Arts & Culture

Arts in the Park
St. Louis Park is committed to promoting and integrating arts, culture, and community aesthetics in all city initiatives, including implementation where appropriate.

Artists wanted for 2009 St. Louis Parks Arts & Culture Grant Program

The City of St. Louis Park has announced that eight organizations and artists will receive more than $26,000 in grant monies to create or produce public art projects in the city.

The Arts & Culture Grant Program is a collaborative program, now in its third year, between the City of St. Louis Park, the Friends of the Arts, and the St. Louis Park Community Foundation. The program funds art projects and cultural activities that build bridges between artists and communities, engage people in creative learning and promote artistic production and cultural experiences in St. Louis Park.

A committee comprised of Friends of the Arts staff, city officials, members of the St. Louis Park Community Foundation Board and community members reviewed the applications and identified applicants whose proposals best met the program objectives.

In addition to the live performances and public displays, the city hopes to videotape each selected project for airing on community television and posting on this website.

The following is a short summary of each project with their budgeted request:

Julia Caston - $1,220 to paint an indoor mural at St. Louis Park High School. Caston, a St. Louis Park Resident and St. Louis Park High School student, will create the mural with the assistance of students of the high school and others in the community. Caston was a 2006 grant recipient and successfully completed an outdoor mural at Perspectives Family Center.

Margaret Coleman- $1,500 to cast sculptures of plants native to St. Louis Park in resin, plaster and clay, and host a show open to the public in St. Louis Park displaying the cast sculptures. Coleman is also hoping to teach one casting class per week for a month in St. Louis Park to teach residents the art of slip casting. Coleman is an emerging Midwest artist currently residing in New York and returning to the Twin Cities area for the summer of 2008.

Sharon Lyon - $2,950 to run two six-week, after-school enrichment programs for 7^th and 8^th grade students to build creative and technical photographic skills. Participants will be given simple in-class and out-of-class photo assignments relating to their community and people in their lives and be involved in a final photo board(s) production and exhibit at St. Louis Park Junior High School. Students will receive basic camera knowledge, resolution, digital transfer, composition, lighting, portraiture and critiquing skills. Lyon, a resident of St. Louis Park, is a local artist, photographer and instructor.

Jonee Kulman Brigham - $15,555 to produce an interactive environmental art project, The Children’s Nest Egg, at the Westwood Nature Center. This project will engage community members through sculptural spatial experience, engagement in construction milestone events, and by honoring their experiences with nature that they wish to leave to the next generation by including their observations and poetry into the artwork. The project will remain at Westwood for a minimum of two years. Kulman Brigham is a Twin Cities architect. The Community Foundation has requested that their $7,000 donation to the Arts and Culture Grant Program for 2008 be devoted entirely to this project.

St. Louis Park Community Theater - $2,000 for start-up funds to formulate a plan for community theater in St. Louis Park. These funds will be used to hire a professional consultant with outcomes to include a mission statement, vision statement and short and long-term goals. The St. Louis Park community will be solicited to participate in an informational gathering session to derive input from as broad a spectrum as possible. In addition, the committee will develop a 12-18 month production schedule for St. Louis Park Community Theater.

Laura Powers (36 Arts Magazine) - $440 to assist in the publication and printing of an annual literary arts magazine of submissions by St. Louis Park High School students. These funds will assist 36 Arts Magazine in community distribution of the publication in addition to printing costs. Submissions from this magazine and others are displayed or read at their annual film festival - Open Mic Coffeehouses.

Susan Lindgren Intermediate Center - $2,500 for art supplies for a canvas mosaic that will represent the diverse faces and culture of the Susan Lindgren Intermediate Center student community and a clay relief city mounted on the wall outside the Susan Lindgren Intermediate Center school office that shows the neighborhoods in St. Louis Park. The portable nature of the canvas mosaic will allow the work to be moved to other parts of the community for display and discussion. Students will work on both projects during the school day and in after school and evening groups.

St. Louis Park Arts & Culture Grant program - 2007 Recipients

Bad Attitude Productions - $4,175 to produce "An Enemy of the People" by Henrik Ibsen. Chris McGahon, a St. Louis Park Resident, will be staged primarily with professional actors and will seek community members to assist with technical positions. For reduced tickets ($5), patrons can bring a canned food item or donation to benefit STEP. After the show, the actors will engage the audience in a discussion about the play and the production.

Harmony Theatre Company and School - $3,278 to produce a play based on Janusz Korczak, Jewish pedagogue, writer and doctor, and his Warsaw ghetto orphanage during World War II. This holocaust production is intended to promote tolerance, bring to light Janusz Korczak and his pupils who lived in the Warsaw ghetto, create a multicultural experience and encourage pride in the Eastern-European immigrant community. A limited number of tickets will be made available to low to moderate income residents free of charge.

Homeward Bound, Inc. - $2,151 to paint a mural in Webster House, which is home to individuals with disabilities and provides community gathering space. The mural will be on the north wall in the community gathering area and will be created by the residents of the home in concert with an artist, Micah Westby.

St. Louis Park Community Education - $5,900 to fund scholarships for low to moderate income students to attend a fine arts academy during the summer. This afternoon offering is new and will provide students who are participating in remedial summer school in the morning an opportunity to participate in dance, acting, singing and visual arts in the afternoon.

St. Louis Park Human Rights Commission - $1,000 to partially sponsor an international film series from June through December to draw diverse residents together to showcase diverse cultures and experience. Following the films, the City of St. Louis Park Human Rights Commission will sponsor an audience forum to discuss the issues and movie.

Denise Tennen - $5,950 to create a ceramic sculptural mural in the main entrance at Lenox Community Center. The sculpture will be created on-site using Lenox kilns, and will be created with the help of community members. Tennen estimates that between 100 and 200 community members will be involved in the creation of this permanent mural.

Trolling for Olives Productions - $1,950 to produce a short film that will be filmed in St. Louis Park with the help of high school students and St. Louis Park film and television professionals. The film will be a creative commons movie, meaning that it will be in the public domain and is about a real-life event about a dog and a computer chip that is charming and funny. Once produced, the film will be shown at screenings in St. Louis Park and possibility at the Minneapolis Film Festival.

Marilyn Tursich - $3,235 to publish a book and companion study guide for STEP about a young boy whose family goes through a financial hardship and must rely on the food shelf. The books (500 copies) and study guides (200 copies) will be available at STEP and local libraries.

Download a short summary of the 2006 projects

2007 Arts & Culture Grant Project Food shelf Friendship
Local writer Marilyn Tursich and high school student-artist Griffin Buhman have collaborated to produce Food shelf Friendship, an original illustrated children's book about a boy who is reluctant to visit a food shelf. A complementary study guide provides thought-provoking discussion questions and activities. The book and materials are available from STEP, 5925 Highway 7 or by calling (952) 925-4899.