PREVIOUSLY in the GALLERY

The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts • Annual Conference

March 26 through April 26, 2019

Intersection: A Coalition of Makers/Educators in K–12

This exhibition showcases the diversity of makers and educators who work in the K–12 field while promoting awareness of other ways to serve our community through K–12 education. Sara Beth Truman, Brenda Quinn, Kyla Toomey, Autumn Higgins, Shanna Fliegel, Nick Bivins, Thaddeus Erdahl, Bryan Horn, Aaron Sober, and Mike Gesiakowski. Organized by Sara Truman.

Remain an Artist: Mingei–sota Teachers Continue the Lineage

This exhibition showcases Minnesota K–12 art educators that teach the Mingei pottery movement with their students and also incorporate Mingei principles in their own studios. Randy Schutt, Kent Miller, Lisa Buck, Tricia Schmidt, Sarah Hjelmberg, Angela Heida, Chad Jerzak, and Lucas K. Anderson. Organized by Randy Schutt.

Compound Fractures • New Paintings by Jon Reischl

November 2018

"Compound Fractures," was an exhibition of more than 30 paintings by Saint Paul, Minnesota-based artist Jon Reischl "Compound Fractures" uses familiar imagery, composited into abstraction, to explore themes related to the fragility of memory against the distance of time.

Humans of Creative Arts

August 31 through November 3, 2017

"Humans of Creative Arts" is a project by teachers and staff created during a three-day summer professional development Arts Retreat in August. 

At Creative Arts, we believe that academic artists learn best when they are able to connect learning with their creative, right side to the logical, left side of their brain.

We designed this project to help teachers understand how visual artists process information. Teachers wrote an essay about their Creative Process as an educator, shared that information with a partner to inform the portraits they took of one another. After choosing a photograph to display, each person wrote an artist statement about the portrait taken. The exhibit features these photographs and accompanying artist statements.

Once the school year commenced, Creative Arts students then participated in the project. Their (hundreds of) additional images were added to the gallery for Fall Conferences for students, staff, and families to experience and enjoy.

Special thanks to Andy Blenkush, for initiating this project, which is loosely based on Brandon Stanton's "Humans of New York." Mr. Blenkush is a Creative Arts' English Language Arts teacher (and also a photographer).

Poetics of Forgiveness Project

December 2016 through January 2017

The project was a collaborative Artist Residency, featuring prose and poetry created in classrooms with teachers and local author and poet Nicole Mary Kelby. In turn, students and families used the writing to create an installation sculpture with Irish sculptor Alan Milligan, inspired by currach boats, Hmong funeral boats and other vessels. The gallery opening night featured students reading original pieces of work surrounded by the installation.