by: Natalia Salinas As I sit criss-cross applesauce in the middle of the white floor, the Walker staff member watches me through the corner of his eye. I smile when I read the encouraging sign: “YOU ARE WELCOME TO OPEN THE DRAWERS”, contradicting every other sign in the museum asking you to please not touch the artwork. The piece, named In Memory Of My Feelings, consists of a set of drawers. In each drawer, you find a t-shirt that contains the beginning of a phrase from a standard sentence-completion personality test. The small description next to it says that the [...]

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On Spetember 23rd I attended a dance performance by Faustin Linyekula, hosted by The Walker in the McGuire theatre. Linyekula and his company performed his Congolese choreography, using space and sounds in more than unique ways. Costumes and exceptional live music made the show more of a experience than a performance. I enjoyed the majority of the show. I was sitting in a closer row, so I could see the emotion and power in the dancers faces and bodies. Their thin bodies became a paradox when they put on the elaborate large, light and airy costumes, three of which were [...]

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Annie Clark: née second fiddle (guitar) to Sufjan Stevens, blogosphere darling, Letterman guest. On the streets she’s known as St. Vincent. Her latest effort, “Strange Mercy”, has had quite the album cycle. WACTAC was given tickets to see her at the Walker—the first stop on her “Strange Mercy” tour. It’s almost one month out from that concert, and I’m still reeling from the spectacular show she put on. Clark is a woman of juxtapositions. She appears prim, kempt, genteel, yet she isn’t afraid to pull out the ol’ axe and get down to some shredddddddin’. She’s throwing up the horns, [...]

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We, WACTAC, want to be your friend… and friends of your friends…and friends of their friends…we want to be everyones friend! Accept our invitation by registering to attend Friend Request! Check out below for details. Connect offline in an outdoor quest for the ultimate social networking site: a dance party for you and all your friends, complete with live music from local favorites! In this scavenger hunt based around social connections, teams complete challenges located in various stations near the Walker Art Center, collecting clues along the way to the final party. Register here to play, no later than May 6th. Activities are for teens [...]

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Swoon is a street artist from New York City. Swoon went to school in New York thinking she wouldn’t stay there long because she travels a lot, but she went because she couldn’t find a place that was dirty enough or loud enough. She felt like she needed to be in the center of the world, and that was New York City.  Swoon started doing her street art in 1999. She wheatpaste these prints around the city or anywhere she can.  Most of Swoon’s art consists of lines and cut outs of portraits of people she takes pictures of.  She [...]

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The Walker Art Center Teen Arts Council (WACTAC) presents the 2010 Student Open House: Street Level. Thursday, October 14 From posters and graffiti to stencils and wheat pasting, this year’s Student Open House draws on the open air galleries of the streets. Stop in to check out a film, artist talk, or to create your own mud graffiti at the Walker! Art-Making: Mobile Murals Star Tribune Foundation Art Lab, 5-9 Juxtaposition Arts, a non-profit arts organization for youth based in North Minneapolis, will be leading a graffiti-inspired activity with t-shirts and stencils. Come check out this cool organization, and take [...]

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Last Thursday, another WACTAC member and I met at the Walker after traveling our respective bus routes to see Bill Daniel’s Who is Bozo Texino? A 56 minute long black and white film shot in super 8 and 16mm, Bozo Texino follows Bill Daniel as he travels the country for over 16-years by way of hopping trains.  In his travels, Daniel encounters emblems and symbols, tagged in chalk.  These signatures, penned by hobos and rail workers for over a century, provide a loose narrative arc to the film as Daniel tries to track down the man behind a particular drawing of a [...]

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The Depot On Saturday Witt and I load up the tent in the back of the trusty Buick Century for the drive over to the The Depot in Hopkins (our only non-city venue and close to where I grew up in Plymouth). We finally figure out how to arrange the two parts of the platform so that we can tie them down securely to the roof! The drawback is that there is no longer a plywood spoiler up top. Witt has told me that I do not have to be there for the entire band showcase, which I feel guilty [...]

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by Peter Haakon Thompson Since December I have been fortunate to be an artist in residence with the Walker Art Center Teen Arts Council (WACTAC). The final result of our time together is called The Listening Tent, a 4’ wide by 7’ long tent. The tent is constructed from thrift store blankets (washed!) and a wood frame. It was inspired by our visit to the world’s quietest place (located here in South Minneapolis!). It also came as a response to Open Exposure, the music event WACTAC is presenting currently with a culmination on July 11. We were thinking about what [...]

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1. Apply for WACTAC 2. Call for High School Bands & Rappers 3. Open Exposure All Ages Showcases 4. Open Exposure Festival featuring Tapes ‘N Tapes and Eyedea & Abilities 1. WALKER ART CENTER TEEN ARTS COUNCIL (WACTAC) APPLICATION Application Deadline: Friday, June 4, 2010 WACTAC is a group of 12 high school students who work with the Walker to produce programming that connects teenagers to contemporary art and artists. Past projects have included: teen art exhibitions, performances, film screenings, artist talks, workshops, and events, marketing materials. Meetings are held weekly during the school year and last approximately 90 minutes. [...]

