Hear perspectives from the MN arts community, including our very own Elysa Voshell, about the essential nature of arts organizations and the need for state art funding. Long-time MCBA Artist Collective member and teaching artist Regula Russelle also reflects on why she’s grown to enjoy online teaching.

Liv Martin speaks with Evanston, Illinois-based artist Ben Blount about his installation of 148 black-and-white prints at MCBA, each one displaying a different truth about how white supremacy operates in the world. With their straightforward language, these prints are rooted in the tradition of protest movements and printmaking. MCBA’s Director of Exhibitions & Artist Programs, Torey Erin, relays the positive reactions of onlookers.

Artist and letterpress printer Ben Blount describes the brainstorming process and intention behind his powerful print installation, Eyes Wide Shut. Read about why the use of the phrase “white supremacy” has increased in recent years, why Ben prefers its directness to “racism,” and how MCBA wants to increase accountability in the wake of George Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis and the white supremacist mob that attacked the Capitol.

Coincidentally installed just five days after the white supremacist insurrection at the Capitol, Ben Blount’s print show, Eyes Wide Shut, is timelier than ever. Read about an earlier version of Ben’s exhibition mounted in his current hometown of Evanston, Illinois, and how plans for the current installation in MCBA’s street-facing windows expanded over time. 

With a photograph by Rochester-based photographer Joshua Rashaad McFadden, the New York Times featured our VOTE print installation on Open Book’s front windows in the midst of the 2020 presidential election. Prints are by MCBA Studio Technician Molly Poganski.

Elysa Voshell, Executive Director here at MCBA, is also an outstanding book artist. Read about how she first got involved with book arts and why she finds the art form so compelling, as well as how MCBA makes artmaking accessible to the Twin Cities community and beyond.

Jenna Ross sheds light on our inaugural McKnight Fellowships for Book Artists award by speaking with fellowship winners, Paula McCartney and Lisa Nebenzahl. Both artists use photography and paper to examine their worlds and unfold something new.

Get an overview of the book project that helped this group of artists, led by Gaylord Schanilec, win the 20202 Minnesota Book Artist award for My Mighty Journey: A Waterfall’s Story, authored by John Coy.

A group of 14 artists led by Gaylord Schanilec won the Minnesota Book Artist award for My Mighty Journey: A Waterfall’s Story, a 4.5-foot-wide handmade book that brings the history of St. Anthony Falls to life. Learn how Schanilec used unconventional materials to print illustrations for this poignant narrative authored by John Coy.