The Monkeybear Collective is creating six short puppet shows to be performed in public spaces across all the wards of Minneapolis and St. Paul in fall of 2017, as a voter drive heading into the municipal elections. Each show fits inside a suitcase, making our shows extremely mobile. The ease of carrying a suitcase will give them the flexibility to perform wherever, whenever. As people gather around the performances, they’ll be handing out magnets people can put on their fridge with a web address for finding out their ward/precinct and also fliers with info/map about wards/elections, as well as voter registration forms that people can fill out on the spot. The Monkeybear Collective…

Spearwave is a monthly intimate exhibition and gathering space for conversations about art that explores Somali Muslim American identity within the supportive environment of the Mosque and other relevant community settings. As a gesture, Spearwave fosters interconnectedness, allowing participating artists fresh opportunities to experiment and blossom. Many community members have never been in a museum or do not see contemporary art as being able to express and help them navigate their experience in the world, but we believe through approaching Somali people with art shown and discussed inside their community spaces of Mosque, Somali businesses and shared public neighborhood…

“New Native Identities: Native Youth of Minneapolis” is a playwriting/performance that focuses on today’s lives of Native American youth living in Minneapolis. The genesis of this project began when I realized that with the increasing embracing of social media—an encroaching social globalization and rise of tribal pride and social justice/diversity in urban centers such as Minneapolis—that Native youth are experiencing very unique changes in spiritual and cultural identities. A play will be written based on “talking circle” workshops with Native youth, hearing their voices and stories of their spiritual and cultural identities. Our workshop and play will be held in the Phillips…

It’s almost impossible to imagine a community with any power at all if we can’t first come together and create a narrative we want to share. “The Gatherings: Our neighborhood, our stories” is a series of events with art activities, performances and food to be held in community gardens throughout the Rondo neighborhood. Rondo is one geography, many communities, many narratives, but the same result – a fragmented community made up of mostly people of color, mostly low income and mostly carrying some type of historic trauma. This doesn’t necessarily make the community weak, but the division does. In what feels like a fragmented community, we…

ArtCrop is a project created by Oskar Ly, in collaboration with Hmong American Farmers Association (HAFA), aimed to address some of the root causes that Hmong farmers are facing while testing a community supported art share model with Hmong artists as workers to support their respective alternative economy. ArtCrop will host a series of three community dinners and one culminating art installation on the cooperative farm located in Hastings, MN this summer. Over the dinners, farmers will share experiences on current conditions and future aspirations of their livelihoods. The themes that emerge will be documented into a mural-style tapestry and the process will serve as…

In partnership with Redeemer Center for Life, Harrison Neighborhood Association, Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, Intertwine Northeast, Gerard Klass

H-Cubed is an artist-led, community-driven, family-centered, grassroots organized series created with the purpose of cultivating healing and harmony in the North Minneapolis Harrison neighborhood through intentional creative space-making. H-Cubed grew as a community resource in response to the police killing of Jamar Clark and 4th Precinct occupation just north of Harrison.

Each month, we host a catered meal with featured artists, open mic, and community…