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Photo via centralasian‘s flickr. Last Thursday night I attended the Target Free Thursday Night lecture with Edith Ackermann. I was pleasantly surprised to be tortured by the fact that I was the only person in the audience who appeared to be under the age of 30. I know the name ‘lecture’ is an unappealing name and typically it doesn’t pump any the nads of any teen on a Thursday night. But WAC lectures are so much better! At this lecture, Ackermann spoke about play; the many definitions of play, the actions associated with play, and how children develop with play. [...]

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This month we are hosting a zine workshop taught by designer Alex DeArmond. We started off the class by meeting librarian Rosemary Furtak in Walker Library and checked out zines and artist books by Raymond Pettibon, Ed Ruscha, Sara Varon and many others. [tylr-slidr userID="36154778@N00" groupID=""]http://www.flickr.com/photos/wactac/sets/72157623672605311/show/[/tylr-slidr] After the library, we played around with the equipment that we will be using. We decided to take a very low tech approach to producing the zines, relying on a handful of typewriters, xerox machines, font books, and letraset sheets.  Knowing that most of the students are coming from the world of computer aided [...]

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Walker Art Center Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4-6:30 PM April 6 -29 $35 (scholarships available) Open to high school students only. Don’t ask for permission, do it yourself! Start your own underground press during this month-long workshop for high school students at the Walker Art Center. The class will be taught by former Walker designer Alex DeArmond (http://alexdearmond.com). Students will make a zine, a small scale publication, and explore the world of independent publishing through self-created and repurposed content. To register send the following information to teenprograms@walkerart.org First Name: Last Name: Address: City, State, Zip: Phone: Email: Age: School: Questions? Call [...]

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On Thursday, March 11th, WACTAC members will be meeting with local Jazz musician Dave King. Dave King is a drummer and composer, and founding member of Happy Apple and The Bad Plus. The Bad Plus have done jazz inspired covers of bands such as Nirvana, David Bowie, Pixies and Black Sabbath. The meeting with Dave King is set to be pretty relaxed, beginning with the group having a quick go at “Rock Band,” to help the group become acquainted with one another and then a Q/A With the musician.

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Robert was this week’s Note Taker/Blog Maker. Updates on Chris Baker workshop Morgan Thorson and Low’s show tonight, not many members coming Free First Saturday this Saturday and GIRLS IN THE DIRECTOR CHAIR. Elise is one of 6 members on the curatorial committee. Meeting with jazz musician Dave King next week. Sylvan has become the authority on jazz.   Sylvan had to self moderate. Meeting With Emmett Ramstad. Sylvan is being  a downer. Emmett discusses process of preparing for Heaven, a Walker presented show. She talked about the costuming and the additions he made to the theater. ” For this show it’s a lot [...]

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A couple weeks ago WACTAC and a couple of students from the Perpich Center for Arts Education’s media program had the pleasure of getting together with illustrator/animator Daniel Barrow.  Instead of introducing himself formally, Daniel performed a piece that outlined his top 12 inspirations through a slideshow and accompanying music. The well-researched and enteratining slideshow ranged from Liberace’s ex-boyfriend Scott Thorson to child star Kristy McNichol. Check out a portion of the slide show here. When I asked Kenzie and Hannah, two Arts High students, what they learned by meeting Daniel,  they noted his unconventional approach, ” Hearing about a [...]

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New Media Wokshop coming up with Chris Baker. Check out his work and check out the Workshop!

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In hopes that we can provide our readers with a inside look at what we do at WACTAC meetings, we have asked an appointed WACTAC member to be our Note-Taker/Blog-Maker. The first (and quite possibly the last) NT/BM is Khalid Khalil. Here’s his notes. Not sure if he was actually paying attention to what was happening. 4:45 – Our meeting started out pretty chill, Robert took over moderating and got an important phone call about three minutes in. Sylvan is still not here (Shocker!). 4:49 and we’re still on track! The cranberry juice is a really nice touch, walking to [...]

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Over the last couple months,theater students from the Perpich Center for Arts Education (Arts High) attended the Out There Performing Arts series, met artists involved in the productions, and investigated the Walker galleries.  All of this work and class room time as led to the creation of… ENGAGING, UNEXPECTED, UNPREDICTABLE STUDENT CREATED PERFORMANCES BY ARTS HIGH STUDENTS March 4, 5, & 6, 2010 7:30 pm–SAVE THE DATE!!!! Location: Perpich Center for Arts Education To reserve tickets call:  763-591-4769 Check out this multidisciplinary performance project is based on examining selected art & performance structures from the Walker Art Center to enhance [...]

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WACTAC voted “Mysterious Dreams” by Tiffany Elizabeth Robbins as the winner of January’s Made Fresh Monthly Competition. We are sending Tiffany her $25 gift card to best buy and she is entered into the freshest of the year competition which will be decided in May. February’s theme is “People.” Send us your work!

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