with one another in a relaxed but inspiring art-community-based atmosphere.

Each week we’ve lined up a few local artists to come draw with us. This summer’s drawing club guest artist roster includes, but is not limited to, the following: Robyn Awend, Alyssa Baguss, Todd Balthazor, Mary Bergs, Lisa Bergh, Allen Brewer, Pete Dreissen, Andy DuCett, Adam Erickson, Clea Felien, John Fleischer, Hannah Frick, Our Friends from Silverwood Park, David Hamlow, Noah Harmon, Lauren Herzak-Bauman, Farida Hughes, Rebecca Krinke, Melissa Loop, Ginny Maki, Andy Nordin, Joshua Norton, Ruben Nusz, Chris Pennington, Natasha Pestich, Margaret Pezalla, David Rathman, Monica Reede, Elaine Rutherford, Patty Scott, Joe Sinness, Jamie Solberg, Laura Stack, Andy Sturdevant, Carolyn Swiszcz, Pam Valfer, and Michon Weeks

Upcoming Drawing Club Special Events:

Pop-up Drawing Club at the American Association of Museums Annual Meeting
Drawing Club is bringing social art making to the AAM Annual Meeting this spring. Join fellow conference attendees and Minnesota artists in creative collaboration as part of the MuseumExpo™. Socialize; sketch, converse, debate and most of all enjoy yourself. The Drawing Club Lounge will be a perfect site to spend a few minutes or perhaps a couple hours, meet up with colleagues or just pass time between sessions. Drawing Club facilitators and host artists will be on hand to interact with participants and lead discussions. Drawings will keep evolving during the conference so you can check back on how your contributions were integrated by other artists or view the completed drawings on our Facebook and Tumblr feeds. No appointments, materials or talent is required to participate. Hope to see you across the drawing table in late April. 








Drawing NIGHT Club, June 9-10 from 9 pm to 3 am, Walker Open Field
As a part of Northern Spark on Open Field, Drawing Club will be lighting up the night with glow-in-the-dark materials and black paper! Come join us anytime from 9 pm to 3 am during the Northern Spark Festival, June 9-10, 2012.

Follow Open Field Drawing Club:
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@openfield
#DrawingClub

Check out our slideshow on flickr: